harness-risk

name	harness-risk
description	Classify a proposed change by blast radius (leaf/branch/core/infra) and determine required gates. Use when planning a change that touches multiple files, core logic, infrastructure, auth, schema, or deployment config. Triggers on "risk level", "blast radius", "classify change", "what gates do I need", or "is this safe to auto-merge".

Harness Risk

Classify a proposed change by blast radius and determine required gates.

Prerequisites

Read before starting:

• ../../references/DOMAIN-AWARENESS.md for risk-aware terminology
• BLAST_RADIUS_GUIDE.md for the full classification guide

Risk Levels

Level	Autonomy	Scope	Gates
leaf	High	Isolated, single-file, no downstream dependents	lint + unit_test
branch	Medium	Feature-level, multi-file, bounded behavioral change	spec + plan + tests + review
core	Low	Domain model, auth, storage, permissions, protocols	human_spec_review + architecture_review + rollback + security
infra	Very Low	Deployment, CI/CD, secrets, migrations, config	dry_run + human_approval + rollback + security

Classification Process

Option A: Deterministic Classifier (Preferred)

harness classify-risk --base=main          # diff against main
harness classify-risk --base=HEAD~3       # diff against 3 commits ago

Returns: risk level, affected files, required gates, HITL required (boolean).

Option B: Manual Decision Tree

If harness classify-risk is unavailable, walk this tree:

1. Does the change touch deployment, CI/CD, secrets, or database migrations? → Yes: infra → No: continue

2. Does the change touch auth, permissions, domain model, or cross-cutting protocols? → Yes: core → No: continue

3. Does the change span more than one file or affect a user-facing behavior? → Yes: branch → No: continue

4. Is the change isolated to a single file with no downstream dependents? → Yes: leaf → No: branch (default safe escalation)

When in doubt, escalate. Classifying a branch change as leaf is an error. Classifying a leaf change as branch is cautious and acceptable.

Output Format

## Risk Classification

**Level:** [leaf|branch|core|infra]
**HITL Required:** [true|false]
**Affected Files:**
- `path/to/file1.go` (create)
- `path/to/file2.go` (modify)

**Required Gates:**
- [ ] gate 1
- [ ] gate 2

**Rationale:** [one sentence explaining why this level was chosen]

HITL Determination

Risk Level	HITL Required?	Exception
leaf	No	—
branch	No	If spec says "human review required"
core	Yes	—
infra	Yes	—

Usage in Other Skills

• harness-tasks uses risk level to set HITL/AFK classification
• harness-tdd uses risk level to determine if REVIEWER report requires human sign-off
• harness-plan uses risk level to determine plan depth requirements

Terminology

Use the four terms exactly: leaf, branch, core, infra. Do not substitute synonyms like "minor", "medium", "critical", or "infrastructure". See DOMAIN-AWARENESS.md for the full glossary.