| name | harness-design |
| description | Produce a slice-level detailed design doc at <work_item_dir>/design/<slice_slug>.md by mapping slice responsibilities, interfaces, edge cases, and tests to the work item requirements. |
| examples | ["$harness-design docs/exec-plans/current/gradebook-overrides slice=late-penalty-ui","$harness-design docs/exec-plans/current/platform-modernization/gradebook-overrides slice=late-penalty-ui"] |
| when_to_use | ["PRD/FDD exist and one implementation slice needs deeper design.","A planned phase needs concrete signatures and edge-case handling before coding."] |
| when_not_to_use | ["Task is feature-level architecture (use $harness-architect).","Task is immediate implementation (use $harness-develop)."] |
Required Resources
Always load before writing:
references/design_checklist.md
references/definition_of_done.md
references/validation.md
assets/templates/design_slice_template.md
<work_item_dir>/prd.md
<work_item_dir>/fdd.md
<work_item_dir>/plan.md when present
Workflow
- Resolve the work item directory.
- Create or update
<work_item_dir>/design/<slice_slug>.md.
- Use
assets/templates/design_slice_template.md as the structure.
- Map the slice back to the work item requirements and implementation plan.
- Use repository-local testing and operations docs plus
harness.yml to decide which cross-cutting concerns need to be called out.
- Resolve
<skills_root> as the directory that contains the installed harness skills (design/, validate/, etc.). Do not resolve script paths relative to the repository or current working directory.
- Run
python3 <skills_root>/validate/scripts/validate_work_item.py <work_item_dir> --check design --file <work_item_dir>/design/<slice_slug>.md.