coding-harness

name	coding-harness
description	Use when a repository needs a small, evidence-bound Coding Harness routine: orient, diagnose, preview installation, verify local work, or distinguish pull-request truth.
skill_kind	advisory
owned_workflow	coding-harness-routine-jobs
validation_command	pnpm skill:validate
doc_schema	coding-harness-doc/v1
doc_type	skill
authority	canon
canon_class	canonical
distribution	packaged-skill
audience	["codex-agent","coding-harness-maintainer"]
lifecycle_state	active
owner	coding-harness-maintainers
created	"2026-06-04T00:00:00.000Z"
last_reviewed	"2026-07-31T00:00:00.000Z"
review_cadence	on-change
maintenance_trigger	["harness-command-change","downstream-install-change"]
semver_impact	minor
validated_by	["pnpm skill:validate"]
depends_on	[".agents/skills/coding-harness/references/setup-and-commands.md"]

Coding Harness

Use Coding Harness to make one bounded delivery step legible. It provides local orientation and proof; GitHub, CI, reviews, and merge are separate sources of truth.

Routine jobs

1. Orient with harness next --json.
2. Preview a small installation with harness init --minimal --dry-run --json.
3. Diagnose repository health with harness check --json.
4. Run repository-native proof with harness verify-work --fast.
5. Inspect a pull request without conflating local and hosted evidence with harness pr-closeout --pr <number> --json.

Workflow

1. Ask the routine command that directly answers the present question.
2. Make only the bounded repository change it identifies.
3. Run the target repository's focused proof and report its exact boundary.

Run the smallest command that answers the current question. Preview writes before applying them. Preserve unknown work, credentials, and provider state.

Source checkout

For an unbuilt source change, run node --import tsx src/cli.ts <command>. For the published package, use the installed harness binary. Do not infer package, hosted, review, or merge truth from a source checkout.

Validation

Use the target repository's documented focused proof first. Report results as:

Command: <exact command> -> pass|fail|blocked (<reason>)

pnpm skill:validate checks that this skill and its reference keep the same five-command routine. It does not prove an installation, external credentials, CI, review, or merge state.

Reference

• Routine command reference

Boundaries

This skill does not create credentials, bypass branch protection, change provider configuration, delete user work, or turn a missing external check into a pass. Commands outside the five routine jobs are internal or explicitly scoped expert work, not default agent guidance.