antithesis-launch

name	antithesis-launch
description	Launch an Antithesis run with snouty by discovering the harness layout, building the right Docker Compose config, running `snouty validate`, bailing on validation failure, and then submitting `snouty launch` with sane metadata. Use when the user wants to send, submit, or launch an Antithesis run. This skill takes duration in minutes as input.
compatibility	Requires docker (or podman) with compose and snouty (https://github.com/antithesishq/snouty).
metadata	{"version":"2026-05-15 a0f67a6"}

Antithesis Launch

Prerequisites

• DO NOT PROCEED if snouty is not installed. See https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antithesishq/snouty/refs/heads/main/README.md for installation options.

Goal

Launch an Antithesis run in this order only:

1. docker compose build
2. snouty validate
3. if validation fails, stop and report the error
4. snouty launch

Required Input

• duration in minutes is required. If the user did not provide it, ask before submitting the run.

Discovery

• Start from any user-provided path, command, or Antithesis directory name.
• Otherwise, inspect the repo to understand how the harness is wired. Check nearby AGENTS.md, README*, Makefile*, and Antithesis-specific scripts before choosing commands.
• Find the config directory by locating the docker-compose.yaml intended for Antithesis. Prefer directories like antithesis/config, but support non-standard layouts.
• Treat these as strong Antithesis signals: nearby scratchbook/ or test/ directories, compose content mentioning /opt/antithesis, ANTITHESIS_ env vars, setup_complete, or existing snouty examples.
• If multiple compose files look plausible, prefer the one referenced by repo docs or existing snouty launch examples. If the choice is still ambiguous, ask the user instead of guessing.
• Use the directory containing docker-compose.yaml as the snouty validate <CONFIG> and snouty launch --config <CONFIG> argument.
• Build against that exact file with docker compose -f <CONFIG>/docker-compose.yaml build. If docker compose is unavailable, fall back to docker-compose -f ... build.

Run Arguments

• Determine the webhook in this order: explicit user input, existing repo docs/scripts/examples, otherwise default to basic_test.
• snouty launch --config requires ANTITHESIS_REPOSITORY. Reuse the current environment if it is already set. If not, stop and ask the user for it.
• Always set all of these explicitly:
  • --duration: the user-provided duration
  • --source: repo name
  • --test-name: repo name plus branch or config name
  • --description: short, readable description of the run, including details such as the branch name, currently goal, or what you changed since the last run.

Execution

• These commands can take a long time. Prefer background execution or generous timeouts instead of assuming quick completion.
• Do not run snouty launch unless the build succeeded and snouty validate exited successfully.

docker compose -f "$CONFIG_DIR/docker-compose.yaml" build
snouty validate "$CONFIG_DIR"
snouty launch \
  --json \
  --webhook "$WEBHOOK" \
  --config "$CONFIG_DIR" \
  --duration "$DURATION" \
  --source "$SOURCE" \
  --test-name "$TEST_NAME" \
  --description "$DESCRIPTION"

Output

• Report the config directory, compose build command, validate command, and final snouty launch command shape before submission.
• If validation fails, stop immediately and show the failing command plus the key error.
• The --json flag makes snouty launch emit machine-readable output containing a run_id. Parse and report the run_id — it's needed to triage the run when it is done.

Self-Review

• The chosen config directory is the one that actually contains the Antithesis docker-compose.yaml.
• The build, validate, and run steps all point at the same config.
• snouty validate succeeded before snouty launch was invoked.
• The run set source, test-name, description, and duration explicitly.
• Missing blockers such as duration, ANTITHESIS_REPOSITORY, or an ambiguous config location caused a stop instead of a bad submission.