harden

name	harden
description	The agent CLOSES the structural issues a non-technical operator can't — runs the scanners + reads the gate/review status, fixes the real footguns (and leaked secrets) behind the review gate, and checkpoints. Fire at session-start as a health check, and on demand. Velocity-first: session-start is a quick triage, not a refactor marathon.

harden — close the gaps a non-technical operator can't

This is the answer to the follow-through gap. A scanner finds a data-loss write, a broad grant, a leaked key, a missing ErrorBoundary — but a non-technical operator can't close any of them. harden is where the agent does: it reads the footgun list and the gate/review status, and fixes the real issues locally, behind the review gate, then checkpoints. Working code → safe working code.

When to fire

• At session-start — a quick health check: run scan, glance at gate status, close anything cheap and unambiguous, surface the rest. This is triage, not a refactor marathon — keep it light so it doesn't eat the session (velocity-first). If it's clean, say so in a line and move on.
• On demand — "harden this" / before a meaningful ship → the deeper pass: work the full findings list down.
• After adopt — the initial hardening pass on a freshly-onboarded repo (its first real cleanup).

The motion

1. Scan. Run the scan skill (scripts/scan-secrets.sh + scripts/scan-structure.sh). Get the ranked list.

2. Check the gate status. Are the lefthook hooks installed and green? Run the project's gate commands (typecheck · lint · tests) or lefthook run pre-commit / lefthook run pre-push. A red gate is a finding too.

3. Triage — real vs. false positive. These are heuristic scanners; not every hit is a bug. Read each finding against the code. A genuine false positive gets an allowlist marker (pragma: allowlist secret) or a .scanignore path with a one-line reason — never to silence a real one. Rank what's left by severity.

4. Close the real ones. By class:

   • Leaked secret (hard stop): remove it from the code, move the value to env-loaded config, gitignore the .env, and purge it from history if it was committed. The credential is now burned — so the rotation of the live key is a human action (it's a credential op): hand it over turnkey ("this key leaked — rotate it in , here's where"). Removing it from the tree is yours; rotating the live secret is theirs.
   • Data-loss write — add the WHERE / scope the write to the row; make a full-overwrite update a merge.
   • Broad grant (RLS USING(true) / GRANT ALL) — scope it to the owner/row; least privilege.
   • Missing ErrorBoundary — add one at the app boundary so a thrown render doesn't blank the screen.
   • Unhandled promise — add the .catch / error path.
   • Oversized file — split it along its real seams (behaviour-preserving; refactor and behaviour-change stay separate steps).
   • Engine-fragile CSS — add the prefix / a fallback; flag "confirm on the real device" (render ≠ device).

5. Fix behind the review gate. A hardening fix can introduce its own edge — so a non-trivial fix goes through the review skill (sized to the fix). Re-run the gates; confirm green.

6. Checkpoint. Commit the hardening with a clear message, TRACKER.md folded in. Per the trust boundary, commit and push freely — fixes backed by green gates are reversible. Stop and ask only at the irreducible: rotating a live credential, a destructive data fix on real/prod data, anything that spends.

Velocity-first (don't let it become the thing that catches you)

Session-start harden is a 30-second triage, not a deep clean — close the obvious, list the rest, keep moving. Reserve the deep pass for "harden this" or a pre-ship. If hardening is blocking the build more than protecting it, you're over-running it — dial it back to triage.

Honest-stage

harden closes the known footguns; it is not a security audit or a guarantee. Report what you fixed, what you deferred and why, and what needs the human (a live-key rotation, a destructive data fix). "Hardened the real findings; 2 deferred (noted in TRACKER); 1 needs you — rotate the leaked key" beats "all clean."