| name | harness-principles |
| description | Auto-triggers on structural harness decisions: new chain primitive, new flow, remove evaluator, wrap evaluator, redesign harness, scaffolding, load-bearing, model upgrade, harness audit, refactor flow, sub-agent. Also triggers on file mentions of `src/application/chain/`, `src/application/flows/`, `src/integration/ai/providers/_engine/`. Instructs the agent to read the principles doc before proceeding. |
| when_to_use | When the user prompt contains any of: "chain primitive", "new flow", "remove evaluator", "wrap evaluator", "redesign harness", "scaffolding", "load-bearing", "model upgrade", "harness audit", "refactor flow", "sub-agent". Also when the prompt references `src/application/chain/`, `src/application/flows/`, or `src/integration/ai/providers/_engine/`. Not needed for pure business logic, UI, or persistence work that does not touch the chain or provider engine. |
Harness Principles — Auto-trigger
This skill exists because the harness research evolves with model capability. What was load-bearing in
Opus 4.5 may be overhead in Opus 4.7. Without an explicit read-first gate, structural changes happen
without awareness of the research behind the current design.
Before proceeding with any structural harness change:
Read .claude/docs/HARNESS-PRINCIPLES.md in full.- Identify the relevant principle section(s) by name (e.g. "§ 14 Minimal scaffolding", "§ 7 Idle watchdog").
- Note the current
ralphctl status for each relevant principle (applied / partial / gap).
- Proceed with the change, keeping the principle's intent visible in the diff.
If you are removing a harness component, confirm which principle the component implements and verify the
removal does not regress an applied row. If the removal moves a row from applied to gap, update
HARNESS-PRINCIPLES.md as part of the same commit.
If you are adding a new chain primitive — there are five and only five: element (interface), leaf,
sequential, loop, guard. Push back if a proposal adds a sixth. The principle behind this constraint
is § 14 (Minimal scaffolding) and the rationale is in CLAUDE.md § Architecture.
