harness — Agent Engineering Harness

---

name: harness

description: >

Agent engineering harness for any repo. Creates a short AGENTS.md table-of-contents,

structured docs/ knowledge base (ARCHITECTURE, QUALITY, CONVENTIONS, COORDINATION),

custom agent-readable linters (WHAT/FIX/REF format), CI enforcement, and execution plan

templates. Supports Rust, Go, TypeScript, and Python. Use when setting up any repo for

agent-first development, upgrading an existing AGENTS.md, or enforcing architectural lint

gates. Includes --audit flag for tool lifecycle checks and L1/L2/L3 progressive disclosure.

license: MIT

---

# harness — Agent Engineering Harness

Implements the [OpenAI Codex team's agent-first engineering harness pattern](https://openai.com/index/harness-engineering/)

for any repo: short AGENTS.md TOC, structured docs/, custom linters with agent-readable errors,

CI enforcement, execution plan templates, doc-gardening.

Validated against: [Agent Tool Design Guidelines](https://github.com/bowen31337/agent-harness-skills/blob/main/docs/agent_tool_desig_guidelines.md) (2026-03-09)

When to use

Supported Languages

Usage

SKILL_DIR="$HOME/.openclaw/workspace/skills/harness"

# Scaffold harness for a repo (language auto-detected: Rust/Go/TypeScript/Python)
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/scaffold.py" --repo /path/to/repo

# Scaffold with force-overwrite of existing AGENTS.md
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/scaffold.py" --repo /path/to/repo --force

# Audit harness freshness (tool lifecycle check — no writes)
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/scaffold.py" --repo /path/to/repo --audit

# Run lints locally
bash /path/to/repo/scripts/agent-lint.sh

# Check doc freshness (finds stale references in docs/)
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/doc_garden.py" --repo /path/to/repo --dry-run

# Check doc freshness and open a fix PR
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/doc_garden.py" --repo /path/to/repo --pr

# Generate execution plan for a complex task
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/plan.py" \
  --task "Add IBC timeout handling" \
  --repo /path/to/repo

What gets created

| File | Description |

|------|-------------|

| `AGENTS.md` | ~100 line TOC with L1/L2/L3 progressive disclosure markers |

| `docs/ARCHITECTURE.md` | Layer diagram + dependency rules (auto-generated from repo structure) |

| `docs/QUALITY.md` | Coverage targets + security invariants |

| `docs/CONVENTIONS.md` | Naming rules (language-specific) |

| `docs/COORDINATION.md` | Multi-agent task ownership + conflict resolution rules ← new |

| `docs/EXECUTION_PLAN_TEMPLATE.md` | Structured plan format for complex tasks |

| `scripts/agent-lint.sh` | Custom linter with agent-readable errors (WHAT / FIX / REF) |

| `.github/workflows/agent-lint.yml` | CI gate on every PR |

Lint error format

Every lint error produced by `scripts/agent-lint.sh` follows this format:

LINT ERROR [<rule-id>]: <description of the problem>
  WHAT: <why this is a problem>
  FIX:  <exact steps to resolve it>
  REF:  <which doc to consult>

This means agents can read lint output and fix problems without asking a human.

Agent Design Checklist (from tool design guidelines)

Before shipping any tool or skill change, verify:

Progressive Disclosure Layers

The harness enforces a 3-layer context discipline:

| Layer | Where | When to load |

|-------|-------|--------------|

| L1 | `AGENTS.md` | Always — orientation, commands, invariants |

| L2 | `docs/` | Before coding — architecture, quality, conventions |

| L3 | Source files | On demand — grep/read specific files as needed |

**Rule:** Start with L1. Pull L2 before touching code. Pull L3 only when you need it.

Never pre-load all three layers — it crowds out working context.

Tool Lifecycle (--audit)

Run `--audit` quarterly to check harness freshness:

Safety

References