harness-init_skill

Overview

This skill initializes a project to the Harness specification so development can begin with natural language only. It prepares a runnable workspace, generates initial files (Plans.md, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md), and performs an environment diagnosis and SSOT initialization. The setup completes with a minimum of one interactive question and yields a ready Plan→Work→Review cycle.

How this skill works

The skill asks a single unified question to capture project intent, audience, and whether to use smart defaults or explicit configuration. It can generate a new project (real scaffolding like create-next-app), introduce the harness into an existing repo by analyzing source code, or apply a specified tech stack such as next + supabase. After generation it runs environment checks, initializes single source of truth files, and returns a completion report with next steps.

When to use it

• When you type /harness-init to start a new project quickly
• To introduce the harness into an existing codebase and auto-configure agents
• When you want immediate defaults and minimal interaction to launch development
• If you need a reproducible Plan→Work→Review workflow ready to run
• When specifying stack or mode (e.g., --stack=next-supabase or --mode=solo)

Best practices

• Prefer the single-question flow for fastest setup; use 'leave it to you' to skip confirmation
• Specify --stack and --name when you need deterministic scaffolding and repo names
• Run the skill from the project root so existing files can be analyzed and preserved
• Review the generated Plans.md and AGENTS.md before running automated work commands
• Use the optional Codex CLI setup (/setup codex) only if you need Codex compatibility

Example use cases

• Launch a new Next.js + Supabase app with harness scaffolding using --stack=next-supabase
• Introduce harness to an existing JavaScript project to enable autonomous Plan→Work→Review cycles
• Quickly scaffold a solo-mode project with smart defaults by saying 'leave it to you'
• Initialize SSOT and agent configuration to hand off to automated agents or human developers
• Prepare a repository for immediate /plan-with-agent and /work commands after setup