harness-engineering-playbooklisted

Implement OpenAI Harness Engineering practices in any repository. Use when setting up or refactoring agent-first workflows, writing or upgrading AGENTS.md and PLANS.md, creating deterministic smoke/test/lint/typecheck harness commands, defining strict architecture boundaries and data-shape contracts, wiring observability from day 1, and adding entropy-control checks plus CI automation for reliable autonomous runs.
broomva/skills · ★ 3 · AI & Automation · score 72

Install: claude install-skill broomva/skills

# Harness Engineering Playbook Use this skill to operationalize the practices from OpenAI's Harness Engineering guide in a repo that agents can run against repeatedly and safely. ## What To Load - Use `references/openai-harness-practices.md` for the full practice-to-artifact mapping. - Use `references/rollout-checklist.md` for phased adoption in active repos. - Use `assets/templates/` when creating or updating harness files. ## Inputs - Target repository path. - Existing command surface (`make`, `npm`, `cargo`, `pytest`, etc.). - Existing CI workflows and branch protections. ## Workflow 1. Baseline the repo and detect existing workflows. 2. Bootstrap harness artifacts and templates. 3. Apply all nine Harness Engineering practices. 4. Run harness audit checks and repair gaps. 5. Iterate after real agent runs. ## Step 1: Baseline The Repo - Identify language/toolchain and canonical entrypoints. - Inventory existing checks, scripts, and CI jobs. - Record current pain points for agent runs: setup drift, unclear docs, flaky tests, missing trace IDs, slow loops. Use a short baseline note inside `PLANS.md` so decisions remain durable. ## Step 2: Bootstrap Harness Artifacts Run: ```bash ./scripts/bootstrap_harness.sh <repo-path> ``` This script installs safe defaults from `assets/templates/`: - `AGENTS.md` - `PLANS.md` - `docs/ARCHITECTURE.md` - `docs/OBSERVABILITY.md` - `Makefile.harness` (+ `-include Makefile.harness` in `Makefile`) - `scripts/harness/{smoke,test,lin