se-harness

An AI-agentic SDLC harness you can bootstrap around any software project — new or existing, any stack, single-repo or multi-repo. AI agents do the work; hooks make sure they can't ship without you.

AI coding agents are good at writing code and bad at process discipline. se-harness wraps a full software-engineering lifecycle around them: it learns your project (scan + interview), builds a memory of your code and domain, staffs it with 11 specialized agents, and runs each goal through requirement → stories → implementation → tests → PR → deploy — pausing at three human-approval gates that are enforced by hooks, not prompts. The agent literally cannot open the PR, push, or deploy until you flip status: approved.

One repo serves both ecosystems: Claude Code and GitHub Copilot CLI read the same plugin marketplace.

What you get

• Bootstrap, not boilerplate — /harness-init scans existing repos first (stack + org-convention detection, evidence-based, you confirm) and interviews you only for what it can't detect. Output: AGENTS.md + CLAUDE.md inside idempotent generated-block markers (your hand edits survive re-runs), a committed .harness/ profile, and a gitignored .env.harness for secrets.
• A goal loop with real gates — /harness-goal "Add CSV export" grills you until the requirement is unambiguous, writes .harness/requirements/REQ-001.md, then drives stories → design → parallel implementation in isolated worktrees → unit/integration/e2e tests → PR → deploy. Three gates (requirement, PR evidence, deploy) are blocked by a PreToolUse hook until you approve — exit-2 block on Claude Code, permissionDecision deny on Copilot.
• An 11-agent SDLC roster — architect, story-writer, backend/frontend implementers, db-engineer, unit + integration testers, e2e planner/generator/healer, release-manager. Each agent gets only the tools its job needs.
• 3-tier memory — committed project profile, append-only daily/topic logs with typed causal links, and a provenance-tracked domain wiki (ingest/query/lint skills).
• Multi-repo aware — declare products in workspace.yaml with a contracts registry; contract-check.sh blocks pushes that change a provided contract and names the consumer repos that would break.
• Drift-aware sync — /harness-sync detects drift on four axes (profile, recommendations, templates, memory health), shows the diff first, and refreshes only generated blocks.
• Exportable — /harness-export compiles the agents and hooks for Copilot and Cursor (Codex reads AGENTS.md natively).
• No telemetry, ever — see PRIVACY.md.

Install

Claude Code (inside a session):

/plugin marketplace add rbhattarai/se-harness
/plugin install se-harness

GitHub Copilot CLI:

copilot plugin marketplace add rbhattarai/se-harness
copilot plugin install se-harness-copilot@se-harness

Plugin installs restricted in your org? Both setup guides cover the alternatives — internal GitHub Enterprise import (preferred, updates stay pullable) and offline zip → local-path marketplace, plus a no-plugin prompt-driven fallback: Claude §1.2 · Copilot §1.2–1.3.

Quickstart (5 minutes)

Single repo — in your project, run /harness-init (Claude) or copilot harness-init (Copilot CLI). Existing repos get scanned first; you're interviewed only for what can't be detected. Then /harness-bootstrap for opt-in companion tooling, and your first goal:

/harness-goal "Add CSV export to the reports page"

It writes .harness/requirements/REQ-001.md and the gate hook blocks PR/push/deploy until you flip status: approved.

Multi-repo product — clone all repos side-by-side, add a workspace.yaml (from templates/workspace.yaml: units, shared org context, and a contracts: registry), then run the same init per code repo.

Want to try it without risking your own repo? The companion demo repo demo-loan-app is a live two-app loan product — loan-webapp + lending-webapp syncing in real time over a shared data store — with a ready-made workspace.yaml and contract registry. Clone it, docker compose up --build, then follow the multi-unit walkthrough: init per unit, watch contract-check name the consumer that a schema change would break, and run a cross-unit goal end to end.

Commands

Command	What it does
/harness-init	Intake interview (+ scan for existing repos) → generates all per-project artifacts
/harness-scan	Brownfield detection: evidence collector → confirm → merge into profile
/harness-bootstrap	Recommends companion plugins/CLIs/MCP servers from your profile; opt-in install + lockfile
/harness-goal	The goal loop: supervisor over the agent roster, 3 hook-enforced approval gates
/harness-sync	Four-axis drift detection → diff-first report → confirmed refresh of generated blocks
/harness-export	Compile agents + hooks for Copilot / Cursor (Codex reads AGENTS.md natively)

Documentation

• Claude Code setup guide — install (+ restricted-org alternatives), single-repo and multi-repo worked examples, extending and publishing
• GitHub Copilot setup guide — CLI plugin, coding agent, VS Code, enterprise rollout, same examples
• Interop matrix — component × platform support, plus verified platform schema notes in docs/claude/ and docs/copilot/
• Demo walkthroughs — over the companion demo-loan-app repo: multi-unit init, contract checking, cross-unit goal (and the README GIF recording guide)

Status

v1 is complete: all six commands, the 11-agent roster, the memory tiers, the hooks, and the Copilot export are implemented and script-tested (123-test suite in CI). On the roadmap: a workspace-level goal loop over a federated service graph, a web profile-builder, and real-world hardening. Details: development history · plan and research log in brainstorm.md.

Repo layout

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json      # this repo IS a marketplace — read by Claude Code AND Copilot CLI
.github/plugin/marketplace.json      # GENERATED mirror (Copilot canonical location) — never edit
plugins/se-harness/                  # the harness plugin (source of truth)
  commands/                          # the six /harness-* commands
  agents/                            # 11-agent SDLC roster (narrow tools per agent)
  skills/                            # context-injector, stack-detector, memory-keeper, wiki-*
  hooks/hooks.json + scripts/        # gate-check, org-validate, memory-log, contract-check, splicer
plugins/se-harness-copilot/          # Copilot CLI variant — GENERATED by build-copilot-plugin.sh
registry/recommendations.json        # profile → plugin mappings (recommender data; honest gaps)
templates/                           # profile/env/requirement/AGENTS/CLAUDE/mcp/workspace + memory seeds
docs/                                # setup guides, interop matrix, platform schema notes, demo guide
tests/                               # 123-test suite run in CI

Contributing / publishing

Edit only plugins/se-harness/ (the Claude-first source of truth); regenerate the Copilot variant and marketplace mirror with bash plugins/se-harness/scripts/build-copilot-plugin.sh. Full update/extension and marketplace-publishing instructions: Claude guide Parts 5–6 · Copilot guide Parts 10–11.

Note: the Claude Code and Copilot plugin/hook schemas evolve quickly — verify manifests against the Claude plugin docs and Copilot plugin docs before releasing.