How do I install the Harness Setup skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add tomevault-io/harness-setup in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Harness Setup safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Independent scanners report: SkillSpector: PASS, Skill Scanner: PASS. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Harness Setup?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Harness Setup free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Harness Setup?

tomevault-io (@tomevault-io) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Harness Setup by tomevault-io — Agent Skill

Name: Harness Setup
Author: tomevault-io

Harness Setup

First-time project scaffold for agentm. Populates init.sh with real commands, verifies it boots, seeds AGENTS.md, features.json, and the wiki/ scaffold. Run once per project. Prefixed harness- to avoid collision with Codex built-ins. Does not plan — planning is the harness-plan skill. Use when this capability is needed.

tomevault-io Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

harness-setup skill

Run the setup phase of agentm. Full spec: harness/phases/01-setup.md. Read it and follow it.

Non-negotiable constraints

Inventory before interviewing. Read README.md, package.json/go.mod/etc., .github/workflows/, any existing AGENTS.md. Ask only what the inventory can't answer.
Populate .harness/init.sh with real commands, not guesses. If unsure, ask. A broken init.sh breaks every later phase.
Verify init.sh boots cleanly — run it and confirm exit 0 before finishing.
Do not invent features for .harness/features.json. Empty is fine.
Merge, don't overwrite existing AGENTS.md. It may contain project-specific content.
No planning. harness-setup is pure scaffolding. Planning is the harness-plan skill.
Dispatch the documenter subagent after boot verification to populate the wiki/ seed pages (Getting-Started, Runbook, Product-Intent, Overview, Home, _Sidebar) from the inventory and interview. Resolve any OPEN QUESTIONS before finishing.
Offer GitHub Project creation (user-scoped, gh project create --owner @me) — ask first. If accepted, write .harness/project.json.

Start by reading what's in the project now, then interview briefly on anything the inventory didn't settle.

Source: alexherrero/dev-setup — distributed by TomeVault.

Frequently asked questions