skill-harness

skill-harness is the setup repo for the 45ck agent workflow stack. It is primarily an installer and generator: most downstream repos receive copied Claude/Codex agent definitions or project setup changes rather than importing skill-harness as an application runtime.

It does five jobs:

• installs the shared dependency-repo suite across pack repos, doctrine repos, and single-skill repos
• installs the shared Claude and Codex agents
• bootstraps project-level tooling with @45ck/noslop and 45ck/agent-docs
• optionally bootstraps Beads, enabled by default in project setup
• hosts embedded packs for suite-local or incubating capabilities

What it can set up

Shared suite

• remote dependency repos plus embedded local packs under packs/
• shared skills synced into ~/.claude/skills/ and ~/.agents/skills/
• supports repos exposed as skills/, packaged .claude/.agents mirrors, or a single root SKILL.md
• shared Claude agents
• shared Codex agents

Project tooling

• 45ck/noslop
• 45ck/agent-docs
• steveyegge/beads

Use the project setup command when you want a repo scaffolded with the 45ck tooling stack:

./skill-harness setup-project --dir path/to/project

That command:

• auto-detects monorepo roots from workspace markers such as pnpm-workspace.yaml, package.json workspaces, nx.json, turbo.json, lerna.json, and rush.json
• auto-detects npm, pnpm, yarn, or bun from lockfiles or packageManager
• defaults to monorepo-root setup when the target directory is inside a detected monorepo
• creates a package.json in the resolved setup directory if one does not exist yet
• installs @45ck/noslop and 45ck/agent-docs
• installs the Beads CLI if it is not already present
• runs agent-docs init
• runs noslop init
• runs bd init
• runs agent-docs install-gates --quality

Benchmark results

Controlled experiments measured the toolkit (specgraph + noslop + skills) against raw Claude Code. Full data in experiments/RESULTS.md. Current adoption audit notes are in docs/adoption-audit-2026-04-29.md.

The gap is driven by scope enforcement and traceability — not code quality (functional output was equal in every experiment). The largest signal came from the ambiguous brief: the toolkit forced scope decisions before code was written; the baseline built a 4-class framework for a task that needed a 3-function library. Treat these as controlled workflow results; downstream repos still need active hook, CI, and agent wiring before those practices are enforced.

Install the CLI

Build locally

git clone https://github.com/45ck/skill-harness.git
cd skill-harness
go build -o skill-harness ./cmd/skill-harness

Windows:

git clone https://github.com/45ck/skill-harness.git
cd skill-harness
go build -o skill-harness.exe .\cmd\skill-harness

Use wrapper scripts

bash install.sh

.\install.ps1

Download a release bundle

Release bundles can ship the binary plus the repo files together so Go is not required.

Build them with:

python scripts/build_release.py --version v0.1.0

Main commands

Install the full shared suite

./skill-harness install --all

Install selected agents

./skill-harness install --agents=requirements-analyst,system-modeler,security-reviewer

Install selected packs only

./skill-harness install --packs=business-analysis-skills,documentation-evidence-skills --packs-only

Install doctrine or utility repos only

./skill-harness install --packs=frontier-agent-playbook,repo-branding-skill --packs-only

Use the interactive installer

./skill-harness install --interactive

Set up a project with noslop and agent-docs

./skill-harness setup-project --dir ../my-project

Install only the packages and skip initialization:

./skill-harness setup-project --dir ../my-project --install-only

Monorepo auto mode:

./skill-harness setup-project --dir ../my-monorepo/apps/web

Force workspace-local setup instead of lifting to the monorepo root:

./skill-harness setup-project --dir ../my-monorepo/apps/web --scope workspace

Override package manager if auto-detection is not what you want:

./skill-harness setup-project --dir ../my-monorepo --package-manager pnpm

Skip one tool:

./skill-harness setup-project --dir ../my-project --skip-agent-docs
./skill-harness setup-project --dir ../my-project --skip-noslop
./skill-harness setup-project --dir ../my-project --skip-beads

Validate installed agent dependencies

./skill-harness check --all

Included agents

• requirements-analyst
• requirements-analyst-beads
• ux-researcher
• system-modeler
• system-modeler-beads
• software-architect
• software-architect-beads
• web-engineer
• backend-engineer
• test-designer
• test-designer-beads
• qa-automation-engineer
• quality-reviewer
• security-reviewer
• security-reviewer-beads
• pentest-reviewer
• delivery-manager
• delivery-manager-beads
• research-writer
• workflow-engineer

Agent-to-skill mapping lives in docs/agent-loadouts.md.

Included dependency repos

• 45ck/agile-delivery-skills
• 45ck/authentication-cryptography-skills
• 45ck/automation-testing-skills
• 45ck/backend-persistence-skills
• 45ck/business-analysis-skills
• 45ck/cloud-platform-operations-skills
• 45ck/code-review-inspection-skills
• 45ck/data-structures-algorithmic-reasoning-skills
• 45ck/deployment-release-skills
• 45ck/design-for-testability-skills
• 45ck/documentation-evidence-skills
• 45ck/enterprise-architecture-integration-skills
• 45ck/fagan-inspection-skill
• 45ck/frontier-agent-playbook - doctrine repo
• 45ck/hci-review-skill
• 45ck/llm-agent-security-skills
• 45ck/maintenance-evolution-skills
• 45ck/marketing-product-skills
• 45ck/non-functional-testing-skills
• 45ck/oop-code-structure-skills
• 45ck/pentest-security-testing-skills
• 45ck/project-management-skills
• 45ck/repo-branding-skill - single-skill repo
• 45ck/refactoring-code-smells-skills
• 45ck/research-literature-review-skills
• 45ck/security-engineering-skills
• 45ck/software-architecture-skills
• 45ck/software-quality-skills
• 45ck/uml-analysis-modelling-skills
• 45ck/verification-test-design-skills
• 45ck/web-engineering-skills
• coding-workflow-skills (embedded)
• design-tooling-skills (embedded)
• integration-tooling-skills (embedded)

Shared doctrine companion

45ck/frontier-agent-playbook is the suite-wide doctrine repo for frontier-capability priors, agentic thinking, anti-fallback checks, and LLM-first architecture.

Use it in two ways:

• install the doctrine skills globally with ./skill-harness install --packs=frontier-agent-playbook --packs-only
• copy AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, AGENT_INSTRUCTIONS.md, and llms.txt into a target project when you want repo-local doctrine surfaces

Tooling repos used here

• 45ck/skill-harness
• 45ck/noslop
• 45ck/agent-docs
• steveyegge/beads

Full toolkit

The standard full toolkit for a new project is specgraph + noslop. The setup-project command installs both automatically. For manual installation steps or to install the matching skill packs (specgraph-skills, noslop-skills), see AGENT_INSTRUCTIONS.md.

For other agents

If another agent needs to install this repo or use it as the setup entrypoint, point it at AGENT_INSTRUCTIONS.md.

Important files

• cmd/skill-harness/main.go
• AGENT_INSTRUCTIONS.md
• docs/third-party-skill-intake.md
• packs/README.md
• scripts/dependencies.json
• scripts/external_skill_intake.py
• scripts/build_release.py

License

MIT