# Setup Codebase Harness

Master skill, set up the full agent harness for any repo so an agent can work it...

- Repository: https://github.com/AI-Builder-Club/skills (1308 stars)
- Category: Testing
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-09-15
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add AI-Builder-Club/skills --skill setup-codebase-harness -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add AI-Builder-Club/skills --skill setup-codebase-harness -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add AI-Builder-Club/skills --skill setup-codebase-harness -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add AI-Builder-Club/skills --skill setup-codebase-harness -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add AI-Builder-Club/skills`

## Description

Master skill, set up the full agent harness for any repo so an agent can work it reliably: legible (map-not-manual docs + custom lints), executable (one-command dev stack), verifiable (e2e gate + a verify-before-ship loop), plus commit hygiene and entropy control. Use when onboarding a new/unfamiliar codebase to agent-driven development, "set up the harness", "make this repo agent-ready", "harness this codebase".

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Set up the codebase harness

**Harness engineering:** the model is fixed, what you engineer is the *scaffolding*
around it (the environment, the docs, the feedback loops) so an agent can build and
verify software with minimal human attention. Humans steer; agents execute. Your
job is to make the repo **legible, executable, and verifiable.**

Work **incrementally and depth-first**: assess what exists, build the one missing
capability, use it to unlock the next. Don't boil the ocean, set up what the repo
actually needs. When the agent struggles, the fix is almost never "try harder", ask *"what capability is missing, and how do I make it legible and enforceable?"*
and add it.

This skill orchestrates the focused sub-skills: **`dev-local-setup`**,
**`e2e-setup`**, **`crabbox-setup`** (cloud/parallel), and **`verifier-setup`**
(scaffolds a repo-specific **`/verify`** loop; supersedes the older **`pr`** skill).

## 0. Assess

Survey the repo: stack, package manager, services/ports, infra deps, existing
docs/tests/CI, and the *implicit* rules (buried in READMEs, PR comments, people's
heads). Note what's missing per pillar below.

## 1. Legible, the agent can reason about the repo

> What the agent can't see doesn't exist. Knowledge in chat threads / heads is
> invisible, push it into versioned, repo-local artifacts.

The rest: https://github.com/AI-Builder-Club/skills/blob/HEAD/skills/setup-codebase-harness/SKILL.md