agentic-harness: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md — Specific guidance for Claude Code / Claude Desktop contributing to Agentic Harness

This file extends AGENTS.md with Claude-specific notes.

When You're Editing Agentic Harness Code

• Always read MANIFESTO.md first. Every PR must respect the 10 declarations.
• Use arnes idioms, not langchain idioms. No Runnable, Chain, Agent classes.
• Prefer functions over classes. State lives in Thread, not in objects.
• Use pydantic for all data that crosses a boundary. Never dataclass.
• Use async def for all I/O. The only sync code is at the CLI boundary.

When You're Writing a Playbook

• YAML, not Python. The whole point is declarative.
• Use English keys (name, objective, steps, specialist) — they are canonical.
• Quote specialist names: "@planner", not @planner (YAML quirk).
• Test with arnes lint and arnes run --mock before committing.

When You're Adding a Specialist

• One responsibility per specialist. If you need 2 things, make 2 specialists.
• The system_prompt is the specialist's personality. Version it. Diff it.
• The output_schema is the contract. Never return data that doesn't match.
• Default model is ollama/llama3.2. Don't change unless you have a strong reason.

When You're Fixing a Bug

• Write a test that reproduces the bug first.
• Fix the bug.
• Verify the test passes.
• Don't refactor unrelated code in the same PR.

When You're Reviewing a PR

• Check manifesto compliance first.
• Check that no vendor-only features were introduced.
• Check that no API keys are logged or stored.
• Check that tests exist and pass.
• Check that the README/docs are updated if needed.

Files to Never Touch Without Discussion

• MANIFESTO.md — immutable. If you want to change it, open a Discussion.
• LICENSE — Apache 2.0. Don't change.
• SECURITY.md — only update to add new security contacts or policies.
• pyproject.toml [project] section — only bump version, don't change metadata without release.