init_harness

Initialize Harness

Initialize the AI Engineering Harness in this repository.

What This Command Does

1. Runs the built-in /init command to generate CLAUDE.md
2. Creates the thoughts/ directory structure for context engineering
3. Adds a ticket template for consistent ticket creation
4. Provides guidance on next steps

Instructions

Follow these steps to initialize the harness:

1. Check the current state of the repository

   • Verify if CLAUDE.md already exists
   • Check if thoughts/ directory exists
   • Check if AGENTS.md already exists

2. Run /init to generate CLAUDE.md (Claude Code's built-in command)

   • This analyzes the codebase and generates project memory

3. Update CLAUDE.md with reference to AGENTS.md if AGENTS.md exists

   • This ensures Claudes default memory file includes reference to AGENTS.md if it exists.

4. Create the thoughts/ directory structure:

   mkdir -p thoughts/shared/{tickets,plans,research}
   mkdir -p thoughts/global
   

5. Add the ticket template to thoughts/global/ticket-template.md

6. Optionally create a personal thoughts directory:

   • Check if personal directory exists
   • Check if all directories within personal exist (tickets, plans, research)

   mkdir -p thoughts/$(whoami)/{tickets,plans,research}
   

7. Present next steps to the user

Important: The /init command is Claude Code's built-in command that analyzes the codebase and generates CLAUDE.md (Claude Code's project memory file). This /init_harness skill wraps that functionality and adds the context engineering setup.

Note: Claude Code uses CLAUDE.md for project memory.

Quick Reference

After running this command, the repository will have:

CLAUDE.md                           # Codebase context (from /init)
thoughts/
├── shared/
│   ├── tickets/                    # Feature requests, bugs, tasks
│   │   └── ticket-template.md      # Template for new tickets
│   ├── plans/                      # Implementation plans
│   └── research/                   # Research documents
└── global/                         # Cross-repository concerns