harness-issue-prep

Issue Prep

Follow these steps in order. This skill is the mint: it turns a spec (Linear issue, pasted text, or a features.json feature) into a verified, normalized spec, plus proof of that verification for whichever consumer needs it (local spec field, or a signed readiness stamp on Linear).

Step 1: Load configuration

Read the optional prep key from .harness/harness.json:

python3 - <<'PYEOF'
import json

try:
    with open(".harness/harness.json") as f:
        config = json.load(f)
except (FileNotFoundError, json.JSONDecodeError):
    config = {}

print(json.dumps(config.get("prep", {})))
PYEOF

No prep key at all: announce local-only mode up front (features.json output only; no stamp, no label, no kickstart) and proceed. A partial block (some sub-keys missing) is not an error: announce specifically which capabilities are off. prep.linear absent disables labeling; prep.stamp absent disables stamping (Step 7 becomes a no-op); prep.kick_command absent disables Step 8.

Step 2: Acquire the spec

Three sources, selected by the argument passed to this skill:

• ISSUE-KEY (matches ^[A-Z]+-[0-9]+$): remote mode. Discover the connected Linear MCP's tools at runtime (never hardcode tool names; D12 in the implementation plan). Required capabilities checklist, all four must resolve:

  • fetch an issue by key, returning title, description, and labels
  • update an issue's description
  • create a comment on an issue
  • add and remove a label on an issue

  If any capability is missing, degrade to paste mode (below) with an explicit notice naming which capability was missing. If all four resolve, fetch the issue and hold title and description exactly as returned: no trimming, no whitespace normalization, ever. The stamp's spec_hash depends on the exact bytes (see ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/schemas/readiness-stamp.md).

• F0NN: local mode. Load that feature from .harness/features.json; the spec under test is its description field. Its scope and depends_on travel along as context for the verification agent, not as part of the hashed spec.

• No argument, or the Linear MCP is unavailable: paste mode. Ask the user to paste the spec text, and ask whether the destination is local (a new or updated feature) or a Linear issue they will paste the normalized result back into by hand.