Harness Update Skill

Safely update projects with existing harness to the latest harness version. Version detection → Backup → Non-destructive update flow preserves existing settings and tasks while introducing latest features.

Quick Reference

• “I want to update harness to the latest version”
• “I want to add new features to existing project”
• “I want to update config file format to latest version”
• “I want to fix incorrect permission syntax”
• “I was notified of template updates”

Deliverables

• Version detection via .claude-code-harness-version
• Template update detection and localization judgment
• Identify files needing update
• Auto-backup creation
• Non-destructive settings/workflow file updates
• No localization → overwrite / Localized → merge support
• Skills diff detection – Auto-detect and propose new skills
• Optional: Codex CLI sync (.codex/ + AGENTS.md)
• Post-update verification

Execution Flow Overview

Phase Summary

Phase 1: Version Detection

1. Check .claude-code-harness-version file
2. Compare with plugin’s latest version
3. Run template-tracker.sh check for content-level updates
4. Confirm update scope with user

If harness not installed: Suggest using /harness-init instead.

Phase 1.5: Breaking Changes Detection

Detect and fix existing settings issues:

• Incorrect permission syntax (e.g., Bash(npm run *) → Bash(npm run:*))
• Deprecated settings (e.g., disableBypassPermissionsMode)
• Old hook settings in project files (should use plugin hooks.json)

Phase 2: Backup and Update

1. Create backup in .claude-code-harness/backups/{timestamp}/
2. Update .claude/settings.json (merge permissions, fix syntax)
3. Update workflow files based on localization status:
   • Not localized → overwrite
   • Localized → merge support with user confirmation
4. Update rule files with marker/hash method
5. Skills diff detection and update proposal
6. Update Cursor commands (always overwrite)
7. Update version file

Phase 3: Verification

1. Post-update re-verification with template-tracker.sh check
2. Syntax check for JSON files
3. Generate completion report with file-by-file results

Important Preserved Data

These are never overwritten:

• ✅ Incomplete tasks in Plans.md
• ✅ Custom settings in .claude/settings.json (hooks, env, model, etc.)
• ✅ SSOT data in .claude/memory/

Related Commands

• /harness-init – New project setup
• /sync-status – Check current project status
• /setup – Setup development tools