Agent Harness Reference

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Agent Harness Reference skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Agent Harness Reference is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the General category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: General · Sub-category: ai-tooling · Last updated: 2026-07-26

ai:agent

Field reference for Claude Code and GitHub Copilot CLI hook contracts. Covers hook locations, events, matchers, payloads, decisions, exit codes, timeouts, plugin roots, and cloud limits with official URLs and versioned probes. Use for `harness contract`, `copilot cli hook behavior`, `hook payload format`, `stale plugin root`, `Errno 2 _dispatch.py`, or before changing cross-harness hooks. Do NOT use to run the porting campaign (use `ai-agents-portability-campaign`).

Security AStatic scan found no risk patternsHow grading works ›

From the source SKILL.md

Use this reference before changing a hook, dispatcher, generator, hook config, or runtime test. Do not repeat web research unless the refresh rules below say the recorded contract is stale.

What this skill does

Agent Harness Reference is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the ai-tooling sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

Who uses this skill

The Agent Harness Reference Claude Code skill is built for Claude Code users and developers across all disciplines looking for general-purpose AI assistance. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 196,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/agent-harness-reference
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/agent-harness-reference/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\agent-harness-reference\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram

Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Agent Harness Reference Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Agent Harness Reference skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Agent Harness Reference skill?

Use Agent Harness Reference when your Claude Code task falls under the General category — specifically in the ai tooling area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Agent Harness Reference" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/general/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Agent Harness Reference skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Agent Harness Reference is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the General category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Attribution & license

Source: https://github.com/rjmurillo/ai-agents/blob/HEAD/.claude/skills/agent-harness-reference/SKILL.md
License: MIT
Author: rjmurillo

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

rjmurillo. (2026). Agent Harness Reference [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/agent-harness-reference/

BibTeX

@misc{agent-harness-reference-2026,
  author    = {rjmurillo},
  title     = {Agent Harness Reference [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/agent-harness-reference/}
}

Embed this skill

Promote, attribute, or link this skill from your own README, blog post, or documentation. All three snippets are free to use — no sign-up, no API key. More distribution surfaces →

Badge

[![ClaudSkills](https://claudskills.com/badge/agent-harness-reference.svg)](https://claudskills.com/skills/agent-harness-reference/?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=skill_badge)

Security scan

Grade A · scanned 2026-09-28 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.

No risk patterns were found in any of the ten OWASP-aligned categories. How grading works ›

✓ Prompt injection
✓ Data exfiltration
✓ Supply chain
✓ Reverse shell
✓ Credentials
✓ Execution
✓ Filesystem
✓ Persistence
✓ Obfuscation
✓ Network

Show this grade on your repo (click to copy):

[![Security: A](https://img.shields.io/badge/Security-A-2e7d32)](https://claudskills.com/skills/agent-harness-reference/#security)

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Part of ClaudSkills — the open registry for Claude Skills & Claude Code Skills. · What's New · Install guide · About · llms.txt

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