When should this skill be activated?

It should be used at the very beginning of every conversation or when starting any new task to establish the correct execution framework.

What is the primary purpose of the using-harness skill?

It acts as a governance layer that forces the AI to look for and use specialized skills before taking any action, ensuring that best practices are never skipped for the sake of speed.

How does it handle tasks that are out of scope?

The skill instructs Claude to immediately log deferred items or future considerations into a dedicated .artifacts/ROADMAP.md file so no ideas are lost.

Why does it use AskUserQuestion instead of plain text?

Using the specific AskUserQuestion tool reduces the user's cognitive burden by providing clear clickable options and trade-offs rather than open-ended text prompts.

What are the 'Red Flags' mentioned in the skill?

Red flags are common rationalizations the AI might use to skip a workflow (like 'this is a simple question'). The skill provides a reality check to ensure discipline is maintained.

Harness Core Workflow

Name: Harness Core Workflow
Author: astrosteveo

byastrosteveo

Productivity & Workflow

Enforces disciplined skill discovery and systematic workflow management for all Claude Code interactions.

About

The using-harness skill serves as the foundational governance layer for the Harness framework within Claude Code. It establishes a strict protocol requiring the AI to check for and invoke relevant specialized skills before responding to any user prompt or starting a task. By providing a structured framework for skill priority, anti-rationalization checks, and standardized user communication via the AskUserQuestion tool, it ensures that best practices and domain-specific patterns are consistently applied while maintaining project integrity through automated backlog management.

Key Features

Priority-based execution ordering for process and implementation skills
0 GitHub stars
Mandatory skill discovery protocol for all tasks
Red-flag detection to prevent skipping disciplined workflows
Automated tracking of deferred items in .artifacts/ directories
Structured AskUserQuestion integration to reduce user cognitive load

Use Cases

Maintaining a persistent project roadmap by automatically capturing out-of-scope ideas during development.
Standardizing communication during complex architectural decisions using structured selection tools.
Initializing a new project phase to ensure all relevant domain skills are identified and loaded.

About

Key Features

Priority-based execution ordering for process and implementation skills
0 GitHub stars
Mandatory skill discovery protocol for all tasks
Red-flag detection to prevent skipping disciplined workflows
Automated tracking of deferred items in .artifacts/ directories
Structured AskUserQuestion integration to reduce user cognitive load

Use Cases

Maintaining a persistent project roadmap by automatically capturing out-of-scope ideas during development.
Standardizing communication during complex architectural decisions using structured selection tools.
Initializing a new project phase to ensure all relevant domain skills are identified and loaded.