Quickstart

August 27, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

This guide creates a reproducible project-local AI asset setup. It does not require a private registry, a maintainer checkout, or a machine-specific configuration.

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.10 or later
  • Git
  • A supported AI coding runtime, such as Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Kiro, or dsh

Install

python -m pip install --upgrade harness-ai-kit==0.18.18
harness-ai-kit --version

Initialize Your Local Configuration

harness-ai-kit init

This creates or updates ~/.harness-ai-kit/config.yaml. It is the shared location for user-specific endpoints and credentials; do not write those values into a project manifest, lockfile, or Skill.

For a registry-backed public catalog, configure the public registry endpoint in that file. You can also use a public Git source directly, as shown below.

Create A Project And Add A Public Skill

mkdir my-agent-project
cd my-agent-project
harness-ai-kit init-project --runtime codex
harness-ai-kit add skill https://github.com/anthropics/skills/tree/main/skills/skill-creator

init-project writes harness-ai-kit.yml, which declares what the project wants. add resolves the source, writes harness-ai-kit.lock, and installs the selected Skill into the configured runtime directory.

Verify The Result

harness-ai-kit sync
harness-ai-kit doctor

For the default Codex project runtime, the installed Skill is under .agents/skills/. The manifest and lockfile are the files to commit; the runtime directory is a materialized working copy.

Next Steps