The complete solution

contract, then harness, then loop
green = harness / deterministic purple = the model red = blocked

An agent dropped in a real repo

invents requirements that look mergeable
context compacts - the work vanishes
one bad turn reads .env or commits to main
no explicit model - the bill runs away
idea / notes / transcript / legacy docs ↓ spec-builder ↓ docs/specs/ - selective sections
stable FR IDs + acceptance criteria never invents a requirement: unstated -> AS-nn assumption / OI-nn open issue
harness-bootstrap ↓ reads your code FIRST ↓ .claude/
16 agents
model + effort
16 rules
7 always, 9 scoped
22 commands 11 hooks
docs/tasks/ - a board that survives a crash
scaffold: ~0.2sreconciles, never overwrites

The delivery loop runs inside it

dispatches records progress
orchestrator
scoped specialist agents
docs/tasks/ board
on disk
hooks
BLOCKEDnot "advised against"

The payoff

the contract exists the harness cannot be escaped state survives a crash the bill is chosen, not inherited
guardrail eval 112/112 Opus -> Haiku: byte-identical safety
shell scripts + glob rules | ports to Claude Code, Cursor and Codex with enforcement

How do you know it's wired right?

harness-view
reads .claude/, shows how it all connects deterministic - no model involved
assess
scores it against the project's own quality gate names the fix, links back to the node
scaffolded: 99/100 hand-maintained: 79/100 hand-maintained: 64/100
AGENT HARNESS BOOTSTRAP