AI coding with a checker that says PASS or FAIL.
Spec Harness is my AI-native agentic development workflow, released as open source: spec-driven development with project memory, source-backed rules, independent checks and reviewed learning.
- License
- MIT, open source
- Runs in
- Claude Code with /sdd
- Needs
- Bash, git and Python 3.11+
One piece for each way an AI coding agent drifts.
Coding agents lose the project between sessions, mark their own homework and repeat the same mistakes. Spec Harness answers each one with a separate piece.
- Memory bank
- A .memory/ bank and an index of the codebase keep the project's context between sessions, so the agent starts each one from files you can read.
- Spec-driven development
- Each ticket becomes a written, checkable spec with its own goal, then a plan and small ordered tasks the agent builds one at a time.
- Harness
- A fresh verifier checks the work against the goal and returns PASS or FAIL. Feedback is classified first, and only a reviewed correction becomes a rule the next ticket starts with.
How a ticket moves.
Ticket
Paste the exact ticket text. It becomes one feature folder with its own goal.
Spec
A written, checkable description of the change.
Plan
A plan that reuses what the codebase already has.
Tasks
Atomic units of work, in order.
Build
One task at a time, with separate tester, verifier and reviewer evidence.
Verify
A fresh verifier checks the goal and says PASS or FAIL.
Learn
Feedback is classified, and a reviewed correction becomes a dated rule.
Small fixes take a light route: one ticket file, one implementer and one fresh verifier. Larger or riskier work keeps the full packet.
Start on a clean branch.
Run these from the root of an existing project. You need Bash, git and Python 3.11+; Node is needed only for npx.
git switch -c spec-harness-setup
npx -y github:chohra-med/spec-harness-oss init . integrateThe second command stages the harness and reports PENDING. Review the diff, commit it on the branch, then open the project in Claude Code and run /sdd init. That step reads the codebase and writes the project's rules, skills and roles.
Spec Harness ships inside the free Second Brain Starter.
The starter keeps your projects' facts, decisions and next work in plain Markdown. Its connect command registers one repository you name and can stage Spec Harness into it.
See the Second Brain