Upgrade Your Harness¶

Run /harness-upgrade to adopt new template content after updating the plugin.

Prerequisites¶

The plugin is installed and active in your Claude Code session.
Your HARNESS.md exists in the .claude/ directory (created by /harness-init).

1. Check for available upgrades¶

Run the command:

/harness-upgrade

The command compares the  marker in your HARNESS.md against the installed plugin version. If versions match, no upgrade is needed. If they differ, the command displays a summary of changes.

2. Review new items¶

The command categorises changes into three groups:

New — items in the latest template that aren't in your current HARNESS.md.
Updated — items that exist in both but have changed.
Removed — items in your HARNESS.md that are no longer in the template.

Read through each category to understand what will change.

3. Accept or dismiss items¶

For each new or updated item, you'll be prompted to accept or skip:

Accept — the item is written to your HARNESS.md.
Skip — the item is not added; you keep your current version.

After you accept or skip all items, the template version marker in your HARNESS.md is updated to match the current plugin version.

4. Dismiss for later¶

If you're not ready to upgrade, dismiss the prompt. A .claude/.harness-upgrade-dismissed marker is created. The SessionStart hook won't ask again until the next plugin update.

To force the upgrade later, delete the marker file and run /harness-upgrade again.

5. Verify the result¶

After the upgrade completes, run:

/harness-status

This confirms your HARNESS.md is up to date with the latest template content and shows the current version marker.

What you have now¶

Your HARNESS.md is in sync with the plugin's template. All new features and fixes in the latest template are now available in your harness.

Next steps¶

Run /harness-audit to verify constraint enforcement.
Run /harness-health to generate a snapshot of your harness state.