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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 your HARNESS.md against the plugin's template directly and displays a summary of what differs. If nothing differs, it says so.

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. Skip for later

If you're not ready to adopt an item, skip it. Nothing is written, and the item is offered again the next time you run /harness-upgrade.

Nothing prompts you between runs — /harness-upgrade is on-demand.

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.