Parness — Pasynkov's Harness

Sets up a configured agent harness in one command.

npx @pasynkov/harness

██████  ██  ██    Parness
██  ██  ██  ██    Pasynkov's Harness
██████  ██████
██      ██  ██    Sets up:
██      ██  ██      CLAUDE.md · permissions · spec-driven setup

                  Enter to continue

What it does

1. Asks where to set up: the current directory, a new one, or one you pick in a browser.
2. Asks for a target tool. Claude Code today; Cursor and Codex are placeholders.
3. Asks for a spec-driven framework — OpenSpec, Spec Kit, or none — and delegates to that framework's own installer, so you always get its current version.
4. Writes CLAUDE.md and .claude/settings.local.json into the chosen directory.
5. Offers to start Claude Code there.

Nothing outside the target directory is read or written, apart from creating the target itself. User-level configuration under ~/.claude is never touched.

Choosing a directory

Pass a path to skip the question entirely. Missing directories are created, parents included:

npx @pasynkov/harness ./my-app
npx @pasynkov/harness --dir work/experiments/foo

Without a path you get a menu:

? Where
› Current   ~/dev/private/harness
  Create new…
  Browse…

Create new… takes a name, resolves it against the current directory, and shows the absolute path before creating anything. Browse… walks the filesystem — ↑↓ to move, → to open, ← to go up, h to show hidden directories — and offers use this directory and create new here… at the bottom of every listing.

The filesystem root, your home directory itself, paths that are files, and directories you cannot write to are refused. Directories under your home are fine.

Starting Claude Code

Because a process cannot change its parent shell's directory, the CLI prints cd <target> and then offers to start Claude Code in the target directory instead. Leaving Claude Code returns you to the shell you started from. The offer never appears in unattended runs unless you pass --launch, and it is skipped when claude is not on PATH.

Existing files

CLAUDE.md prompts for overwrite, skip, or backup. .claude/settings.local.json is merged: the union of permissions.allow and permissions.deny, duplicates removed, every other key preserved.

Flags

| Flag | Meaning | | --- | --- | | [path] | Directory to set up, created if missing | | --dir <path> | Same as the positional argument; giving both a different path is an error | | --target <name> | Target tool: claude | | --sdd <name> | Framework: openspec, speckit, none | | --yes | Accept defaults, never prompt; targets the current directory when no path is given | | --force | Overwrite existing files instead of skipping them | | --launch | Start Claude Code afterwards even without prompting |

npx @pasynkov/harness ./my-app --target claude --sdd openspec --yes

Permissions it writes

The preset is deliberately permissive — this is a personal harness, optimised for never being interrupted by a permission prompt:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["Bash(*)", "WebSearch", "WebFetch(domain:*)", "Agent(*)", "Skill(*)"],
    "deny": ["Read(./.env)", "Read(./.env.*)"]
  }
}

Bash(*) allows any shell command without asking, including downloading and running code from the network. The .env deny rules also hide those files from file discovery, not just from direct reads.

Requirements

• Node 18+
• uv on PATH for Spec Kit; without it that option is shown disabled