Practical overview
When it fits
Use Harness Score when reviewing the controls around AI coding agents in a repository, planning improvements from concrete checks, or enforcing a selected maturity threshold in CI.
Who it is for
- Teams maintaining repositories that use AI coding agents.
- Developers who want a repeatable way to assess harness configuration across repositories.
- Teams seeking a repository-level maturity gate in CI.
Documented uses
- Measure the presence and structure of agent guidance, skills, hooks, feedback tools and safeguards.
- Identify checks that block progress to the next harness maturity level.
- Generate terminal, JSON, Markdown or badge-form results.
- Use a minimum maturity level as a CI gate.
Requirements & limits
The project is documented as a CLI and is MIT-licensed. The README shows invocation through `npx harness-score` and references a GitHub Action.
- The assessment focuses on repository files and configuration, not model performance or generated-code quality.
- The README describes scoring as requiring no LLM calls or network access and producing consistent results for the same repository and commit.
- The documented output includes a maturity level, dimensional breakdown and ranked checks.
- The CLI includes JSON, Markdown and badge output options, and a minimum-level option for CI.
Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.
Score a repository and export a report
Assess a repository’s AI coding-agent harness and save the results in a documented format.
Before you start
- A repository to assess.
- The Harness Score CLI, invoked in the README with
harness-scoreornpx harness-score.
Steps
Run
harness-scorefrom the repository.For machine-readable output, run
harness-score --json.To write a Markdown report, run
harness-score --md report.md.To create a badge, run
harness-score --badge harness-badge.svg.
Expected outcome
A maturity level and score with dimension-level results; the selected options provide JSON output, a Markdown report file or an SVG badge.
Guide limitations
- The assessment checks repository artifacts and does not evaluate an agent’s generated code.
- The documented commands describe scoring and report formats, not a complete remediation workflow.
Set a minimum maturity level for CI
Configure a CI workflow to fail when a repository does not meet the selected Harness Score level.
Before you start
- A CI workflow for the repository.
- The Harness Score GitHub Action referenced by the README.
Steps
Add the
paladini/harness-score@v1action to the workflow.Set its
min-levelinput to the required level, such as'3'.
Expected outcome
The workflow uses the configured minimum level as a gate; the README gives level 3 as an example.
Guide limitations
- The example documents the action and its minimum-level input but does not provide a complete workflow configuration.
Compare options for AI coding assistance
These projects document a common task and share a project role. This is a source-based comparison, not an execution benchmark or a guarantee of interchangeability.
| Project | Documented purpose | Platform | Access and requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harness Score | Measure the presence and structure of agent guidance, skills, hooks, feedback tools and safeguards. | CLI | The project is documented as a CLI and is MIT-licensed. The README shows invocation through `npx harness-score` and references a GitHub Action. |
| Agenttrail | See which project components and files are changing. | CLI, Desktop | Kitchen setup requires Node.js 20 or later, a browser with WebGL and a local project folder. The README describes Kitchen as a public experimental preview. |
Sources & review
Source record details
- Source availability
- Active
- Sources checked
- 14 October 2026
- Original website title
- paladini/harness-score · Official homepage title · retained in its source language

