Espalier-Harness

A Claude Code workflow harness for solo founders and small teams — a working partner that keeps your coding agent on the rails: plan-gated changes, cross-session memory, per-step proof, and seatbelt hooks that catch slips like the agent disabling its own safety. Drops into any repo.

An espalier is a fruit tree trained to grow flat against a frame — shaped deliberately rather than left to sprawl. Same idea, applied to a coding agent.

Why?

Claude Code can write code. Whether it writes the right code in the right place, at the right time — following your workflow instead of free-handing edits, and without silently taking off its own safety rails when a hook feels like it's in the way — is a separate question. The failure mode isn't an attacker; it's drift: you or the agent forgetting a step, skipping the plan, or (the load-bearing case) the agent under load deciding a hook is "in the way" and disabling it — which quietly loosens everything downstream.

Espalier is a working partner that makes following the workflow the path of least resistance. It loads your project context every session, remembers decisions across sessions, gates source changes behind a plan with per-step proof, and puts seatbelt hooks in the way of the slips that matter — most of all the agent disabling its own safety mid-task. A CI gate backstops the local layer at merge time, so drift can't quietly ride to main.

Try it

Install from PyPI (zero third-party deps on Python 3.10+), then init inside the repo you want governed. macOS ships only python3, so type python3 for the python -m … lines:

python -m pip install espalier-harness
cd /path/to/your/repo
python -m espalier init . --wire-hooks   # deploys hooks, agents, commands, skills, review workflows, seeded docs
python -m espalier doctor .              # pass / warn / fail, with the next step named
claude                                   # the SessionStart hook loads your context

--wire-hooks is for a repo that already has a .claude/settings.json: it wires the hooks into that file in one step instead of asking (a bare init asks, and inside a pasted block the next line answers for you). With no settings file yet it changes nothing.

Prefer a governed copy that leaves your original untouched? That is fuse, and it runs from a source checkout of this repo rather than the wheel:

python -m espalier fuse /path/to/your/repo --out /path/to/your-repo-governed   # from a source checkout

Full walkthrough — the pip path, fusion from source, cloning a governed repo, doctor, uninstalling, upgrading, the python3 caveat in detail — is docs/QUICKSTART.md.

30-second demo

The daily loop, then the seatbelt. The deny strings below are drawn from the hook source (abbreviated where marked …); tests/test_demo_end_to_end.py exercises these same behaviors — the protected-zone deny, espalier doctor, and release_check — end-to-end so they stay honest.

1. The workflow loop. Source changes go through a plan, so the agent follows the workflow instead of free-handing edits — and you get a plan → write → per-step proof trail:

# In Claude Code: edit a source file with no active plan
✗ PreToolUse:Edit hook blocked
  No active execution plan (missing). Mutation requires status='in_progress'; …
    Do: `/implement-task "<one-line description>"` then proceed.

2. The seatbelt. When the agent decides a hook is "in the way" and reaches for the kill-switch under load, the seatbelt catches it and points back at the workflow:

# In Claude Code: "Edit .claude/settings.json to set disableAllHooks: true"
✗ PreToolUse:Edit hook blocked
  Write to protected harness zone blocked: .claude/settings.json. Harness
  self-edits: exit and relaunch with `ESPALIER_MAINTENANCE_MODE=1 claude --continue`
  (env read at launch; mid-session export is ignored; --continue keeps this
  session) … (reason continues with Don't/Do workflow guidance)

(On Windows the same hint spells the PowerShell form, $env:ESPALIER_MAINTENANCE_MODE="1"; claude --continue, first.)

A repo-condition readout and the merge-time backstop, any time (on macOS type python3 here too — the caveat above covers the bare python <script> form as well as python -m …):

$ espalier doctor .
{ "status": "warn", "warnings": ["saved reports differ from fresh inference"] }
# (abridged — live JSON also carries checks / repo_root / next_steps / …; a summary line prints to stderr)

$ python scripts/release_check.py
release_check OK

For the full walkthrough, see docs/DEMO.md.

What you get day to day

The harness is the working partner around your daily coding loop:

• /implement-task — plan a change, execute it step by step, and prove each step. /implement-task --multi (alias /accomplish) coordinates multi-phase work. Source edits are gated behind the plan, so changes stay deliberate.
• /implement-pack — for larger work, the task-pack loop: author a TP-N.md (the blueprint-authoring skill teaches the format), pre-flight it with /scope-check, then execute it end-to-end. A pack is a durable, reviewable, resumable unit of agent work — the heart of coding with agents on a real codebase. See docs/WORKFLOW.md and docs/PACK_AUTHORING.md.
• Cross-session memory + cognitive blueprints. ESPALIER_MEMORY.md carries project context and decisions across sessions; per-session blueprints capture the reasoning behind a change so the next session re-engages instead of re-deriving. Context auto-loads at session start.
• A governance roster. Bundled agents, slash commands, and on-demand skills (/review, /reflect, /adversarial, /scan, and more) delegate review, analysis, and drift-detection to focused sub-agents.
• /recall — pulls the most relevant accumulated project judgment for whatever you're touching. It returns up to four candidates — the NEAREST matches from two rankers, alternating — for you to pick between, and goes quiet only when your query shares no vocabulary with the corpus; silence is not a relevance verdict.
• /handoff — ends a session cleanly: finalizes the blueprint, updates ESPALIER_MEMORY.md, and leaves the next session with usable continuity.
• Code-quality scanners (/scan, /preflight) — stdlib-only AST scanners that flag drift and smells, so the harness drops into any repo without extra dependencies.

The roster above is our own working set, dogfooded on this repo and shipped verbatim: the deployed code-reviewer.md reads as Python-flavored because it was written to review the harness's own Python code, and several command and skill bodies reason about this repository's own files and defect ids. Treat them as starting examples and budget a session to rewrite the bodies for your repo's language and conventions. The docs init seeds are the same kind of thing: the largest single file among them is docs/FAILURE_MODES.md, our own failure catalog shipped verbatim, disclosed in its own header and there to be read when a failure mode bites rather than up front.

For the day-to-day session lifecycle (start → change → check → commit → hand off), see docs/WORKFLOW.md.

Three layers

Friction (hooks). PreToolUse and PostToolUse hooks keep the agent on the workflow: they require plan discipline before source changes, hold the anti-self-disable floor (writes to harness files / disableAllHooks are denied so the hooks can't be silenced mid-session), catch dangerous writes, and validate file integrity after every write. Every slip the friction layer is known to catch is pinned as a regression so a future change can't silently re-open it. Tested against 57 in-scope bypass classes (plus 8 documented out-of-scope cases under bench/corpus/BC-OOS-*), all pinned as regressions.

Visibility (audit). An integrity manifest hashes the enforcement scripts and the CI workflow. A kill-switch scanner flags settings.json modifications that would silently disable enforcement. Audit events append to a path outside the repo tree — visibility, not a boundary (a session shell can still delete it; the CI layer below is the only real guarantee).

Guarantee (CI). A GitHub Action gates merges on harness integrity. The runner is outside the agent's reach. This is the only layer with a real guarantee.

What this is NOT

Not a sandbox. Not a security boundary. Not a comprehensive policy engine for enterprise compliance. Not a turnkey "make my agent good" experience with maximum agents and skills. It's a self-contained governance harness for individual developers and small teams who want hook discipline without pretending hooks are more than they are.

What espalier governs (and what it doesn't)

See docs/SURFACE_SUPPORT_MATRIX.md for the full declaration of which Claude Code surfaces espalier guards, supports, defers, or considers out of scope. Quick summary:

• Guards (active enforcement with tested contract): main session Write/Edit, dangerous Bash patterns, settings changes, bundled subagent capability tiers, compaction (PostCompact).
• Supports (ships content / audits, doesn't enforce on third parties): bundled skills, bundled slash commands, hook-failure behavior of espalier-shipped hooks.
• Documented-only (acknowledged, no implementation): MCP tool calls, FileChanged, CwdChanged.
• Deferred (future): agent teams, worktree creation governance, ExitPlanMode → plan bridge.
• Unsupported (out of scope): user-added skills/agents, MCP elicitation, notification routing, plugin marketplace.

The matrix is normative — the front-door docs (this README, docs/QUICKSTART.md and docs/CHEAT-SHEET.md) are tested against it for overclaiming via tests/test_surface_support_matrix.py::TestPublicDocsNoOverclaim; the rest of the public set is not in that scan.

Quick start

Espalier installs from PyPI and governs your repo in place: pip install espalier-harness, then init deploys the harness into the repo you are standing in. The alternative is fusion: a single command builds a new repo that is your project + the harness overlaid at root, leaving your original untouched — it runs from a source checkout of this repo, not the wheel. The install guide is docs/QUICKSTART.md: the pip path step by step, fusion from source, cloning a repo that already uses Espalier (its hooks are per-machine and need one init on yours), verifying with doctor, uninstalling, upgrading — and the python3 caveat for stock macOS. The five-command form is at the top of this README.

fuse does the mechanical bootstrap — copy your git-tracked files, overlay the engine + hooks + reusable docs, reseed espalier-specific content empty, then wire it via init + install-ci + a host-targeted fingerprint. What it cannot mechanize is a finish-up checklist it prints when done, for your first Claude session in the fusion — budget a focused session for it, not a glance. After init, run /analyze in that first session to ground the harness on your repo — see docs/ADOPTING.md.

Init (run directly, or by fuse) deploys the mechanical enforcement layer:

• 12 hook entry scripts + 13 helper modules in tools/cc/hooks/
• .claude/settings.json wiring those hooks into Claude Code
• tools/cc/statusline.py — prompt statusline surfacing MAINT / STOP gate / blueprint chain depth
• .claude/agents/*.md — 7 governance agents: architecture-analyst, code-reviewer, docs-maintainer, failure-mode-reviewer, harness-config-advisor, repo-analyst, test-writer.
• .claude/commands/*.md — 17 slash commands, including the task-pack workflow (implement-pack, scope-check, audit-accuracy) and integrity.
• .claude/skills/*/SKILL.md — 9 on-demand skills: adversarial, analyze, arch-check, blueprint-authoring, debug, design, hook-authoring, reflect, review.
• CLAUDE.md with detected language/profile context
• ESPALIER_MEMORY.md with a starter session log
• .espalier/integrity.json hash manifest for tamper detection
• Fingerprint and harness config in reports/

init also creates the paths below. Every path and count here is generated from the deploy inventory itself, so the list is complete and cannot drift from what lands in your repo.

• docs/ — 18 files, seeded, refreshed on re-init only while untouched, and yours to edit: CHEAT-SHEET.md, CONVENTIONS.md, ENV_CATALOG.md, FAILURE_MODES.md, FRESHNESS.md, HOOKS.md, HOOK_ASSUMPTIONS.md, INSTALL-CI.md, PACK_AUTHORING.md, SHARP_EDGES.md, TASK_RECIPES.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md, WORKFLOW.md, external/cc-hook-protocol.md, sharp-edges/README.md, sharp-edges/closed-loop-verification-trap.md, sharp-edges/convergence-is-an-angle-set-property.md, sharp-edges/hook-exit-codes-channel-xor.md
• memory/ — 3 files, seeded, refreshed on re-init only while untouched, and yours to edit: CONVERGENCE_LEDGER.md, README.md, convergence-review-protocol.md
• task-packs/ — 1 file, seeded, refreshed on re-init only while untouched, and yours to edit, but gitignored as local working state -- force-add if you want one in history: CLAUDE.md
• cc/ — 3 files, generated surface docs: COMMANDS.md, LIVE_SURFACE.md, PACK_MANIFEST.txt
• tools/cc/ — 13 files, standalone scripts alongside the hook tree: _blueprint_limits.py, _freshness_cache.py, _json_safe.py, _paths.py, cognitive_blueprint.py, execution_plan.py, read_summary.py, reflect_protocol.py, session_resume.py, session_summary.py, sister_site_probe.py, statusline.cmd, statusline.py
• .claude/ — 1 file, generated per install, never committed: settings.json
• .espalier/ — 1 file, generated per install, never committed: integrity.json
• reports/ — 3 files, generated per install, never committed: cc_surface_gate.json, harness_config.json, repo_fingerprint.json
• .gitignore -- 13 entries appended, unless you pass --no-write-gitignore

espalier doctor is repo-mode aware: a fresh git clone with no init run is classified as source_checkout and passes cleanly. Pass --mode source-checkout / --mode initialized to override auto-detection.

Deployed content carries the espalier:managed marker — an explicit ownership contract. Files carrying the marker are regenerated on the next init; unmarked files in the same directory are preserved. Use espalier clean-generated to remove managed surface.

The agent / command / skill set above is Espalier-Harness's own dogfooding roster, shipped verbatim. Users with a curated roster can hand-edit any file — once the espalier:managed marker is removed the harness treats the file as user-owned and preserves it across inits. A future release will introduce language-aware variants for non-Python stacks; current releases ship these files as starting examples (see "Honest scope" below). The harness config (reports/harness_config.json) is a recommendation file showing which agents Espalier's analysis would suggest for your repo's profile.

# See what was recommended
python -m json.tool reports/harness_config.json

# The harness is already active -- hooks run on every tool use
/status    # check harness state

Release & CI gate

The docs/DEMO.md walkthrough (linked from the 30-Second Demo above) also shows the release/CI gate (scripts/release_check.py) — with literal expected outputs that tests/test_demo_end_to_end.py keeps honest.

The release check runs 22 individual gates (printing a "19 passed, 3 skipped" summary); tests/test_release_check.py pins the exact result count.

Seatbelts, not a sandbox

Espalier's hooks are seatbelts for agent drift, not a sandbox. They keep the path of least resistance pointed at the workflow — and hold the anti-self-disable floor so the agent can't quietly turn them off mid-task. They are not a security boundary: an agent with arbitrary subprocess access and unlimited attempts can work around any local hook (a two-step subprocess write is a documented out-of-scope bypass under bench/corpus/BC-OOS-*). True un-bypassability needs OS-level sandboxing or containerization, which is out of scope here.

That's by design, not an apology. The honest claim: for solo founders and small teams where the failures are inattention and drift — not adversarial action — this stack catches almost everything, and the one layer with a real guarantee (CI + branch protection, outside the agent's reach) backstops the rest at merge time. You don't need to defend against yourself; you need a partner that keeps the workflow the default.

The full layer breakdown — what each hook can and can't block, the can-block matrix, and the protected-path CI inventory — lives in docs/POSITIONING.md.

How we test

Espalier pins every slip it has ever seen as a regression, so a future change can't silently re-open it. The pattern: when the friction layer catches a new slip-class, it gets a named test class in tests/test_write_guard.py (or tests/test_integrity.py for kill-switch cases) with parametrized cases over canonical forms. The test must fail before the fix lands, then pass after — regressions can't creep back in. The same fail-first discipline runs across the stdlib-only code-quality scanners (/scan), which flag drift and smells without adding dependencies.

The current enumeration of slip-classes lives in bench/RESULTS.md, regenerated by bench/run_benchmark.py --update-canonical so it can't drift from the actual bench/corpus/BC-*.json rows. The corpus is a regression corpus over known bypass classes — it pins what the friction layer catches and what it deliberately doesn't. It is not a proof of safety and does not prove the harness is a sandbox or a security boundary.

Plus a TestBashDocumentedOutOfScopeBypasses class that pins what the friction layer deliberately doesn't catch (two-step subprocess, command substitution variable forms). These cases must continue to pass-through; they are documented limits, not defects.

Because the corpus and those tests quote, as fixtures, the shell operations the guard exists to catch, the repository trips automated safety classifiers from time to time. docs/CLASSIFIER_FALSE_POSITIVES.md explains why, and the wording discipline the fixtures follow.

Both commands below need a source checkout with the dev extra — clone this repo, then python -m pip install -e '.[dev]' (quotes required for zsh) — which brings in pytest and the test tooling. The pip install espalier-harness at the top of this README installs the runtime only, and the suite does not collect on it.

The suite is sliced by pytest markers — unit, integration, contract, security, release, and additive slow. For a fast local loop:

python -m pytest -m "not slow"

For release confidence:

python -m pytest -m "contract or release or security"

See tests/README.md for the full taxonomy and contributor guidance. Exact test counts are intentionally not documented because they drift with every parametrize edit; a contract test (tests/test_test_suite_contract.py) enforces marker discipline and a lower-bound on test files instead.

The same corpus runs as a benchmark against multiple governance baselines — see bench/RESULTS.md for the comparison table. The benchmark is a regression corpus over known bypass classes, not a proof of safety: passing it means the documented historical bypasses remain covered, not that no other bypass exists. We'd rather be calibrated than impressive.

CLI

The day-1 path is three steps. Most users never need the rest.

The install at the top of this README (python -m pip install espalier-harness) puts the espalier command on your PATH, which is how the examples below spell it; python -m espalier <command> is the same verb when pip's scripts directory is not on your PATH (common on Windows). Inside a fusion, run the verbs as python -m espalier <command> from the fusion root, so the engine the fusion vendors is the one that runs rather than your checkout's.

Setup and verify

espalier init <repo>          # first-time harness setup
espalier upgrade .            # re-deploy a stale harness in place (dry-run by default)
espalier doctor <repo>        # pre-flight health check (pass/warn/fail)

(espalier pre-release is Espalier's own release gate. On your repo it stands down at exit 0 reporting skipped, so it is not listed here or in --help.)

Common maintenance

espalier audit <repo>             # run proof gates on existing surface
espalier integrity verify <repo>  # check for hook drift or kill-switches
espalier reflect <repo>           # scan for broken links and drift
espalier scan <repo>              # run all code quality scanners
espalier freshness check <repo>   # report fragment drift; CI gate

Exit codes follow a 0 ok / 1 findings / 2 usage-or-precondition convention — see docs/CLI_EXIT_CODES.md.

Document-claim drift is tracked by freshness fragments — small markers in docs that pin a claim to specific code paths and a verification SHA. See docs/FRESHNESS.md for the operator workflow (add a fragment, re-pin after a verified change, interpret a critical state).

Advanced

espalier fingerprint <repo>       # detect languages, frameworks, patterns
espalier diff <repo>              # compare saved fingerprint vs current state
espalier recover <repo>           # assess surface coherence for resumption
espalier reflect-deep <repo>      # full structured reflect protocol
espalier blueprint <repo> ...     # cognitive blueprint state operations (5 subcommands)
espalier worktree-plan <repo>     # print multi-lane worktree commands
espalier integrity refresh <repo> # create/update integrity manifest
espalier install-ci <repo>        # install the Harness Guard CI workflow

The full slash-command and agent reference is in docs/CHEAT-SHEET.md. For the day-to-day session lifecycle (start, change, check, commit, hand off), see docs/WORKFLOW.md. For what each hook does, when it fires, and how to configure it, see docs/HOOKS.md. For the full doc map — every guide and reference by audience and scope — see docs/README.md.

Task execution commands: /implement-task is the canonical command — use it for focused changes (/implement-task <task>) or coordinated multi-phase work (/implement-task --multi <task>); /accomplish is retained as a compatibility alias for /implement-task --multi. For larger, resumable units of work, /implement-pack runs a TP-N.md task pack end-to-end — pre-flight it with /scope-check.

Project structure

espalier-harness/
├── CLAUDE.md              Main CC config (harness identity, commands, rules)
├── README.md              This file
├── ESPALIER_MEMORY.md     Persistent session state (at most 120 lines)
├── CONTRIBUTING.md        How to contribute
├── CHANGELOG.md           Version history
├── docs/                  User + contributor docs — QUICKSTART, WORKFLOW, HOOKS,
│                          TROUBLESHOOTING, ADOPTING, CONVENTIONS, SHARP_EDGES,
│                          CHEAT-SHEET (full map: docs/README.md) + pinned
│                          external contracts under docs/external/
├── espalier/               Harness engine (fingerprinting, analysis, cognitive)
│   ├── cli.py             Entry point + all CLI commands
│   ├── analyze.py         Codebase fingerprinting
│   ├── harness_config.py  Build harness config from fingerprint
│   ├── scanners/          stdlib-only AST scanners
│   └── ...
├── tools/cc/              Standalone hook scripts and tools (zero espalier imports)
│   └── hooks/             12 hook scripts: session_start, task_router,
│                          plan_guard, write_guard, config_guard,
│                          post_write_check, reflect_trigger, stop_gate,
│                          subagent_stop, post_compact, subagent_start,
│                          context_reinject_failure
├── .claude/
│   ├── settings.json      Hook wiring and permissions (gitignored; regenerate with init)
│   ├── agents/            7 governance agents
│   ├── commands/          17 slash commands
│   └── skills/            9 on-demand skills
├── bench/                 Friction-layer regression benchmark (gates releases)
├── examples/              Adopter templates (CLAUDE.md, ESPALIER_MEMORY.md, espalier.toml)
├── cc/                    Reference surface and session blueprint storage
├── reports/               Analysis output (JSON, created at runtime)
└── tests/                 pytest test suite

cc/ is reserved by the harness for blueprint + surface storage and is write-guarded. If your repo already uses a top-level cc/ for something else, a write there will be denied as a "protected harness zone" — relocate your directory (the harness does not currently make this prefix configurable).

Stop hook mode

By default stop_gate.py runs lightweight session hygiene only — no pytest. To run the core pytest gate on every Stop event, set:

export ESPALIER_STOP_GATE=full

Heavy proof otherwise belongs in espalier pre-release and CI.

Self-host setup

Espalier-Harness is self-hosted. After cloning, generate your local .claude/settings.json:

python -m espalier init .

The file is gitignored because it records the interpreter name init detected on your PATH (python3 on most macOS installs, python on Windows and many Linux distros), which is specific to your machine.

Portability

Espalier-Harness supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. Examples use python -m ... form. Bash-specific examples are marked as such. The Windows host facts — bare python, the separate PowerShell tool and how to turn it on, the batch statusline shim, CRLF checkouts, the relief-record encoding — are one section: docs/QUICKSTART.md#windows.

Settings profiles

espalier init writes a .claude/settings.json shaped by a chosen profile. The deny list and hook wiring are profile-independent; only the permissions allow list changes.

On a Windows host, a fresh init also writes a PowerShell(...) twin of every Bash(...) allow rule, because Claude Code's PowerShell tool is a separate tool and permission rules are tool-scoped — without the twins the allow list is inert for every command the agent issues through PowerShell. The deny literals are not twinned; that class is caught at the hook layer on both shells. init --wire-hooks on a pre-existing settings file wires the hooks only and never touches your allow rules; doctor and upgrade name the rules and twins the file lacks, and python -m espalier merge-settings . --profile <profile> --add-allows appends them (doctor prints that command with your install's profile filled in). The twins were witnessed in a live Windows session on 2026-09-26 by a single-variable control (stripped, the twinned command was denied; restored, it ran).

Where the secret-path protection lives. The generated deny list covers dangerous Bash shapes only — you will not find .env, secrets/ or credentials rules there, and their absence is deliberate. Reads of those paths are denied by write_guard.py at the hook layer instead, for the Read tool as well as for Bash and PowerShell, and unlike a permission rule that check is not bypassed by maintenance mode. The rules were moved because configuring any Read() deny rule makes Claude Code require static proof of every Bash command's read set: a command whose read set it cannot resolve — one with a cd, a relative glob, or a glob over a directory it cannot enumerate — raises a permission prompt that neither an allow rule nor bypassPermissions can suppress, because deny outranks both. That turns long unattended sessions into a series of stalls. See docs/SHARP_EDGES.md → "A Read() deny rule silently disables bypass mode for every Bash command that reads a file".

Pick one at init time:

python -m espalier init --profile minimal .
python -m espalier init --profile workflow .   # default
python -m espalier init --profile full .

Or set the per-project default in espalier.toml at the repo root:

default_profile = "minimal"

The CLI --profile flag overrides espalier.toml. Generated .claude/settings.json includes a $schema link to schemastore.org so editors with schema-aware completion validate the file. The shared deny defaults are the dangerous Bash shapes (rm -rf /, piped curl | sh); reads of .env* (a dotenv template such as .env.example excepted), secrets/** and AWS / generic credential files are refused by write_guard.py at the hook layer, as the callout above explains — you will not find them in the file.

Profiles are governance defaults, not a security sandbox. A determined operator can bypass via --permission-mode bypassPermissions or by editing settings.local.json. The harness defends in depth (deny rules at the permission layer, write_guard.py at the hook layer, ci_guard.py at CI) — no single layer is a hard boundary. See docs/SHARP_EDGES.md.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Claude Code (CLI)

Security

Security vulnerabilities should be reported privately. See SECURITY.md — the preferred path is the GitHub Security tab → Report a vulnerability. Do not include vulnerability details in public issues, pull requests, or discussions.

Honest scope

Espalier-Harness ships full mechanical enforcement for any repo: hooks, governance gates, bypass corpus, integrity manifest, freshness signal, init detection, statusline. These work identically on Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust, or polyglot codebases.

The agent and command roster is dogfooded prose; "What you get day to day" above says what that means for your repo. The forward-work tracker ships with the source at task-packs/FORWARD_LEDGER.md: a non-zero count there is disclosure, not backlog. Every defect we know of is a row a stranger can act on, counted apart by population, and the file's own contract says what its count does and does not mean.

A language-aware templating layer that renders generic versions of those roster files based on detected language is planned for a future release. The current cut intentionally defers that work to ship the mechanical enforcement layer first.

The scanners behind /scan are Python-specific (AST-based). Run on a non-Python repo they produce empty findings with a [WARN] stderr note and a typed skipped_no_python_files result envelope — explicit about not applying, not silently green. (/preflight and /test-this are Python-oriented; the language-aware story for them is on the roadmap.)

Roadmap

Language-aware agent templates (planned). The bundled agents at examples/dogfooding/ describe Espalier-Harness's own use; they're not generic enough to deploy verbatim. A future release will introduce a templating layer with placeholders for project name, primary language, test command, and convention paths. Current releases ship the dogfooded roster as starting examples (see "Honest scope" above) and the fingerprint substrate the templating layer will validate against. Subscribe to releases for the announcement.

More of the Claude Code event surface (planned). Espalier's twelve hook scripts cover the ten event types currently wired (SessionStart, UserPromptSubmit, PreToolUse, PostToolUse, PostToolUseFailure, ConfigChange, Stop, SubagentStart, SubagentStop, PostCompact). PreCompact for state preservation, InstructionsLoaded for CLAUDE.md drift tracking, and WorktreeCreate/Remove for the worktree-plan command are the planned additions.

Current — hooks + bypass benchmark + governance contract. The mechanical enforcement layer is the differentiator and works on any repo language; the bundled agent / command roster ships as Python-flavored starting examples pending the planned templating layer.

Espalier-Harness is the Claude Code adapter for a provider-agnostic governance harness model. The architectural boundary between provider-independent core and Claude-specific surfaces is documented in docs/ADAPTER_BOUNDARY.md.