Godharness logo

Godharness: Temporary Product Brief

Status: Working notes — not a Viewstone product document Date: 2026-08-05

Problem

Coding agents can enforce deterministic rules after changing code, but they do not automatically know a repository's architecture decisions, product intent, engineering practices, or the rationale behind policies. Raw documentation is easy to miss, too broad to load in full, and difficult to keep structurally healthy.

Desired Outcome

Godharness gives coding agents the right engineering context before they act. It ships a small, versioned, opinionated default suite of best practices and lets each repository add its own standards, decision records, product context, and service-specific guidance.

Product Positioning

Godharness is an agent-context and documentation-governance framework. It is related to Oh My Claude Code and Superpowers in that it supports coding-agent workflows, but its job is distinct:

  • Workflow frameworks prescribe how an agent works.
  • Godharness supplies the project-specific and default context the agent needs to make sound decisions.
  • Godlint deterministically verifies the codifiable subset in code and CI.

The family promise is:

Godharness helps agents understand the project. Godlint makes sure the project stays true to what it decided.

Relationship to Godlint

Godlint and Godharness have deliberately different authority boundaries.

Product Authority Example
Godharness Guidance before a change "Validate untrusted data at runtime boundaries."
Godlint Deterministic enforcement after a change "Do not read environment variables outside the configured boundary."

Godharness handles decisions that cannot safely be inferred from syntax:

  • product intent and non-goals;
  • architecture tradeoffs and ADRs;
  • testing philosophy and recovery strategy;
  • domain vocabulary and service ownership;
  • instructions for evaluating ambiguous cases.

Godlint handles objective, explainable checks against source and workflows. Godharness must not claim that injecting guidance proves compliance; Godlint, tests, review, and other deterministic checks remain the proof mechanisms.

Version 1 Scope

Godharness v1 is a local-first, installable CLI with Markdown and Git as the source of truth. It has no user interface and no Obsidian integration in v1.

Recommended suite

recommended@1 ships a small, curated, versioned set of broadly useful standards, such as:

  • testing and verification;
  • error handling;
  • small focused units;
  • security and secrets hygiene;
  • configuration boundaries;
  • CI expectations;
  • documentation and decision-record practices.

The suite is not injected wholesale. The resolver selects a tiny universal core plus standards relevant to the task and changed paths. Suites must remain small enough that their context is useful rather than generic noise.

Repository context

Repositories compose the default suite with their own Markdown standards, architecture decisions, product context, playbooks, and service-specific guidance. Project content can refine the default guidance without copying it.

Illustrative configuration:

version: 1
suites: [recommended@1]

standards:
  - docs/engineering/**
  - docs/process/**
  - docs/architecture/**

adapters:
  codex: true
  claude-code: true
  pi: true

Commands

The initial CLI surface should be small:

godharness init
godharness check
godharness context --prompt "..."
godharness context --paths services/api/src/auth.ts
godharness doctor
  • init creates the configuration and starter standards.
  • check validates document schema, links, classification, selectors, and adapter configuration.
  • context resolves the standards and decisions relevant to a prompt or set of changed paths in a deterministic machine-readable form.
  • doctor validates local installation and adapter wiring.

Installing

  • Homebrew: brew install tomerwave/tap/godharness
  • cargo: cargo install godharness-cli
  • npm: npm install --global @godharness/cli
  • pip: pip install godharness

This repository keeps its own installed copy current automatically: .github/workflows/self-update.yml runs godharness update whenever a new version releases and commits any resulting change directly to main.

Technical Direction

Build the core in Rust.

Reasons:

  • a single fast binary works locally and in CI without Node or Bun;
  • the resolver, validator, configuration model, diagnostics, and release approach align with Godlint;
  • it supports deterministic, local-first behavior and cross-platform installs;
  • thin agent-specific adapters can call the binary and consume JSON rather than duplicating matching logic.

The existing Viewstone TypeScript harness is a useful reference implementation, not the product core. It proves three useful mechanisms:

  • prompt-keyword matching;
  • changed-path glob matching;
  • adapters for Codex, Claude Code, and Pi that inject selected context.

The extracted core should use a real YAML/frontmatter parser and schema validation rather than preserving the current hand-written parser.

Required Product Properties

  • Deterministic resolution: no LLM decides which context is mandatory.
  • Local-first: repository source and context stay local by default.
  • Markdown and Git native: standards and decisions remain reviewable and portable.
  • Explainability: users can answer "why was this injected?".
  • Versioned suites: recommended@1 remains stable when future suites change.
  • Scoped context: support universal, task, path, service, and repository scope.
  • Conflict handling: define precedence and surface contradictory standards.
  • CI validation: prevent broken links, malformed metadata, unindexed standards, stale ownership, and adapter drift.

Explicit Non-Goals for v1

  • No graphical interface, desktop application, or Obsidian integration.
  • No generic notes app or knowledge graph.
  • No vector search/RAG as the policy-selection mechanism.
  • No LLM-driven enforcement or opaque context selection.
  • No duplicate source-code linter; Godlint owns deterministic source and workflow policy.
  • No automatic invention of engineering standards.

Later Possibilities

An Obsidian-like product experience could be valuable later for authoring, exploring relationships, ownership/review dates, contradictions, and context previews. It must remain a view over the Git-backed Markdown source of truth, not replace it.

Future Godlint integration can map a finding to its relevant Godharness standard so developers receive both the deterministic violation and the decision rationale.

Risks

  • A large default suite will become generic prompt noise and be ignored.
  • Simple keyword and glob matching can over-match or miss relevant context.
  • Injecting a rule does not prove an agent followed it.
  • Project-specific standards can conflict unless precedence and ownership are explicit.
  • A UI too early would distract from the core resolution and validation loop.

Open Decisions

  • Adapter protocol and installation model for each supported agent.
  • The first Godlint-to-Godharness rationale-linking contract.
  • Conflict-reporting between two standards whose content disagrees (as opposed to resolution order, which is decided — see below).

Decided since this section was first written, with the implementation in crates/godharness-core:

  • Standard frontmatter schema and selectors: id, title, keywords, paths, must-read, supersedes, relates-to; word-boundary keyword matching; glob path matching.
  • Resolution precedence: a must-read standard always resolves regardless of prompt or changed paths; supersedes suppresses the standard it names; relates-to surfaces a neighbor alongside a match.
  • Extension model: a repository adds standards through the standards globs in godharness.yaml. Overriding an existing standard means superseding it under a new id — reusing an existing id is a duplicate-id error, not a silent override.
  • The minimal universal core every task receives: whichever standards are marked must-read.

Project links

Data verified by PyPI on Aug 8, 2026
Data provided by the project maintainers, verified at the time the release was uploaded to PyPI.

Key dates

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
  • Released:
Newer release available (0.1.7)

1 maintainer

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
Avatar for tomerwave from gravatar.com tomerwave

GitHub Statistics

Data verified by PyPI on Aug 8, 2026
The GitHub source repository was provided by the project maintainers and verified by PyPI at the time of upload. Stars, forks, and open issues/PRs are derived from that repository and have not been independently verified.

License

MIT License (MIT)

Requires

Python >=3.8

Classifiers

Report project as malware

Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distributions

No source distribution files available for this release.See tutorial on generating distribution archives.

Built Distributions

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-win_amd64.whl (3.1 MB view details)

Uploaded Python 3Windows x86-64

godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl (4.5 MB view details)

Uploaded Python 3musllinux: musl 1.2+ x86-64

godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl (4.2 MB view details)

Uploaded Python 3musllinux: musl 1.2+ ARM64

godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl (4.5 MB view details)

Uploaded Python 3manylinux: glibc 2.17+ x86-64

godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl (4.3 MB view details)

Uploaded Python 3manylinux: glibc 2.17+ ARM64

godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl (3.7 MB view details)

Uploaded Python 3macOS 11.0+ ARM64

godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-macosx_10_12_x86_64.whl (3.8 MB view details)

Uploaded Python 3macOS 10.12+ x86-64

File details

Details for the file godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-win_amd64.whl.

File metadata

  • Download URL: godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-win_amd64.whl
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 3.1 MB
  • Tags: Python 3, Windows x86-64
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14

File hashes

Hashes for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-win_amd64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 f9d9ee4dfa1698286b6596ef6025597db9520d4f36fb41365c4b9cb676f34a05
MD5 bdb0d591f4296c87501f5662d7c0ac13
BLAKE2b-256 14950eff3e0f78471964917bd359ae4385903ef3441132f595d498828b60a327

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-win_amd64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on tomerwave/godharness

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 0f74c012b8d04b1249ba77b10ed41f59323dbfe00a2596773514fbd5509cec47
MD5 fd08a53e8a8454440ecba40d68dbca13
BLAKE2b-256 1073c48f50dec034b18220edfbdb2fa0c84b9009782dce6ab1ab1d2ae79d212b

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on tomerwave/godharness

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 eb44dba1ca5f646c1411d8bd0825171697dc1d96c400e546f45e70c2d74dfabd
MD5 9fd9b1b1fcdf542eb4e89d8b1d767720
BLAKE2b-256 5cff09e4d2da79cba6474a8c0d3da51a4d48d47a6ff10276e45ef59689ac6657

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on tomerwave/godharness

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 3e474c66037946c7cf8f5d3dc4556ee968f6620114325b519e9e8f453503aa8f
MD5 e339dd044f9cf1eef87d8a50263a0ae4
BLAKE2b-256 68a622a17df1cd4bd9610d6be90177d7d5787fdf36f0e885217401fe9beaacd6

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_x86_64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on tomerwave/godharness

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 7e614cd007aee4d90425cbdffe42b5804af5147a4c10f69dd50972b63ae51f08
MD5 68c06794651c94fd4b3ea9f0bfd0d06e
BLAKE2b-256 0e78f18f39c8218d38efc52840420f9527c113f94db379c267f636bae0cdb64a

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_17_aarch64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on tomerwave/godharness

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 ef225fa7960aa9fcb54996da238f721c718120b1d3a9926db0802cc5c5c262a6
MD5 7e73d592906808ef4132a1e2ca32741e
BLAKE2b-256 8dbbdd0607f6efaf9766969765e9c0d2f7bba6b1af02eaa1e1998afbd1e4926b

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on tomerwave/godharness

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-macosx_10_12_x86_64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-macosx_10_12_x86_64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 62bf3f891f49d83fa027ad21b06529faef3bc09aedfb644f8d671afc11d8393f
MD5 6191cd6fc58836669d44656a3999766a
BLAKE2b-256 6b2ba0c07237939fdd91045afb2b9944642febc86ae53b4772659a439f65f011

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for godharness-0.1.2-py3-none-macosx_10_12_x86_64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on tomerwave/godharness

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

0.1.7

7 files

0.1.6

7 files

0.1.5

7 files

0.1.4

7 files

0.1.3

7 files

This release

0.1.2 This release

7 files

0.1.1

7 files

0.1.0

7 files

Anthropic, PBC Visionary sponsor Bloomberg Visionary sponsor Hudson River Trading Visionary sponsor Meta Visionary sponsor NVIDIA Visionary sponsor Microsoft Sustainability sponsor Depot Continuous Integration AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page