LiteHarness

Portable multi-CLI agent orchestration engine. The Python runtime + universal installer for the LiteHarness ecosystem.

What this package is

This is the runtime engine + universal installer that powers LiteHarness across every coding CLI. It does two things:

1. Orchestration runtime — liteharness CLI for spawning, naming, messaging, and programmatically controlling agent sessions across Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Pi, OpenCode, Gemini, Cursor, Continue, Antigravity, Crush, and more. Maildir inbox, ConPTY daemon, UIAutomation, deterministic naming, pattern learning.
2. Universal CLI installer — ships the bundled skills + agents catalog and installs them into each CLI's canonical location (~/.codex/skills/, ~/.pi/agent/skills/, etc.). Opt-in per CLI via the LiteSuite setup wizard.

How this relates to the Claude Code plugin

LiteHarness ships in two flavors that work together, not duplicates:

Repo	What it is	How users install it
ahostbr/liteharness (this repo)	Python runtime engine + universal installer for all CLIs without a native plugin system	pip install liteharness
ahostbr/liteharness-plugin	Native Claude Code marketplace plugin — same skills + agents catalog, delivered via Claude's plugin system	/plugin marketplace add ahostbr/liteharness-plugin && /plugin install liteharness@liteharness

The skills + agents catalog is the same content — only the delivery mechanism differs. Claude users get the plugin route (native). Codex, Copilot, Pi, OpenCode, Gemini, Cursor, Continue, Antigravity, Crush users get the pip route. You can use both side by side without conflict.

Install

pip install liteharness

Then run the setup wizard to opt into which CLIs you want skills installed for:

liteharness init           # Detect CLIs + start interactive wizard

Or install to a single CLI directly:

liteharness install --cli codex
liteharness install --cli pi
liteharness install --cli cursor --path E:/portable/.cursor   # Custom dir

CLI install targets

CLI	Canonical skills dir	Extras
codex	~/.codex/skills/	regen ~/.codex/AGENTS.md
copilot	~/.copilot/skills/	—
pi	~/.pi/agent/skills/	+ ~/.pi/agent/extensions/
opencode	~/.config/opencode/skills/	+ plugins/
cursor	~/.cursor/skills/	+ ~/.cursor/skills-cursor/
gemini	~/.gemini/skills/	—
antigravity	~/.antigravity/skills/	+ ~/.gemini/antigravity/skills/, global_skills/, global_workflows/
continue	~/.continue/skills/	+ ~/.continue/rules/
crush (Charm)	~/.config/crush/skills/	+ commands/
claude	(use liteharness-plugin via Claude's /plugin install instead)

All targets are opt-in. The setup wizard auto-detects which CLIs you have installed and pre-ticks those — you decide what to install where. For CLIs not auto-detected, the wizard accepts a custom install dir via filepicker.

Quick Start (runtime)

# Initialize (creates dirs, detects CLIs, optionally installs skills)
liteharness init

# Discover active agents
liteharness discover

# Send a message
liteharness send <agent-id> "fix the auth bug" --from <your-id>

# Spawn a new Claude session (visible terminal tab)
liteharness spawn --model opus --name "Recon" --prompt "review the PR"

# Spawn headless with full stdin/stdout control
liteharness pty-daemon
liteharness spawn --pty --model haiku --name "Worker"
liteharness send-input <agent-id> "/compact"
liteharness read-output <agent-id>

Runtime Features

Agent Spawning

Three modes for spawning Claude Code sessions:

Mode	Flag	Visible	Stdin Control	Use Case
Terminal	(default)	Yes	No	Agents you want to watch
PTY	--pty	No	Full	Automation, Karpathy loops
Headed	UIAutomation	Yes	Full	Best of both worlds

ConPTY Daemon

Headless agent control via Windows ConPTY (pywinpty). Token-authenticated TCP daemon on port 7450.

liteharness pty-daemon              # Start daemon
liteharness spawn --pty --model opus --name "Worker"
liteharness send-input <id> "/compact"   # Send slash commands
liteharness send-input <id> "fix it"     # Send prompts
liteharness read-output <id>             # Read terminal output
liteharness pty-list                     # List sessions
liteharness pty-kill <id>                # Kill session

Security: Bearer token auth, executable whitelist (claude/codex/python only), shell metachar block, agent ID validation, max 20 sessions, input length caps.

UIAutomation (Headed Mode)

Read and write to visible Windows Terminal panes via PowerShell UIAutomation. Uses clipboard paste for atomic input (no race conditions).

liteharness wt-list-panes                              # Find windows/panes
liteharness send-input --headed <handle:pane> "text"   # Paste into terminal
liteharness read-output --headed <handle:pane>         # Read terminal buffer

from liteharness.terminal_automation import list_panes, read_buffer, send_input

panes = list_panes()
output = read_buffer(window_handle, pane_id)
send_input(window_handle, pane_id, "/compact")  # auto-appends Enter

Agent Naming

Every agent gets a deterministic two-word name derived from its UUID (e.g., SwiftRelay, IronWatch). Same UUID always produces the same name. Override with --name.

liteharness discover
# [active] Sentinel (fa88c542) claude-code/opus — 0s ago
# [active] PrimeFlint (b2db8be8) claude-code/opus — 7m ago

Inter-Agent Messaging

Maildir-style inbox with hook-polled delivery. Agents discover each other automatically via presence files.

liteharness send <agent-id> "message" --from <your-id>
liteharness list                    # List inbox
liteharness discover                # Find active agents

Hook Integration

Auto-installs hooks for supported CLIs:

• Claude Code — SessionStart registration, PostToolUse inbox polling (or use the plugin route)
• Codex CLI — codex_hooks.json routes through Codex JSON adapters for SessionStart, PostToolUse, and UserPromptSubmit
• Copilot CLI — Project-level .github/hooks/
• OpenCode / KiloCode — Plugin-based hooks

Commands

Command	Description
init	Initialize LiteHarness, detect CLIs, optionally install skills
install --cli <name>	Install skills + agents to a CLI's canonical dir (opt-in)
status	Show root, agent ID, inbox counts, active agents
send <to> <msg>	Send a message to another agent
list	List inbox messages
discover [N]	Discover N most recent active agents
spawn [opts]	Spawn a new Claude Code session
sessions <cmd>	Save/restore Claude, Codex, and Copilot terminal sessions
register	Update agent presence (--agent-id, --cli, --model, --name)
pty-daemon	Start the ConPTY daemon
send-input <id> <text>	Send text to a PTY or headed terminal
read-output <id>	Read output from a PTY or headed terminal
pty-list	List active PTY sessions
pty-kill <id>	Kill a PTY session
wt-list-panes	List Windows Terminal windows/panes
wt-focus <handle> <pane>	Focus a specific WT pane
query-patterns	Query task patterns (BM25)
embed-query	Hybrid RAG pattern query
record-pattern	Record a task outcome pattern

Terminal Session Restore

Save and restore visible terminal agents:

liteharness sessions save morning-layout
liteharness sessions restore morning-layout
liteharness sessions restore morning-layout --layout tabs --dry-run
liteharness sessions status
liteharness sessions list

Restore defaults to windows, which opens one top-level Windows Terminal window per restored agent. Use --layout tabs for legacy grouped tabs or --layout panes for one window with split panes. Snapshots and config live under ~/.liteharness/sessions/.

Architecture

~/.liteharness/
  agents/          # Presence files (heartbeat, model, CLI)
  names/           # Name overrides (plain text, immune to clobbering)
  inbox/
    new/           # Unread messages
    cur/           # In-progress messages
    done/          # Completed messages
    tmp/           # Atomic write staging
  tasks/           # Task store
  patterns/        # Pattern learning
  pty_daemon.lock  # PTY daemon token + port
  config.json      # Global config

liteharness/             # Python package
  cli.py                 # Command dispatch
  hooks.py               # Inbox watcher + CLI hook installer
  inbox.py               # Maildir IO
  pty_daemon.py          # ConPTY daemon
  terminal_automation.py # UIAutomation send/read
  session_manager.py     # Save/restore terminal sessions
  evolution.py           # Self-improvement loop
  rag/                   # BM25 + embedding pattern search
  tts/                   # Smart TTS pipeline
  catalog/               # Bundled skills + agents (vendored from liteharness-plugin)
  installers/            # Per-CLI install adapters

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Windows 10+ (for ConPTY and UIAutomation features)
• pywinpty (included on Windows Python installations)
• At least one supported CLI installed (Claude, Codex, Copilot, Pi, OpenCode, Gemini, Cursor, Continue, Antigravity, Crush, ...)

License

MIT