Skills
Skills are instruction bundles for agent runtimes. In Darwinian Harness, skills are local content that can be made available, selected for a project, promoted to machine defaults, and then written into downstream tools such as Claude Code and Codex.
drwn does not execute a skill. It manages where the skill comes from and when
that skill should appear in a downstream agent tool.
Where Skills Come From
Darwinian Harness resolves skills from several layers:
| Layer | What it means | Typical command |
|---|---|---|
| Repo-native skills | Skills shipped with the active darwinian-harness source | drwn skills list |
| Package-backed bundles | Versioned npm or Git package content with bundle.json | drwn library add skill <package-spec> |
| Card-bundled skills | Skills bundled inside an applied Harness Card | drwn apply <card-ref> |
| Curated publication layer | Compatibility links under ~/.agents/skills | drwn skills curate <name> |
At write time, a locked card-provided skill wins over non-card sources with the same name. That keeps a card's bundled instructions authoritative for projects that consume the card.
Availability, Activation, Defaults
Skill lifecycle terms are intentionally separate:
| State | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Available | drwn can see the skill in a repo or installed bundle | drwn library add skill github:remyjkim/darwinian-harness-skills |
| Project active | One project includes the skill in its overlay | drwn add skill inspect-harness |
| Machine default | Future and global writes inherit the skill | drwn library defaults add skill inspect-harness |
| Written | Downstream tool symlinks or generated files exist | drwn write |
This distinction prevents package installation from silently changing every agent tool on the machine.
Darwinian Harness Skills
Darwinian Harness Skills
is the official workflow skill pack for operating the drwn CLI through agent
runtimes. The package includes a bundle.json, standalone skill directories,
and reusable Harness Card sources.
The stable workflow skills are:
| Skill | Use it for |
|---|---|
bootstrap-project | Initialize a project harness, enable extensions, and preview first writes |
apply-harness-card | Apply, pin, update, remove, detach, or inspect Harness Cards |
author-harness-card | Create, edit, validate, publish, diff, and deprecate card sources |
install-harness-project | Bootstrap a cloned project from an existing card.lock |
inspect-harness | Read state, provenance, diagnostics, and why an item is active |
materialize-harness | Add project skills or MCP servers and run targeted drwn write flows |
manage-harness-library | Install skill bundles, MCP definitions, and card catalogs |
repair-harness | Repair drift, outdated locks, legacy layout, or extension health issues |
manage-defaults | Manage machine-wide defaults and the curated publication layer |
recommend-harness | Recommend cards, skills, MCP servers, or extensions without mutating state |
share-harness-card | Manage card Git remotes, push, fetch, and clone shared cards |
support-harness | Export session logs and run store support checks |
organize-workspace is experimental. It exists to reserve the workspace-level
organizer concept while drwn scan remains a placeholder.
Install The Skill Pack
Install the package-backed bundle from GitHub:
drwn library add skill github:remyjkim/darwinian-harness-skills
drwn skills packages show darwinian-harness-skills
Then activate one skill for the current project:
drwn add skill inspect-harness --dry-run --json
drwn add skill inspect-harness
drwn write --dry-run
For local development, install from a checkout path:
drwn library add skill /path/to/darwinian-harness-skills
Cards vs Skill Bundles
Use the skill bundle when you want to make the workflow skills available to a machine or project.
Use a Harness Card when you want a project to carry a locked harness baseline, including bundled skill content, MCP definitions, extensions, and targets.
For hands-on commands, see Use Darwinian Harness Skills.