Scenario 12: Drive HarnessTap from scripts or other agents

Frequency: Occasional (often daily in CI, less often for interactive users) · Status: Shipped

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Use this when another automation layer needs structured output instead of human text.

Typical commands:

harnesstap init --format json
harnesstap harness list --format json
harnesstap resource list --format json
harnesstap layer show my-setup --format json
harnesstap layer doctor my-setup --format json
harnesstap history . --format json
harnesstap layer apply my-setup --project . --dry-run --format json
harnesstap resource sync --format json --dry-run

Exit codes worth scripting against:

• harnesstap layer doctor returns exit code 1 when any doctor check reports an error severity finding.
• harnesstap status --check returns exit code 1 when drift exists.
• harnesstap layer apply --strict-plugin-versions returns exit code 2 when a pinned plugin's installed version violates its constraint.

This matters for agent-harness optimization because HarnessTap is not only a human CLI; it can also be the state and serialization layer that other agents inspect before deciding how to update a repo's assistant environment.