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README.md

Task API — Harness Engineering (Intermediate)

A task management API demonstrating harness engineering at the intermediate adoption level. This is where constraints start getting enforced.

What is this?

A simple REST API for managing tasks, built with Express and TypeScript. The interesting part isn't the API itself — it's the layered architecture with mechanical enforcement. Try breaking a constraint and watch harness catch it.

Quick Start

cd examples/task-api
npm install
npm test          # Run tests (should pass)
npm run lint      # Check architectural constraints (should pass)
harness validate  # Validate project configuration

Architecture

Three layers, strict one-way dependencies:

┌─────────┐
│   api/   │  ← Express routes (top layer)
├─────────┤
│services/ │  ← Business logic (middle layer)
├─────────┤
│  types/  │  ← Interfaces and types (bottom layer)
└─────────┘

Allowed: api → services → types
Blocked: types → services, types → api, services → api

This is enforced by @harness-engineering/eslint-plugin via the no-layer-violation rule. It reads the layer definitions from harness.config.json and blocks imports that go the wrong direction.

Try Breaking a Constraint

See VIOLATIONS.md for step-by-step exercises. Each one shows you how to trigger a specific constraint violation and what the error looks like.

Skills in Context

When building features on this project, harness skills guide the workflow:

  • harness-tdd — Write the test first, watch it fail, implement, watch it pass
  • harness-execution — Execute tasks from a plan, one atomic commit per task
  • harness-verification — Verify the work exists, is substantive, and is wired in

Personas

The Architecture Enforcer persona is configured for this project. It runs:

  • harness check-deps to verify dependency boundaries
  • harness validate to check overall project health
  • ESLint with harness rules to catch constraint violations

See agents/personas/architecture-enforcer.yaml in the main harness repo for the persona definition.

State Management

Check .harness.example/ to see what mid-project state looks like:

  • state.json — Position (Task 5), progress (3 complete, 2 pending), decisions with rationale
  • learnings.md — Tagged entries from different skills (tdd, execution, verification)
  • failures.md — A dead-end that was tried and abandoned (supertest approach)

In a real project, this would be .harness/ (not .harness.example/).

Next

Ready for custom linter rules, boundary schemas, and the full persona suite? Try the multi-tenant-api example.