Doc Harness: A Claude Code Skill for Maintaining Project State Across Sessions

Doc Harness is a Claude Code skill designed to solve the problem of AI agents losing track of project state during long-running work sessions. It creates a lightweight documentation system within your project folder that any agent can read to understand the project status, follow established rules, and continue work seamlessly.

What It Solves

The tool addresses common issues when using Claude Code on projects spanning multiple sessions: context resets where agents forget recent work, difficulty navigating 30+ file projects, gradual forgetting of established rules (like "always test before committing"), and the need to spend 20+ minutes re-explaining projects to new agents.

How It Works

Doc Harness maintains five structured files in your project folder. The key file is CURRENT_STATUS.md, which uses a "moving car" structure:

• Recent history (where you've been)
• Current work detail (where you are)
• Next steps (where you're going)
• Working principles (how to drive)

When a work phase ends, details get archived permanently and the status clears for the next phase.

Commands

The skill provides two main commands:

• /doc-harness init - Creates five documents tailored to your project
• /doc-harness check - Audits documentation health (checks if files are registered and status is up-to-date) and reads project rules back to the agent, prompting reflection on whether rules are being followed

Core Principle

The tool operates on the principle "Write It Down or Lose It" - recognizing that AI context is temporary while files are permanent. Every important result, decision, or insight should be saved to a file and registered in the index.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/cilidinezy-commits/doc-harness.git
cp -r doc-harness/skill ~/.claude/skills/doc-harness

After installation, you can tell your agent "set up project documentation" without needing slash commands if you prefer natural language.

Compatibility

Works for any project type including research papers, SaaS features, data analysis, articles, software libraries, and anything spanning multiple sessions. English and Chinese versions are included, and the tool is released under MIT license.