harness-bootstrap

A repository control plane enables deterministic agent work by embedding self-describing structures for cross-session continuity. You need to bootstrap a control plane when initializing or upgrading a repository to ensure verifiable progress and drift detection.

To set up documentation scaffolding, run a bootstrap process that creates a root AGENTS.md, docs directory with PLANS, ARCHITECTURE, OBSERVABILITY, exec-plans structures, and a generated manifest to guide agent exploration, planning, and verification.

Bootstrapping a control plane explicitly preserves unmanaged documents through declarative governance. It applies automated validation scripts and manifest-based checks to detect drift while maintaining existing files that fall outside its managed artifacts.

Manifest-based drift detection works by generating a machine-readable inventory of managed artifacts during initialization, then running an automated validation script to verify consistency and identify deviations from the canonical control plane state.

You can use the control plane bootstrap for both new and upgraded repositories. It performs phase-driven initialization including reconnaissance, control plane setup, and baseline verification to establish or restore a deterministic working environment.