# fleet/harness/ — the multi-runtime harness layer

The **harness** is the orchestration layer around the atoms: builder sessions that
execute backlog issues, cold verifiers that check them (locate-tests, backlog
audits, refutation passes), and the evidence flow into Gitea. Per the PRD
[model-fleet › harness portability](https://gitea.arcodange.lab/arcodange-org/factory/src/branch/main/vibe/PRD/ai-back-office/model-fleet.md#harness-portability)
(operator direction 2026-07-15), this layer must not have Anthropic as a hard
dependency: the same loop runs on **Mistral** (`vibe -p`, `mistral-medium-3.5`)
or on **hermes-served local models** (Ornith / MLX, `127.0.0.1:18080`). Claude is
an escalation tier, not a prerequisite. Admission of a runtime to a role is
**evidence-gated** ([erp#63](https://gitea.arcodange.lab/arcodange-org/erp/issues/63)):
verifier roles first, scoped builders benched second, and no acceptance gate is
ever relaxed for a cheaper runtime.

## Layout

| Path | Role |
| --- | --- |
| `verifier/locate-test.md` | canonical locate-test: prompt, inputs, ground truth, pass rule |
| `verifier/backlog-audit.md` | canonical cold-reader backlog audit: prompt, inputs, rubric |
| `bin/run-verifier.sh` | run a verifier test against a runtime; emits a JSON transcript |
| `bin/vibe-builder.sh` | run a scoped builder bench (`vibe -p`) inside a worktree, with caps + journal |
| `runs/<date>/` | committed evidence transcripts, when they back an issue comment |

## Runtimes

| Runtime | How the harness reaches it | Typical role |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `claude` | a **context-free subagent** in a Claude Code session, given the exact assembled prompt (`run-verifier.sh <test> --print-prompt`) and nothing else | baseline verifier; multi-file builder (default per the PRD complexity ceiling) |
| `ornith` | hermes MLX server, OpenAI-style `POST /v1/chat/completions` on `127.0.0.1:18080`, model `leonsarmiento/Ornith-1.0-35B-5bit-mlx` | verifier (candidate) |
| `mlx --model <id>` | same endpoint, any model the server lists under `/v1/models` | verifier (candidate) |
| `mistral` | `vibe -p` programmatic mode, tools disabled, model = the vibe `active_model` (today `mistral-medium-3.5`) | verifier (candidate); scoped builder via `vibe-builder.sh` |

## Verifier protocol — no self-grading

1. Assemble the prompt from the canonical test file + the pinned input documents
   (`run-verifier.sh` embeds file contents verbatim and records their sha256).
2. Run every candidate runtime on the **same assembled prompt**, temperature 0.
3. **An independent, context-free judge** (never the session that built the thing,
   per the PRD [qa-strategy](https://gitea.arcodange.lab/arcodange-org/factory/src/branch/main/vibe/PRD/ai-back-office/qa-strategy.md#independent-verification--no-self-grading))
   scores each transcript against the test's ground truth and emits the parity
   table. A runtime is **admitted to verifier duty** when it reaches verdict
   parity with the Claude baseline on both tests.
4. Once a non-Claude verifier is admitted, **prefer cross-family verification**:
   the verifier SHOULD be a different model family than the builder — a foreign
   family refuting the builder is stronger evidence than the builder's own family
   agreeing with itself.

## Builder bench protocol

`vibe-builder.sh` runs one tightly-footered backlog issue end-to-end under a
non-Claude runtime, against the **unchanged** Execution footer and acceptance
gates. It measures completion, intervention count and wall-clock; a failed bench
is a valid result — it sets the complexity ceiling honestly. Safety bounds:

- refuses to run anywhere that is not a **linked worktree** (never the trunk —
  same structural-guard pattern as `dol-write.sh`);
- hard caps: `--max-turns` and `--max-price` are always set;
- `--auto-approve` is acceptable only because the blast radius is bounded: a
  disposable worktree, read-only API credentials, and the caps above;
- the full `vibe` JSON journal is kept per run.

## Recurring tasks on the Mistral tier

A recurring task (T11 reminders, T13 drift checks, T14 backup freshness) is a
**scoped builder with a standing prompt**: cron (hermes `cron` or the operator's
scheduler) calls `vibe-builder.sh <worktree> <task-prompt.md>` and routes the
journal into the digest. The task prompt lives with the atom
(`fleet/atoms/<atom>/prompt.md` + its class skeleton); the harness only supplies
the bounded execution shell. No recurring task writes outside its worktree, and
anything ERP-write-shaped still goes through the sandbox + promote gate —
runtime choice never changes the gates.
