FAQ
Is HAR a coding agent?
Section titled “Is HAR a coding agent?”No. HAR gives agents a stable, project-owned way to operate a repository. Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and other clients remain responsible for reasoning and code edits.
Does HAR replace CI/CD?
Section titled “Does HAR replace CI/CD?”No. It moves a reproducible version of the important workflow earlier into local agent development. CI remains the merge and deployment authority.
Why shell scripts instead of hidden CLI logic?
Section titled “Why shell scripts instead of hidden CLI logic?”Real repositories have unique services, setup steps, and safety rules. Checked-in scripts are reviewable, versioned, and usable without HAR. The CLI provides a stable control plane over that project-owned behavior.
Why use worktrees?
Section titled “Why use worktrees?”They isolate concurrent tasks, preserve a clean main checkout, give each session a branch, and let teardown remove runtime state without deleting reviewable work.
Can a human use HAR?
Section titled “Can a human use HAR?”Yes. CLI commands and generated scripts are first-class human interfaces. MCP adds structured agent access to the same core.
Is Playwright built into HAR?
Section titled “Is Playwright built into HAR?”No. It is an optional stage template. The resulting browser-e2e stage is an
ordinary project stage, just like a migration check or load smoke test.
Where does local data live?
Section titled “Where does local data live?”Slot registry, run history, validations, artifacts, and state live under .har/
and are normally gitignored. Active worktree locations are recorded, not inferred.
Why are Codex prompts global?
Section titled “Why are Codex prompts global?”Codex CLI does not support repository-local custom prompt files. HAR writes them to
~/.codex/prompts/; each developer installs them once. Repository AGENT.md still
contains the project-specific harness pointers.
What if launch fails halfway?
Section titled “What if launch fails halfway?”Use har env recover <id> or launch with --resume. Recovery preserves the created
worktree and environment. Do not replace the slot unless you intend to start over.
Can I change the generated harness?
Section titled “Can I change the generated harness?”Yes—that is the design. Adapt scripts and configuration to match the repository.
Use har env maintain to compare later bundled updates without wiping customization.
What is open source versus hosted?
Section titled “What is open source versus hosted?”The CLI, MCP server, repository harness, local execution, run evidence, and Mission Control dashboard are open source. HAR Cloud adds hosted coordination, remote runs and previews, team policy, approvals, integrations, and auditability.
How is documentation licensed?
Section titled “How is documentation licensed?”Software uses AGPL-3.0-only, written documentation uses CC BY-SA 4.0, and HAR names, logos, and trademarks remain governed by the repository trademark policy.