quickstart — one-script end-to-end demo

Updated in iter 128.2 to track the published CLI name metaharness (https://www.npmjs.com/package/metaharness). The script itself imports the workspace package directly, so no npx metaharness … is needed locally.

Zero-to-validated-harness in a single command. No npm install (beyond the workspace root), no network, no shell ceremony.

Run it

From the repo root:

node examples/quickstart/quickstart.mjs

Output (~1 second on a clean checkout):

[step 1] Scaffold a "demo-bot" harness from template="minimal" host="claude-code"
  output dir: C:\Users\…\Temp\ahg-quickstart-AbCdEf
  wrote 13 files, manifest at .harness/manifest.json

[step 2] Validate the scaffolded output
  harness validate — …\ahg-quickstart-AbCdEf
    PASS doctor     — …
    PASS verify     — no witness — skipped (sign first)
    PASS path-guard — no hardcoded /tmp, C:\, /Users, /home in TS/JS/Rust
    PASS mcp        — no .mcp/servers.json — skipped
    PASS secrets    — skipped (--skip-gcp)

  Result: HEALTHY (release-ready)

[step 3] Summary
  generated 13 files in 142ms
  scaffold paths reported: 13
  validation: HEALTHY

[quickstart] DONE in 187ms — host=claude-code template=minimal

What it exercises

This single script touches every layer the meta-harness ships:

Layer	Iter where it landed
Scaffolder (scaffold())	4
Template renderer	3
Per-host adapter (host=claude-code default)	2
Validate umbrella (doctor + path-guard + mcp)	20
Witness shape check (skipped — no signing key in demo)	3 + 8

If any of those layers regress, this script's exit code goes non-zero. CI runs it on every push via the e2e test — running the script directly is the local equivalent.

Flags

Flag	What it does
--host=<id>	Choose a different host (claude-code, codex, pi-dev, hermes, openclaw, rvm). Default claude-code.
--template=<id>	Choose a different template (minimal, vertical:trading, vertical:devops, vertical:legal, vertical:support, vertical:research, eject-from-ruflo). Default minimal.
--name=<name>	Override the generated harness name. Default demo-bot.
--keep	Don't clean up the temp directory at the end (inspect the output).

Examples

# Try a different host
node examples/quickstart/quickstart.mjs --host=codex

# Try a vertical pack
node examples/quickstart/quickstart.mjs --template=vertical:trading

# Inspect what was produced
node examples/quickstart/quickstart.mjs --keep
# … then `ls $(... output path printed above)/`

Why this script exists

The full release pipeline is broad — preflight, build-ordered, wasm-pack, pack-install smoke, GCP secrets, IPFS pin. New contributors hit it cold and don't know where to start.

This script is the smallest possible runnable demo that proves the core flow works on your machine. If it passes, the rest of the pipeline is mostly automation around it.