manage-cde

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Manage Harness Cloud Development Environments (CDE) via MCP. Configure on-demand development environments with pre-installed tooling, design standardized workspace templates for teams, set up auto-hibernation and cost controls, and manage environment lifecycle. Use when asked to set up cloud dev environments, create workspace templates, configure remote development, or manage CDE lifecycle and costs. Trigger phrases: cloud dev environment, CDE, remote development, workspace template, dev environment, gitpod, codespace, auto-hibernation, developer workspace, ephemeral environment.

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Sourceharness/harness-skills

Added on2026-05-25

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add harness/harness-skills manage-cde

SKILL.md Content

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Manage CDE

Configure on-demand Cloud Development Environments with workspace templates, auto-hibernation, and cost controls in Harness.

Instructions

Step 1: Establish Scope

Confirm the user's org, project, team, and technology stack.

Call MCP tool: harness_list
Parameters:
  resource_type: "project"
  org_id: "<organization>"

Step 2: Identify the CDE Task

Determine which workflow the user needs:

On-Demand Environment Setup -- Environment templates with resource allocation and lifecycle
Workspace Standardization -- Pre-configured templates per team/stack with consistent tooling

Step 3: Configure On-Demand Environments

Gather from the user:

Technology stack and runtime version
Cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure)
IDE preference (VS Code browser, VS Code SSH, JetBrains Gateway)
Git provider for auto-clone on start

Design the environment template:

Resource allocation:

Default size (e.g., 4 vCPU, 8GB RAM) with upgrade options
Persistent storage for workspace files
Ephemeral storage that clears on stop

Lifecycle configuration:

Provisioning trigger: developer request, PR creation, or branch push
Start time target (under 30 seconds recommended)
Auto-stop after idle timeout (default 30 minutes)
Persistent mode option for long-running work

Integrations:

Secret injection from Harness Secrets, Vault, or cloud secret managers
Supporting services (databases, caches, message queues) via Docker Compose or Kubernetes
Custom access URL pattern (e.g., {user}-{env}.dev.company.com)

Cost controls:

Daily cost cap per environment
Team-level monthly budget
Auto-hibernation for idle environments

Step 4: Create Workspace Templates

When standardizing across teams, create templates per role/stack:

Backend Service Developer:

Runtime, build tools, testing frameworks
Database clients, API testing tools
Pre-configured debugger and linter

Frontend Developer:

Node.js runtime, package manager
Browser dev tools, component library
Hot-reload and preview server

Full-Stack Developer:

Combined backend + frontend tooling
Docker Compose for local service mesh
API mocking tools

Platform / DevOps Engineer:

kubectl, Helm, Terraform, cloud CLIs
Monitoring and observability tools
Infrastructure testing frameworks

Each template should include:

Base image and pre-installed tools
IDE extensions/plugins list
Git hooks and code formatting config
Environment variables and secrets

Examples

"Set up cloud dev environments for our backend team" -- Configure on-demand CDEs with Java/Go tooling and auto-hibernation
"Create workspace templates for frontend and backend developers" -- Standardized templates with stack-specific tooling
"Configure auto-hibernation to reduce CDE costs" -- Set idle timeout and daily cost caps
"Provision a dev environment when a PR is created" -- Configure PR-triggered ephemeral environments

Performance Notes

Start time under 30 seconds requires pre-built images -- avoid installing tools at startup.
Auto-hibernation timeout should balance developer productivity (too short = friction) with cost (too long = waste).
Persistent storage should be sized for the repo plus build artifacts -- undersizing causes build failures.
Pre-pull common base images to reduce cold start times.

Troubleshooting

Environment Slow to Start

Check if the base image is being pulled from a remote registry -- use a local cache or pre-pull
Reduce the number of tools installed at startup -- bake them into the base image
Verify network connectivity to the Git provider for auto-clone

Environment Auto-Stopping Too Aggressively

Increase the idle timeout for developers doing research or design work
Enable persistent mode for long-running tasks
Check that IDE keepalive signals are reaching the CDE controller

Cost Overruns

Review environments that have been running for more than 24 hours
Check for orphaned environments from deleted branches
Verify auto-hibernation is enabled for all non-production environments