Overview
Claude Harness
Claude Harness is a self-hosted platform that gives each user a private AI coding assistant — Claude Code — running in an isolated Docker container, reachable over Discord, with one-click publishing to Cloudflare Pages.
A single operator deploys the shared infrastructure once. Each new user gets a VM URL, opens the setup wizard, and is coding in minutes — no terminal, no credentials to manage, no operator involvement.
How it fits together
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Hub VM │
│ │
│ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Publish Server │ │ Messaging Router │ │
│ │ (port 3002) │ │ (port 3923) │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ Cloudflare │ │ Discord Gateway │ │
│ │ Pages deploy │ │ → per-VM relay │ │
│ └─────────────────┘ └──────────────────────┘ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
↑ ↑
│ HTTPS │ SSE relay
┌──────────┴────────────────────────┴─────────────┐
│ User VM (exe.dev) │
│ │
│ ┌─────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Harness │ │ Project Container │ │
│ │ Dashboard │ │ (Docker) │ │
│ │ (port 443) │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Claude Code │ │
│ │ Setup │ │ + Messaging Plugin │ │
│ │ Wizard │ │ + User's code │ │
│ └─────────────┘ └──────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
↕ Discord DMs
User's phone / desktop
Components
| Component | Where it runs | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Harness | User VM | Dashboard UI, project management, setup wizard, preview proxy |
| Project Container | User VM (Docker) | Isolated workspace per project; Claude Code runs here |
| Messaging Plugin | Inside each container | MCP server that connects Claude Code to the messaging router |
| Messaging Router | Hub VM (shared) | Single Discord bot connection; routes DMs to the right container |
| Publish Server | Hub VM (shared) | Accepts build archives from harness VMs; deploys to Cloudflare Pages |
What a user experiences
-
Open the wizard Visit the VM URL — the setup wizard appears automatically on first access.
-
Authenticate Claude Click "Connect Claude", open the Anthropic sign-in link, paste the token back. Done.
-
Connect Discord DM the bot the pairing code shown on screen. The dashboard confirms within seconds.
-
Start building Claude messages you on Discord saying it's online. Chat naturally — describe what you want to build, ask questions, request changes.
-
Publish Click Publish in the dashboard. The harness builds the project and sends you the
*.pages.devURL on Discord.