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Targets

A harness is the program that runs a coding agent, such as Claude Code or Codex. A target is palm’s identifier for a harness, such as claude or codex. Flags and palm.yaml use targets. Prose about the tools uses harnesses.

~/project
$ palm get targets
root: ~/project
target    harness         active  config dir
────────  ──────────────  ──────  ──────────
claude    Claude Code     yes     .claude/
codex     Codex           no      .codex/
copilot   GitHub Copilot  no      .github/
cursor    Cursor          yes     .cursor/
gemini    Gemini CLI      no      .gemini/
opencode  OpenCode        no      .opencode/
$ palm describe target cursor
target cursor  (Cursor)
  active      yes
  root        ~/project
  config dir  .cursor/
  skill       .claude/skills/<name>/
  agent       .cursor/agents/<name>.md
  instruction .cursor/rules/<name>.mdc
  hook        merged into .cursor/hooks.json
  mcp         merged into .cursor/mcp.json (mcpServers)
  writes to   .agents/skills, .claude/skills, .cursor

This project has no targets: yet, so palm detected Claude Code and Cursor from their folders. palm describe target cursor prints where each kind goes for Cursor in this project.

The six targets

Section titled “The six targets”
Target Harness Detected in a project by Status
claude Claude Code .claude/ or CLAUDE.md tested
codex Codex .codex/ tested
copilot GitHub Copilot .github/copilot-instructions.md, .github/agents/ or .vscode/mcp.json tested
cursor Cursor .cursor/ tested
gemini Gemini CLI .gemini/ or GEMINI.md unverified
opencode OpenCode .opencode/, opencode.json or opencode.jsonc unverified

An AGENTS.md alone marks no target, because Codex, Cursor, Copilot and OpenCode all read it. For the global scope, palm detects a harness by its home directory, such as ~/.claude or ~/.config/opencode.

The Gemini CLI and OpenCode placements follow each harness’s documentation and source, checked on 2026-09-28. Neither has run against a live CLI in palm’s tests yet. palm 1.0 adds an end-to-end job for all six, and a target that fails it is dropped.

Declared once in palm.yaml

Section titled “Declared once in palm.yaml”

targets: in palm.yaml is the project’s set. When it is missing, the first install that places something writes the detected set and prints one line.

targets: claude   (detected from .claude/; change targets: in palm.yaml)

palm init --target claude,codex writes the list before you install anything, and palm init -g --target claude does the same for the global scope. Commit it, and every clone installs for the same harnesses, whatever each machine has.

palm init without --target prints each detected target with its evidence, such as cursor (.cursor/). On a terminal it lets you edit the set before it writes. That, and a global install that detects nothing, are the only places palm asks about targets. Otherwise, with nothing declared and nothing detected, palm stops with E_TARGET and names palm init --target.

To add a harness later, edit targets: and run palm install. The bare install writes the new harness’s files for every entry. To drop one, remove it from targets:, and the next palm install deletes that harness’s files and merged entries.

Narrowed per entry

Section titled “Narrowed per entry”

An entry can limit itself to some of the project’s targets with targets:.

palm.yaml
targets: [claude, codex, cursor]


sources:
  acme-kit:
    url: https://gitlab.acme.com/platform/agent-kit.git
    instructions:
      - { name: db-conventions, targets: [claude, codex] }

palm install <source> <name> --targets claude,codex writes the same thing from the command line. An entry can only narrow. A target that is not in the project’s set is a parse error. --targets needs names to narrow: a bare palm install --targets codex is a usage error that points at targets: in palm.yaml.

One copy per harness

Section titled “One copy per harness”

Several harnesses read the same folders, and palm writes each file once.

  • Codex, Copilot, Gemini CLI and OpenCode read skills from .agents/skills. palm writes that folder once, however many of them are active.
  • Claude Code reads only .claude/skills. Cursor reads both folders and removes duplicates by name, so with claude and cursor palm writes one copy, in .claude/skills.
  • With claude and codex, a skill has two copies, and the lock notes why.

palm check uses the same facts, so it stays quiet about these copies. It warns only where a harness would still load one entity twice, for example an instruction from both AGENTS.md and .cursor/rules.

What a harness does not support

Section titled “What a harness does not support”

Some harnesses have no place for a kind at one scope.

Kind Harness Scope What palm does
hook OpenCode both skips it: OpenCode hooks are JavaScript plugins
hook with a matcher that has arguments, such as Bash(git commit*) GitHub Copilot both skips that hook for Copilot: its matchers cannot express arguments
instruction Cursor global skips it: Cursor keeps user rules in its settings

palm prints ⊘ skipped with the reason, records the note in the lock, and writes nothing the harness would ignore. palm describe <name> shows the note later.

Section titled “Related”