Resilience Testing MCP Tools

Use the Harness MCP Server to manage chaos experiments, probes, faults, load tests, DR tests, and more through AI-powered IDEs.

The Harness MCP Server gives AI agents access to the full Harness platform, including resilience testing, through the Model Context Protocol. Instead of module-specific tools, the server exposes 11 generic tools (harness_list, harness_get, harness_create, harness_delete, harness_execute, etc.) that route to resource types using a resource_type parameter. For resilience testing, all resource types use the chaos_ prefix.

This means DevOps, QA, and SRE teams can discover, configure, run, and analyze chaos experiments, load tests, DR tests, probes, faults, and more through natural language prompts in Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible tools.

Source code: github.com/harness/mcp-server
npm package: harness-mcp-v2 on npm

Installation & Configuration

For full setup instructions across all supported AI clients, see the Harness MCP Server documentation.

Prerequisites

Access to Harness Platform with Resilience Testing (Chaos Engineering) enabled
An MCP-compatible AI tool (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Gemini CLI, etc.)
A Harness API key (PAT format: pat.<accountId>.<tokenId>.<secret>)

Quick start

No install required. Run directly with npx:

HARNESS_API_KEY=pat.xxx.xxx.xxx npx harness-mcp-v2@latest

Configure your AI client

Add the Harness MCP server to your AI client's config. Example for Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harness": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["harness-mcp-v2"],
      "env": {
        "HARNESS_API_KEY": "pat.xxx.xxx.xxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

HARNESS_ORG and HARNESS_PROJECT are optional. Agents can discover orgs and projects dynamically. Set them only to pin a default scope.

Filter to chaos toolset only

To restrict the AI agent to only resilience testing resources, set the HARNESS_TOOLSETS environment variable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "harness": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["harness-mcp-v2"],
      "env": {
        "HARNESS_API_KEY": "pat.xxx.xxx.xxx",
        "HARNESS_TOOLSETS": "chaos"
      }
    }
  }
}

This reduces the resource types the LLM sees and improves tool-selection accuracy when you only need resilience testing capabilities.

Verify installation

Open your AI tool and navigate to the Tools/MCP section.
Verify the 11 Harness tools are available (harness_list, harness_get, harness_create, etc.).
Test by asking: "List my chaos experiments". The agent should call harness_list(resource_type="chaos_experiment").

Generic tools

The MCP server uses 11 generic tools for all Harness modules. For resilience testing, pass a chaos_* resource type.

Tool

Description

harness_describe

Discover available resource types, operations, and fields (no API call)

harness_schema

Fetch JSON Schema definitions for creating/updating resources

harness_list

List resources with filtering, search, and pagination

harness_get

Get a single resource by identifier

harness_create

Create a new resource (with user confirmation)

harness_update

Update an existing resource (with user confirmation)

harness_delete

Delete a resource (with user confirmation)

harness_execute

Execute an action on a resource (run, stop, enable, etc.)

harness_search

Search across multiple resource types in parallel

harness_diagnose

Diagnose resources with structured failure analysis

harness_status

Get a real-time project health dashboard

Chaos resource types

The following resource types are available under the chaos toolset. Each supports a subset of CRUD operations and optional execute actions via the generic tools above.

Chaos experiments

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_experiment

Chaos experiment definitions

✅

run, stop

chaos_experiment_run

Results and details of experiment runs

✅

chaos_experiment_variable

Runtime variables accepted by an experiment

✅

Chaos probes

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_probe

Validation probes for steady-state checks

✅

enable, verify, get_manifest

chaos_probe_in_run

Probe results within a specific experiment run

✅

Chaos faults

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_fault

Individual fault definitions (pod-delete, cpu-stress, etc.)

✅

get_variables, get_yaml, list_experiment_runs

Chaos actions

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_action

Reusable action definitions used within experiments

✅

get_manifest

Experiment templates

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_experiment_template

Reusable experiment blueprints

✅

create_from_template, list_revisions, get_variables, get_yaml, compare_revisions

Fault templates

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_fault_template

Reusable fault blueprints with versioning

✅

list_revisions, get_variables, get_yaml, compare_revisions

Probe templates

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_probe_template

Reusable probe blueprints

✅

get_variables

Action templates

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_action_template

Reusable action blueprints with versioning

✅

list_revisions, get_variables, compare_revisions

ChaosHubs

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Create

Update

Delete

chaos_hub

Collection of reusable faults, probes, and action templates scoped at project, org, or account level

✅

chaos_hub_fault

Faults available within a ChaosHub

✅

ChaosGuard (governance)

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_guard_condition

Conditions that define when experiments can run

✅

chaos_guard_rule

Rules that enforce governance policies on experiments

✅

enable

Infrastructure

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Execute Actions

chaos_k8s_infrastructure

Kubernetes chaos infrastructure targets

✅

check_health

chaos_infrastructure

Linux chaos infrastructure targets

✅

Input sets

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Delete

chaos_input_set

Saved sets of runtime inputs for experiments

✅

Load testing

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Create

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_loadtest

Load test definitions

✅

run, stop

Network maps, recommendations, and risks

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

chaos_network_map

Service dependency maps for targeted testing

✅

chaos_recommendation

AI-generated resilience recommendations

✅

chaos_risk

Risk assessments for services and environments

✅

DR testing

DR tests are created and listed using chaos resource types. Once created, DR tests are backed by Harness pipelines, so you use the pipeline toolset for execution and management.

Resource Type

Description

List

Get

Create

Update

Delete

Execute Actions

chaos_dr_test

DR test definitions

✅

pipeline

DR test pipeline (summary and YAML)

✅

run

pipeline_summary

DR test pipeline summary

✅

execution

DR test run details

interrupt

The pipeline, pipeline_summary, and execution resource types belong to the pipelines toolset. If you are using HARNESS_TOOLSETS=chaos, also add pipelines to manage DR test runs: HARNESS_TOOLSETS=chaos,pipelines.

Usage examples

With the v2 MCP server, you interact using natural language. The AI agent translates your requests into the appropriate generic tool calls.

Discovery & learning

List all chaos experiments:

"What chaos experiments are available in my project?"

The agent calls harness_list(resource_type="chaos_experiment") and returns a filtered list.

Get experiment details:

"Describe the pod-delete experiment and its resilience score"

The agent calls harness_get(resource_type="chaos_experiment", resource_id="<experimentId>").

Explore available faults:

"Show me all available chaos faults and their descriptions"

The agent calls harness_list(resource_type="chaos_fault").

Browse ChaosHub faults:

"List all faults available in the Enterprise ChaosHub"

The agent calls harness_list(resource_type="chaos_hub_fault").

Execution & monitoring

Run a chaos experiment:

"Run the cart-service-pod-delete experiment"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_experiment", action="run", resource_id="<experimentId>").

Stop a running experiment:

"Stop the currently running experiment"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_experiment", action="stop", resource_id="<experimentId>").

Run a load test:

"Run the checkout-load-test"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_loadtest", action="run", resource_id="<loadtestId>").

Check infrastructure health:

"Check the health of my chaos infrastructure"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_k8s_infrastructure", action="check_health", resource_id="<infraId>").

Probes & validation

List and describe probes:

"Show me all chaos probes and describe the HTTP probe"

The agent calls harness_list(resource_type="chaos_probe") followed by harness_get(resource_type="chaos_probe", resource_id="<probeId>").

Enable a probe:

"Enable the latency-check probe"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_probe", action="enable", resource_id="<probeId>").

Verify a probe:

"Verify the http-health-check probe is working correctly"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_probe", action="verify", resource_id="<probeId>").

Templates

List experiment templates:

"Show me all experiment templates"

The agent calls harness_list(resource_type="chaos_experiment_template").

Create an experiment from a template:

"Create a new experiment from the pod-network-loss template"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_experiment_template", action="create_from_template", resource_id="<templateId>").

Compare template revisions:

"Compare revisions of the cpu-stress fault template"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_fault_template", action="compare_revisions", resource_id="<templateId>").

Analysis & reporting

Get experiment run results:

"Summarize the results of the last run of the pod-delete experiment"

The agent calls harness_get(resource_type="chaos_experiment_run", resource_id="<experimentId>").

List probes in a run:

"Show me the probe results from the latest experiment run"

The agent calls harness_list(resource_type="chaos_probe_in_run").

Comprehensive resilience assessment:

"Scan all experiments run in the last week and summarize my project's resilience posture"

The agent uses harness_list and harness_get across experiments and runs to build a comprehensive report.

Governance

List ChaosGuard rules:

"Show me all ChaosGuard rules and their status"

The agent calls harness_list(resource_type="chaos_guard_rule").

Enable a ChaosGuard rule:

"Enable the production-window-only guard rule"

The agent calls harness_execute(resource_type="chaos_guard_rule", action="enable", resource_id="<ruleId>").

Next steps

Start by asking "What chaos experiments are available in my project?"
Use HARNESS_TOOLSETS=chaos to focus your agent on resilience testing resources only
For full MCP server documentation (all modules, Docker, Kubernetes, prompt templates), see Harness MCP Server

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