RevitHarness.Cli 1.0.5

RevitHarness

A harness add-in for Revit 2024 that enables CLI and agent-driven test execution, command execution, and element inspection against a running Revit instance. Supports DLL hot-swapping without restarting Revit.

日本語版 README

Features

• Named Pipe IPC — Fast JSON-based communication between CLI and Revit
• Shadow Copy + Byte Load — DLLs are shadow-copied and loaded from byte arrays, bypassing file locks and the .NET assembly cache for seamless iterative development
• Element Lookup — RevitLookup-style element inspection from the CLI
• Addin Manager UI — A Revit ribbon button that opens a GUI to browse DLLs, scan for commands, and execute them
• HarnessCommandBase — Write a single class that works both from the CLI (IHarnessCommand) and as a Revit ribbon button (IExternalCommand)

Installation

CLI Tool

dotnet tool install -g RevitHarness.Cli

Deploying the Add-in

# Install
revit-harness install --revit-version 2024

# Reinstall (overwrite with --force)
revit-harness install --revit-version 2024 --force

# Check status
revit-harness status

# Uninstall
revit-harness uninstall --revit-version 2024

Close Revit before installing or uninstalling. Restart Revit after installation to load the add-in.

Installation Path

%APPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\2024\
├── RevitHarness.addin              # Manifest
└── RevitHarness\
    ├── RevitHarness.Addin.dll
    ├── RevitHarness.Contracts.dll
    ├── RevitHarness.Lookup.dll
    ├── LookupEngine.dll
    ├── Newtonsoft.Json.dll
    └── ...

CLI Commands

ping — Health Check

revit-harness ping

Returns Revit version, process ID, and active document name.

run-tests — Execute Tests

revit-harness run-tests --dll "path/to/tests.dll" --type "Company.Tests.EntryPoint" [--filter "Smoke"] [--timeout 300000]

Executes an ITestEntryPoint implementation from the specified DLL. The exit code is determined by the passed field in the result JSON.

run-command — Execute a Command

revit-harness run-command --dll "path/to/command.dll" --type "Company.MyCommand" [--args '{"key":"value"}'] [--timeout 300000]

Executes a type implementing IHarnessCommand or IExternalCommand.

post-command — Post a Registered Revit Command

revit-harness post-command --id "CustomCtrl_%CustomCtrl_%Add-Ins%Addin%Command"

Triggers a registered Revit ribbon command by its command ID.

lookup — Element Inspection

revit-harness lookup --id 12345 [--depth 1] [--max-members 200] [--include-fields] [--include-private] [--include-static] [--filter "Name"]

RevitLookup-style element inspection from the CLI. Outputs property and method return values as JSON.

shutdown — Stop the IPC Server

revit-harness shutdown

Stops the IPC server. Revit continues running.

Other

revit-harness version   # Show version
revit-harness help      # Show help

Exit Codes

Addin Manager UI

After launching Revit, access it from the RevitHarness ribbon tab → Addin Manager button.

1. Browse to select a DLL
2. Scan to list types implementing IHarnessCommand / IExternalCommand
3. Select a type and click Execute
4. Results are displayed in the text area at the bottom

Implementing Tests and Commands

Contracts Package

dotnet add package RevitHarness.Contracts

ITestEntryPoint — For Tests

using RevitHarness.Contracts;

public class MyTestEntryPoint : ITestEntryPoint
{
    public string Run(UIApplication uiapp, IDictionary<string, object> args)
    {
        var doc = uiapp.ActiveUIDocument.Document;
        // Test logic
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { passed = true, summary = "All tests passed" });
    }
}

IHarnessCommand — For Commands (CLI Only)

using RevitHarness.Contracts;

public class MyCommand : IHarnessCommand
{
    public string Execute(UIApplication uiapp, IDictionary<string, object> args)
    {
        // Command logic
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { result = "done" });
    }
}

HarnessCommandBase — CLI + Ribbon Dual Use

Use this when you want a single class that can be executed both from the CLI (revit-harness run-command) and as a Revit ribbon button (IExternalCommand).

using RevitHarness.Contracts;

[Transaction(TransactionMode.Manual)]
public class MyDualCommand : HarnessCommandBase
{
    public override string Execute(UIApplication uiapp, IDictionary<string, object> args)
    {
        var doc = uiapp.ActiveUIDocument.Document;
        // Works from both CLI and ribbon
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { result = "done" });
    }
}

IPC Protocol

JSON messages over Named Pipe \\.\pipe\RevitHarness2024 with length-prefix framing (int32 LE).

Development

Build

# Entire solution
dotnet build revit-cli-harness.sln -c Debug

# Generate NuGet packages
dotnet pack src/RevitHarness.Contracts -c Release
dotnet pack src/RevitHarness.Cli -c Release

Project Structure

revit-cli-harness/
├── src/
│   ├── RevitHarness.Contracts/     # Shared interfaces (NuGet: RevitHarness.Contracts)
│   │   ├── ITestEntryPoint.cs
│   │   ├── IHarnessCommand.cs
│   │   └── HarnessCommandBase.cs
│   ├── RevitHarness.Addin/         # Revit add-in
│   │   ├── App.cs                  # IExternalApplication + ribbon setup
│   │   ├── Commands/
│   │   │   ├── CommandExecutor.cs          # Shadow copy + reflection execution engine
│   │   │   ├── AssemblyScanner.cs          # Discovers command types in a DLL
│   │   │   └── OpenAddinManagerCommand.cs  # IExternalCommand for the ribbon button
│   │   ├── Ipc/
│   │   │   ├── IpcMessages.cs
│   │   │   ├── IpcServer.cs
│   │   │   ├── HarnessEventHandler.cs
│   │   │   └── ShadowCopier.cs
│   │   └── UI/
│   │       ├── AddinManagerWindow.xaml
│   │       └── AddinManagerWindow.xaml.cs
│   ├── RevitHarness.Lookup/        # Element inspection
│   └── RevitHarness.Cli/           # CLI tool (NuGet: RevitHarness.Cli)
├── lib/LookupEngine/               # LookupEngine library
├── Directory.Build.props            # Common build settings & version
└── Directory.Packages.props         # Centralized package versions

Logs

%LOCALAPPDATA%\RevitHarness\logs\harness_{date}.log

Shadow Copy Directory

%LOCALAPPDATA%\RevitHarness\shadow\{timestamp}\

Old directories are automatically cleaned up (max 10 generations, deleted after 1 day).

License

MIT