diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 438f566..4143eb2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,8 +1,5 @@
 # ourKairos
 
-## Repository scaffolding
-
-The repository includes merge-safe implementation templates for work that will land incrementally.
 
 - `tooling/api-module-template` contains the baseline Express module structure for future API features.
 - `docs/api-architecture.md` documents the intended module registration pattern.
diff --git a/docs/failure-harness.md b/docs/failure-harness.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..77976fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/failure-harness.md
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# Failure Harness
+
+The repository includes a failure harness template for future Express environments.
+
+## Use cases
+
+- testing retry behavior
+- exercising degraded UI states
+- validating request timeout handling
+
+## Current location
+
+`tooling/failure-harness-template`
diff --git a/tooling/failure-harness-template/README.md b/tooling/failure-harness-template/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..98936b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tooling/failure-harness-template/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# Failure Harness Template
+
+This template provides a controlled way to inject failures into future Express routes.
+
+## Supported modes
+
+- latency spike
+- random 500
+- timeout
+- dropped response
+- malformed JSON
+
+The harness is designed to be opt-in and safe to merge before the API app exists.
diff --git a/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.middleware.ts b/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.middleware.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f2a8252
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.middleware.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+import type { NextFunction, Request, Response } from "express";
+import type { FailureMode, HarnessState } from "./failure-harness.types";
+
+const pickRandom = <T>(items: T[]): T => items[Math.floor(Math.random() * items.length)] as T;
+
+const applyFailure = (
+  mode: FailureMode,
+  request: Request,
+  response: Response,
+  next: NextFunction
+) => {
+  switch (mode) {
+    case "latency-spike":
+      setTimeout(next, 1500);
+      return;
+    case "random-500":
+      response.status(500).json({ error: "Injected failure", mode, path: request.path });
+      return;
+    case "timeout":
+      setTimeout(() => response.end(), 20000);
+      return;
+    case "dropped-response":
+      request.socket.destroy();
+      return;
+    case "malformed-json":
+      response.type("application/json").send("{\"broken\":");
+      return;
+  }
+};
+
+export const createFailureHarness =
+  (state: HarnessState) =>
+  (request: Request, response: Response, next: NextFunction) => {
+    if (!state.enabled || !state.activeScenario) {
+      next();
+      return;
+    }
+
+    const rules = state.scenarios[state.activeScenario] ?? [];
+    const rule = rules.find((candidate) => new RegExp(candidate.pathPattern).test(request.path));
+
+    if (!rule || Math.random() > rule.probability) {
+      next();
+      return;
+    }
+
+    applyFailure(pickRandom(rule.modes), request, response, next);
+  };
diff --git a/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.routes.ts b/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.routes.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..55f6548
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.routes.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+import { Router } from "express";
+import type { HarnessState } from "./failure-harness.types";
+
+export const createFailureHarnessRouter = (state: HarnessState) => {
+  const router = Router();
+
+  router.get("/__sandbox/failure-harness/state", (_request, response) => {
+    response.json(state);
+  });
+
+  router.post("/__sandbox/failure-harness/enable", (request, response) => {
+    state.enabled = Boolean(request.body?.enabled);
+    response.json({ enabled: state.enabled });
+  });
+
+  router.post("/__sandbox/failure-harness/scenario", (request, response) => {
+    const scenario = request.body?.scenario;
+    state.activeScenario = typeof scenario === "string" ? scenario : null;
+    response.json({ activeScenario: state.activeScenario });
+  });
+
+  return router;
+};
diff --git a/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.state.ts b/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.state.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9aee6c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.state.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import type { HarnessState } from "./failure-harness.types";
+
+export const createHarnessState = (): HarnessState => ({
+  enabled: false,
+  activeScenario: null,
+  scenarios: {
+    "flaky-network": [
+      {
+        pathPattern: ".*",
+        probability: 0.2,
+        modes: ["latency-spike", "dropped-response"]
+      }
+    ],
+    "partial-outage": [
+      {
+        pathPattern: "^/(?!health).*",
+        probability: 0.5,
+        modes: ["random-500", "timeout"]
+      }
+    ]
+  }
+});
diff --git a/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.types.ts b/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.types.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..430223d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tooling/failure-harness-template/failure-harness.types.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+export type FailureMode =
+  | "latency-spike"
+  | "random-500"
+  | "timeout"
+  | "dropped-response"
+  | "malformed-json";
+
+export interface HarnessRule {
+  pathPattern: string;
+  probability: number;
+  modes: FailureMode[];
+}
+
+export interface HarnessState {
+  enabled: boolean;
+  activeScenario: string | null;
+  scenarios: Record<string, HarnessRule[]>;
+}
diff --git a/tooling/failure-harness-template/index.ts b/tooling/failure-harness-template/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1133f14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tooling/failure-harness-template/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+export * from "./failure-harness.types";
+export * from "./failure-harness.state";
+export * from "./failure-harness.middleware";
+export * from "./failure-harness.routes";