| name | goal-protocol |
| description | Run a traceable durable-goal lifecycle through convergence, dossier, approvals, parent-traced packets, and ledger updates. Use when users invoke /goal, codex-goal, /goal-council, /code-council, /goal-orchestrator, or six-phase. |
Goal Protocol
Own durable goal artifacts, phase gates, approved packet state, and ledger updates; agent-orchestration executes approved packets and returns evidence.
Route
| Mode | Select when | Read |
|---|
converge | A new long-horizon goal or /goal-council needs a measurable contract, dissent, review, or pivot | references/convergence.md |
goal-file | A /goal or codex-goal request needs a durable GOAL.md contract and start handoff | references/goal-file.md |
blueprint | An approved goal or /code-council needs a traced implementation dossier before production code | references/implementation-dossier.md |
six-phase | The user explicitly requests six-phase, phased approval, or a trial-implement-then-revert design pass | references/six-phase.md |
orchestrate | An approved goal/dossier or /goal-orchestrator needs parent-traced tickets, approved wave state, or replanning | references/orchestration.md |
ledger | An existing GOAL_LEDGER.md needs returned dispatch evidence, status, verification, compacting, or continuation handoff | references/ledger-handoff.md |
Select exactly one mode. Start with converge for an undecided durable goal, goal-file for a measurable /goal contract, and ledger for an existing goal whose requested phase is unclear. Combine modes only for an explicit lifecycle sequence.
Do not use when
- A one-shot PRD, issue slice, or reviewed implementation plan is wanted;
planning-workflow owns that artifact.
- Approved packets need live delegation, monitoring, review, or integration;
agent-orchestration owns that execution surface.
Workflow
- Locate the goal root. Read
GOAL_LEDGER.md first when it exists; support root-level legacy artifacts on intake, but write new durable work under docs/goals/<goal-slug>/ unless repository convention says otherwise.
- Select one mode and read only its reference. Resolve repository conventions, verification commands, and current
/goal behavior before making a phase decision.
- Update the phase artifact, its gate, and the ledger together. Keep a mutable current snapshot and append decisions, assumptions, risks, validation, returned dispatch evidence, and handoffs without erasing history.
- End orchestration at approved parent-traced packets and wave state. Hand those packets to
agent-orchestration; after it returns evidence, use ledger to update gates and lifecycle state.
- Report the current gate, traced parent IDs, validation evidence, next action, and the exact blocker or human decision when work cannot advance.
Hard rules
- Resume the current ledger phase; do not restart a durable goal without explicit direction.
- Every ticket, behavior, structure, interface, test, location, invariant, and wave has a traceable parent ID.
- Do not blueprint an unconverged goal, ticket an unapproved dossier, dispatch a packet here, or mark a wave integrated here.
- A six-phase pass stops at each human gate; hand edits are authoritative.
- Do not mark a phase complete from an agent assertion alone: record returned evidence, validation, and any unresolved blocker in the ledger.
- After three failed attempts at the same check, stop and append the blocker rather than repeating it.
- Keep credentials and secret values out of goal artifacts, packets, and reports.
Stop conditions
- Route backwards when a parent artifact or gate is missing, revised, or contradicted by current evidence.
- Stop for user approval when the selected mode requires a human choice, especially a six-phase gate or unresolved preserved dissent.
Output
Return the selected mode, authoritative artifacts, current gate, approved packet or returned-evidence state, traced decision, validation, next action, and any required human decision or handoff.
