ultragoal

name	ultragoal
description	Create and execute durable repo-native multi-goal plans over GJC goal mode artifacts.
source	forked from upstream ultragoal skill and rebranded for GJC

Ultragoal Workflow

Use when the user asks for ultragoal, create-goals, complete-goals, durable multi-goal planning, or sequential execution over GJC goal mode.

Purpose

ultragoal turns a brief into repo-native artifacts and then drives a GJC goal safely through the unified goal tool. New plans default to a stable pointer-style aggregate GJC goal for the whole durable plan in .gjc/ultragoal/goals.json, including later accepted/appended stories under the original brief constraints, while GJC tracks G001/G002 story progress in the ledger. Ultragoal does not require any /goal slash-command between runs. For back-to-back ultragoal runs in one session/thread, call goal({"op":"drop"}) only when goal({"op":"get"}) still reports an active aggregate; then call goal({"op":"create"}). The goal tool stays armed across drop so the next create works in-session, and no slash-command cleanup exists or is required.

• .gjc/ultragoal/brief.md
• .gjc/ultragoal/goals.json
• .gjc/ultragoal/ledger.jsonl (checkpoint and structured steering audit events)

Existing aggregate plans with the legacy enumerated objective are migrated to the stable pointer objective on read, persisted to goals.json, retained in gjcObjectiveAliases for already-active hidden goal reconciliation, and audited with an aggregate_objective_migrated ledger entry.

Always-used command examples

Use these exact gjc ultragoal commands before spending tool calls rediscovering syntax:

gjc ultragoal status
gjc ultragoal status --json
gjc ultragoal create-goals --brief "<brief>"
gjc ultragoal create-goals --brief-file <path>
gjc ultragoal complete-goals
gjc ultragoal complete-goals --retry-failed
gjc ultragoal checkpoint --goal-id <id> --status complete --evidence "<evidence>" --gjc-goal-json <goal-get-json-or-path> --quality-gate-json <quality-gate-json-or-path>
gjc ultragoal checkpoint --goal-id <id> --status failed --evidence "<blocker/evidence>"
gjc ultragoal record-review-blockers --goal-id <id> --title "Resolve final review blockers" --objective "<blocker-resolution objective>" --evidence "<review findings>" --gjc-goal-json <active-goal-get-json-or-path>

Use these exact goal-tool calls for the inline goal state:

goal({"op":"get"})
goal({"op":"create","objective":"<printed aggregate or per-story objective>"})
goal({"op":"complete"})
goal({"op":"drop"})
goal({"op":"resume"})

drop clears the active goal without exiting goal mode; resume reactivates a paused goal.

Use goal({"op":"get"}) snapshots inside Ultragoal for ledger reconciliation. The unified goal tool is the only agent-facing surface for goal state; no /goal subcommand is required.

Create goals

1. Decide on the brief. To produce multiple stories, separate them with a reserved @goal: delimiter line; the title follows on the same line and the objective is everything beneath it until the next delimiter:

   Shared brief constraints / context go here (optional preamble).
   
   @goal: Parse the intake CSVs
   Ingest reviewer CSVs from the watch dir, validate headers, and reject
   malformed rows with a per-row reason. Objectives can span multiple lines
   and contain `code`, "quotes", or commands — no escaping needed.
   
   @goal: Normalize records
   Map raw rows onto the canonical schema and dedupe by record id.
   
   @goal: Export the audit report
   Emit an audit-ready report covering every accepted and rejected row.
   

   Delimiter contract:

   • A @goal line is a story boundary only when it starts at column 0 (no leading whitespace) and the character right after @goal is :, whitespace (space or tab), or end-of-line. So @goal: Title, @goal Title, and a bare @goal line all open a story.
   • @goalish, @goals:, @goal-foo, @goal.foo, @goal/foo, and any indented or mid-line @goal are ordinary objective text, not delimiters. To keep a literal @goal line inside an objective, indent it.
   • A title-only block (no body) uses the title as its objective. An empty title borrows the first body line as the title. A block with neither title nor body is rejected — create-goals errors instead of writing a placeholder goal.
   • Preamble (any text before the first @goal delimiter) is global context/constraints only; it is retained in the brief but is not turned into a goal. Every executable story needs its own @goal block.
   • With no @goal delimiter anywhere, the whole brief becomes a single goal G001 (unchanged legacy behavior).

   Stories become G001, G002, … in order.

2. Run one of:

   • gjc ultragoal create-goals --brief "<brief>"
   • gjc ultragoal create-goals --brief-file <path>
   • cat <brief> | gjc ultragoal create-goals --from-stdin
   • gjc ultragoal create-goals --gjc-goal-mode per-story --brief "<brief>" only when one GJC goal context per story is explicitly preferred

3. Inspect .gjc/ultragoal/goals.json and refine if needed.

Complete goals

Loop until gjc ultragoal status reports all goals complete:

1. Run gjc ultragoal complete-goals.
2. Read the printed handoff.
3. Call goal({"op":"get"}).
4. If no active GJC goal exists, call goal({"op":"create","objective":"<printed payload objective>"}) with the printed payload. In aggregate mode, if the same aggregate objective is already active, continue the current GJC story without creating a new GJC goal. If goal({"op":"get"}) shows a stale dropped goal (status "dropped") and a new aggregate must start, no extra cleanup is needed — goal({"op":"create"}) succeeds directly. If a previous aggregate is still active and you genuinely need a fresh start in the same session, call goal({"op":"drop"}) first, then goal({"op":"create"}).
5. Complete the current GJC story only.
6. Run a completion audit against the story objective and real artifacts/tests.
7. Before any --status complete checkpoint, run the mandatory final cleanup/review gate below. In aggregate mode, do not call goal({"op":"complete"}) for intermediate stories; checkpoint each story with a fresh goal({"op":"get"}) snapshot whose aggregate objective is still active. On the final story, use the same fresh active snapshot to create the final aggregate receipt first; only after that receipt exists may goal({"op":"complete"}) run.
8. Checkpoint the durable ledger with that fresh active snapshot. Complete checkpoints require --quality-gate-json; the runtime hook rejects closure without a clean architect review: gjc ultragoal checkpoint --goal-id <id> --status complete --evidence "<evidence>" --gjc-goal-json <goal-get-json-or-path> --quality-gate-json <quality-gate-json-or-path> A successful complete checkpoint is story completion, not automatic run completion. Read the checkpoint output: when it prints Next ultragoal goal: <id>, continue that active story under the same aggregate GJC goal; when it prints All ultragoal goals are complete, the durable run is terminal. gjc ultragoal complete-goals remains the supported manual next-story command if continuation output was missed.
9. If blocked or failed, checkpoint failure: gjc ultragoal checkpoint --goal-id <id> --status failed --evidence "<blocker/evidence>"
10. For legacy per-story completed-goal blockers, preserve the non-terminal blocker with: gjc ultragoal checkpoint --goal-id <id> --status blocked --evidence "<completed legacy GJC goal blocks goal create in this thread>" --gjc-goal-json <goal-get-json-or-path>
11. Resume failed goals with gjc ultragoal complete-goals --retry-failed.

Dynamic steering

Use gjc ultragoal steer when real findings or blockers prove the current story decomposition should change while the aggregate objective and constraints stay fixed. Steering is explicit-only and evidence-backed; broad natural-language requests are rejected instead of guessed.

Allowed mutation kinds are:

• add_subgoal
• split_subgoal
• reorder_pending
• revise_pending_wording
• annotate_ledger
• mark_blocked_superseded

Examples:

gjc ultragoal steer --kind add_subgoal --title "Investigate blocker" --objective "Validate the blocker and report evidence." --evidence "log/test output" --rationale "The blocker changes the safe execution order." --json
gjc ultragoal steer --kind split_subgoal --goal-id G002 --replacements-json '[{"title":"Fix parser","objective":"Resolve parser blocker."},{"title":"Verify parser","objective":"Run focused parser verification."}]' --evidence "Implementation split found two separable risks" --rationale "Splitting keeps each sub-goal independently verifiable." --json
gjc ultragoal steer --kind reorder_pending --order-json '["G003","G002"]' --evidence "Dependency order changed after investigation" --rationale "G003 must land before G002 can proceed safely." --json
gjc ultragoal steer --kind revise_pending_wording --goal-id G002 --title "Clarify blocker story" --evidence "The current title hides the actual blocker" --rationale "Clear wording keeps the ledger auditable." --json
gjc ultragoal steer --kind annotate_ledger --evidence "User changed release ordering at runtime" --rationale "The aggregate objective is unchanged, but the execution history needs an audit note." --json
gjc ultragoal steer --kind mark_blocked_superseded --goal-id G004 --evidence "The blocked work is no longer required because replacement evidence covers it" --rationale "No replacement sub-goal is needed; superseding only the blocked sub-goal unblocks final completion without changing the aggregate objective." --json

--directive-json and UserPromptSubmit structured steering are planned/deferred routing surfaces, not part of the native typed --kind CLI path described above.

Steering invariants:

• Do not edit the aggregate goal objective, original brief constraints, quality gates, or completion status. The aggregate objective is a stable pointer to .gjc/ultragoal/goals.json and .gjc/ultragoal/ledger.jsonl, not an enumeration of initial goal ids.
• Do not hard-delete goals, auto-complete work, weaken verification, or silently mutate .gjc/ultragoal.
• Accepted and rejected attempts append structured audit entries to .gjc/ultragoal/ledger.jsonl.
• Superseded goals remain in goals.json with steering metadata and are skipped for scheduling.
• Blocked goals without replacements are skipped for scheduling but still block final completion until later explicit steering replaces or supersedes them.

UserPromptSubmit structured steering directives are a planned/deferred routing surface. Normal prose does not mutate state.

Role-agent delegation guidance

Ultragoal execution should use GJC's bundled role-agent roster when a durable story is large enough to benefit from delegation:

• Use executor for bounded implementation, refactoring, and fix slices.
• Use planner for story sequencing or handoff refinement when execution uncovers a missing plan branch.
• Use architect for read-only architecture and code-review lanes, including CLEAR / WATCH / BLOCK status.
• Use critic for read-only plan or handoff critique before execution proceeds.

When delegating with native subagents, an await timeout only limits the leader's wait. It is not subagent failure evidence and must not be used as a cancellation reason; inspect or continue independent work, and cancel only when the subagent has actually failed, gone off-track, or become unrecoverably wrong.

If an Ultragoal request has no approved plan or consensus artifact, run ralplan first and preserve its PRD, test spec, role roster, and verification guidance in the Ultragoal ledger. Do not silently substitute ad-hoc execution for missing planning.

The Ultragoal leader owns .gjc/ultragoal/goals.json and .gjc/ultragoal/ledger.jsonl. Role agents return implementation/review evidence; they do not checkpoint Ultragoal or mutate goal state.

For large subgoals with independent slices, the Ultragoal leader must spawn parallel executor subagents instead of doing serial solo work. Split only cleanly separable files/surfaces, give each executor bounded targets and acceptance criteria, and keep checkpoint ownership in the leader. Use architect / critic review lanes after integration; do not let worker agents mutate .gjc/ultragoal or call goal tools.

Use Ultragoal and Team together

Use ultragoal and team together for a durable Ultragoal story that benefits from one visible tmux worker session. Ultragoal remains leader-owned: .gjc/ultragoal/goals.json stores the story plan and .gjc/ultragoal/ledger.jsonl stores checkpoints. Team is the single-worker tmux execution engine and returns task/evidence status to the leader.

The leader checkpoints Ultragoal from Team evidence with a fresh goal({"op":"get"}) snapshot:

gjc ultragoal checkpoint --goal-id <id> --status complete --evidence "<team evidence mentioning .gjc/ultragoal and <id>>" --gjc-goal-json <fresh-goal-get-json-or-path> --quality-gate-json <quality-gate-json-or-path>

Workers do not own ultragoal goal state, do not create worker ultragoal ledgers, and do not checkpoint Ultragoal. Workers must not run gjc ultragoal checkpoint; checkpoint authority stays with the leader after worker tasks are terminal. Team launch remains explicit; Ultragoal does not auto-launch Team and performs no hidden goal mutation.

Internal Ultragoal sub-skill fragments

The completion-gate cleanup sweep is driven by ai-slop-cleaner, an internal Ultragoal sub-skill bundled as a kind: "skill-fragment" prompt with parent skill ultragoal (installed at skill-fragments/ultragoal/ai-slop-cleaner.md). It is analogous to deep-interview's auto-research fragment: loaded on demand for one specific hook, never a user-facing skill.

• It is not slash-command discoverable, has no public skill-listing entry, and is never resolvable through skill://.
• It is a read-only detector+reporter over the active story's changed files only: it never edits code, writes files, mutates .gjc/, checkpoints, calls goal tools, or spawns workflows.
• It classifies every finding as blocking or advisory across the full taxonomy (fallback-like masking vs. grounded, duplication, dead code, needless abstraction, boundary violations, UI/design slop, missing tests).
• The leader and a leader-spawned executor own all fixes; the cleaner reruns until zero blocking findings remain. Advisory findings live in the gate report only.
• Recursion guard: it must not spawn nested ralplan/team/deep-interview/ultragoal; broad or architectural findings are handed back to the leader as review blockers.

Mandatory completion cleanup and review gate

An ultragoal story cannot be checkpointed complete until the active agent has run the quality gate. The gate is plan-first, contract-driven, and surface-based:

1. Run targeted implementation verification for the story.
2. Run the internal ai-slop-cleaner skill fragment as the final cleanup sweep on the story's changed files only, before verification and red-team so only clean code is reviewed. It is a read-only detector that emits an AI SLOP CLEANUP REPORT; if there are no relevant edits it still runs and records a passed/no-op report. Every BLOCKING cleaner finding is a completion blocker: the leader spawns an executor to fix blocking findings only, then reruns the cleaner until blocking findings are zero. Advisory findings are included in the gate report only and are not written to the Ultragoal ledger. Carry the report through the existing qualityGate.iteration.evidence field; do not add a new top-level quality-gate key.
3. Rerun verification after the cleaner pass.
4. Delegate an architect review covering all three lanes:
   • architecture-side: system boundaries, layering, data/control flow, operational risks.
   • product-side: user-visible behavior, acceptance criteria, edge cases, regressions.
   • code-side: maintainability, tests, integration points, and unsafe shortcuts.
5. Delegate an executor QA/red-team lane to build and run the e2e/read-teaming QA suite appropriate for the story. This lane must try to break the change, not just confirm the happy path. It must start from the approved plan/spec/acceptance criteria, then user-facing contracts, and only then implementation code as supporting evidence. Plan/code mismatches are blockers, not items to paper over with implementation intent.
6. The executor QA/red-team lane must prove evidence by the real surface under test:
   • GUI/web surfaces require a valid automation transcript plus a non-uniform screenshot. Bare inlineEvidence text or typed receipts never prove live GUI/web execution.
   • CLI surfaces require runtime argv replay: replaySafe: true, an allowlisted argv command, and replayed normalized stdout matching recordedStdout; unsafe commands require audited replayExempt metadata plus a structurally valid fallback artifact.
   • Native/desktop/tui surfaces require a structurally valid screenshot, PTY capture with terminal control codes, or app-automation transcript.
   • API/package/algorithm/math surfaces require a real artifact file or typed receipt. Bare inlineEvidence text alone is not sufficient for any surface.
7. The executor QA/red-team lane must report a matrix using executorQa.contractCoverage, executorQa.surfaceEvidence, executorQa.adversarialCases, and executorQa.artifactRefs. Not-applicable rows are allowed only in contractCoverage and surfaceEvidence; each status: "not_applicable" row requires contractRef plus reason. adversarialCases rows cannot be not-applicable.
8. Run a final code review pass and fold it into the strict quality gate. Clean means architectReview.architectureStatus, architectReview.productStatus, and architectReview.codeStatus are all "CLEAR", architectReview.recommendation is "APPROVE", executor QA statuses are "passed", iteration is "passed" with fullRerun: true, every evidence field is non-empty, every required matrix row is present, and every blockers array is empty. COMMENT, WATCH, REQUEST CHANGES, BLOCK, missing evidence, missing or shallow matrix rows, plan/code mismatches, or non-empty blockers are non-clean.
9. If any lane finds an issue, do not checkpoint complete and do not call goal({"op":"complete"}). Record durable blocker work instead:

   gjc ultragoal record-review-blockers --goal-id <id> --title "Resolve verification blockers" --objective "<blocker-resolution objective>" --evidence "<architect/executor findings>" --gjc-goal-json <active-goal-get-json-or-path>
   

10. Complete or steer through the blocker story, then rerun the full blocking verification loop. Repeat until all verifier lanes are clean.
11. Only after the loop is clean, checkpoint the story as complete with a structured quality gate and a fresh active goal({"op":"get"}) snapshot. The checkpoint creates a receipt; goals.json.status alone is not proof. In aggregate mode, the final aggregate receipt must exist before goal({"op":"complete"}) is allowed.

While an Ultragoal run is active, the ask tool is blocked for all agents. Record unresolved review decisions as durable blockers with gjc ultragoal record-review-blockers instead of prompting interactively.

The native checkpoint --status complete command rejects missing or shallow gates. --quality-gate-json must include:

{
  "architectReview": {
    "architectureStatus": "CLEAR",
    "productStatus": "CLEAR",
    "codeStatus": "CLEAR",
    "recommendation": "APPROVE",
    "evidence": "architect review synthesis with architecture/product/code coverage",
    "commands": ["architect review command or agent evidence id"],
    "blockers": []
  },
  "executorQa": {
    "status": "passed",
    "e2eStatus": "passed",
    "redTeamStatus": "passed",
    "evidence": "executor-built e2e and red-team QA commands/results",
    "e2eCommands": ["bun test:e2e"],
    "redTeamCommands": ["bun test:red-team"],
    "artifactRefs": [
      {
        "id": "browser-run",
        "kind": "browser-automation",
        "path": "artifacts/browser-run.json",
        "description": "valid automation transcript with actions, monotonic timestamps, and selectors"
      },
      {
        "id": "gui-screenshot",
        "kind": "screenshot",
        "path": "artifacts/gui-screenshot.png",
        "description": "non-uniform screenshot evidence for the GUI/web result"
      },
      {
        "id": "cli-replay",
        "kind": "command-replay",
        "path": "artifacts/cli-replay.json",
        "description": "artifact file containing argv-only CLI replay JSON: schemaVersion 1, kind cli-replay, replaySafe true, allowlisted command, recordedStdout"
      },
      {
        "id": "adversarial-report",
        "kind": "failure-mode-test",
        "path": "artifacts/adversarial-report.txt",
        "description": "boundary, property, adversarial, or failure-mode result"
      }
    ],
    "contractCoverage": [
      {
        "id": "contract-goal",
        "contractRef": "approved plan/spec/acceptance criterion or user-facing contract id",
        "obligation": "required behavior from the approved contract",
        "status": "covered",
        "surfaceEvidenceRefs": ["surface-gui"],
        "adversarialCaseRefs": ["case-invalid-input"]
      },
      {
        "id": "contract-out-of-scope",
        "contractRef": "contract intentionally outside this story",
        "obligation": "explicitly omitted approved-contract surface",
        "status": "not_applicable",
        "reason": "why this contract does not apply to the current story"
      }
    ],
    "surfaceEvidence": [
      {
        "id": "surface-gui",
        "contractRef": "user-facing surface or public interface under test",
        "surface": "gui|web|cli|api|package|algorithm|math|native|desktop|tui",
        "invocation": "real browser action, CLI command, API/package consumer call, or algorithm/property check",
        "verdict": "passed",
        "artifactRefs": ["browser-run", "gui-screenshot"]
      },
      {
        "id": "surface-cli",
        "contractRef": "CLI or command-line interface under test",
        "surface": "cli",
        "invocation": "argv replay executed by the Ultragoal runtime",
        "verdict": "passed",
        "artifactRefs": ["cli-replay"]
      },
      {
        "id": "surface-out-of-scope",
        "contractRef": "surface intentionally outside this story",
        "surface": "gui|web|cli|api|package|algorithm|math|native|desktop|tui",
        "status": "not_applicable",
        "reason": "why this surface does not apply to the current story"
      }
    ],
    "adversarialCases": [
      {
        "id": "case-invalid-input",
        "contractRef": "approved plan/spec/acceptance criterion or user-facing contract id",
        "scenario": "boundary/property/adversarial/failure-mode input or user action",
        "expectedBehavior": "contract-required rejection, handling, or invariant preservation",
        "verdict": "passed",
        "artifactRefs": ["adversarial-report"]
      }
    ],
    "blockers": []
  },
  "iteration": {
    "status": "passed",
    "evidence": "blockers were absent or resolved and the full verification loop was rerun cleanly",
    "fullRerun": true,
    "rerunCommands": ["bun test:e2e", "bun test:red-team"],
    "blockers": []
  }
}

For CLI replay artifacts, the JSON at path must be an object like {"schemaVersion":1,"kind":"cli-replay","replaySafe":true,"command":["bun","-e","console.log(\"ultragoal-cli-ok\")"],"recordedStdout":"ultragoal-cli-ok\n"}. Use replayExempt only for audited unsafe/non-deterministic invocations, with a substantive reason, approver, and same-surface fallback artifacts.

Review mode

gjc ultragoal review runs the same hardened gate against an already implemented PR, branch, or worktree. Use --pr <number> for a PR, --branch <ref> for a branch diff, omit both for the current worktree, and pass --spec <path> when a real contract exists. --mode review-only emits the verdict/findings without creating fix work; --mode review-start records review blockers for follow-up. Review mode validates the same executorQa shape and live-surface artifacts as checkpoint --status complete. A thin or derived-only contract can never clean-pass: the verdict is capped at inconclusive: weak-contract until a supplied spec or equivalent strong acceptance criteria are available.

Receipts are freshness-scoped:

• Per-goal receipts remain fresh for their target goal unless that goal, its blocker metadata, or its supersession metadata changes.
• Normal later goal_started or clean receipt-backed goal_checkpointed events for other goals do not stale older per-goal receipts.
• Appending required goals or changing final required-goal state stales final aggregate receipts. Final aggregate completion requires a fresh final aggregate receipt proving no incomplete, blocked, or review_blocked required goals remain.

Handoff back to planning

When the aggregate ultragoal is complete OR the user requests return to planning/clarification, mark ultragoal ready for handoff so the skill tool's chain guard permits the backward transition:

gjc state ultragoal write --input '{"current_phase":"handoff"}' --json

The skill tool then dispatches /skill:ralplan or /skill:deep-interview same-turn and runs gjc state ultragoal handoff --to <ralplan|deep-interview> --json in-process to atomically demote ultragoal, promote the callee, and sync both skill-active-state.json files. You do not need to run the handoff verb yourself.

Constraints

• The shell command emits a model-facing handoff for the active GJC agent; it does not invoke any /goal slash-command and the agent loop must not depend on any /goal subcommand.
• Use only the unified goal-tool surface from the agent loop: goal({"op":"get"}), goal({"op":"create"}), goal({"op":"complete"}), goal({"op":"drop"}), goal({"op":"resume"}). drop clears the active goal without exiting goal mode so the next goal({"op":"create"}) works in-session. No slash-command cleanup exists or is required; Ultragoal never calls any /goal subcommand.
• For back-to-back ultragoal runs in the same session/thread, when goal({"op":"get"}) still reports an active aggregate, call goal({"op":"drop"}) before goal({"op":"create"}); when no active goal exists or the prior aggregate is already complete or dropped, call goal({"op":"create"}) directly. The goal tool remains callable across drop; no slash-command cleanup exists or is required.
• Never call goal({"op":"create"}) when goal({"op":"get"}) reports a different active goal.
• Never call goal({"op":"complete"}) unless the aggregate run or legacy per-story goal is actually complete.
• In aggregate mode, intermediate and final story checkpoints require a matching active GJC goal snapshot; the final story checkpoint creates the final aggregate receipt before goal({"op":"complete"}) may reconcile the inline goal state.
• Completion checkpoints require read-only goal snapshot reconciliation: pass fresh goal({"op":"get"}) JSON/path with --gjc-goal-json; shell commands and hooks must not mutate goal state.
• Treat ledger.jsonl as the durable audit trail; checkpoint after every success or failure.