| name | dual-goal |
| description | Phase 2 of dual-haul. Turns .dualhaul/UNDERSTANDING.md into a /goal-ready completion condition — one measurable end state, a stated transcript-demonstrable check, the constraints that must hold, and a turn cap — written to .dualhaul/GOAL.md plus the literal /goal line for the user to run. Use after dual-understand, or standalone to craft a good /goal condition from a clear improvement target. |
dual-goal
Phase 2 of dual-haul. Converts .dualhaul/UNDERSTANDING.md into a
completion condition you can hand to Claude Code's /goal command, written to
.dualhaul/GOAL.md.
What makes a good /goal condition
/goal's evaluator is a fast model that, after every turn, reads only the
conversation (it runs no tools) and decides yes/no. So a strong condition has
all four parts:
- One measurable end state — a test result, a benchmark threshold, a file count, an empty queue, an exit code. Not "better" or "cleaner".
- A stated check — how it's proven, phrased so the agent's own output demonstrates it:
pytest tests/x -q exits 0, bench/run.py prints p95 <= 40ms, git status is clean.
- Constraints that must hold — what must not change on the way there (public signatures, deps, other tests).
- A turn clause —
or stop after N rounds, so a goal that can't be met still terminates. Use ROUNDS from STATE.md (default 5).
Keep it ≤ 4000 characters. Pull the end state and signal straight from
UNDERSTANDING.md's "What better means" and "Success signal" — if that signal
wasn't transcript-demonstrable, fix it now or flag it loudly (the goal will
otherwise loop forever, since the evaluator can never see the proof).
Process
- Read
.dualhaul/UNDERSTANDING.md. If the success signal is missing or unmeasurable, go back to the user (or dual-understand) — don't paper over it.
- Draft the condition with the four parts above, on one logical line.
- Write
.dualhaul/GOAL.md (template in ../dual-haul/reference/file-formats.md): the condition, the literal /goal … line, and a note on why the check is transcript-demonstrable.
- Set
GOAL: (one-line restatement) in STATE.md, advance PHASE: goal.
The gate — the user runs /goal
You cannot execute a slash command yourself. So present the line and hand off:
Goal condition ready. Review it, then run this yourself to start the loop:
/goal <condition>
Once it's active, each turn I'll run one dual-loop race round until the
condition holds, then dual-report.
Set STATUS: WAITING-USER: approve-goal. Wait for the user to approve (and
possibly edit) and to actually run /goal. Only then does dual-loop begin.
Don't
- Don't make the condition depend on something the agent won't print. If proving it requires reading a file or running a tool, make the agent run that and surface the output part of the loop's job — and say so in GOAL.md.
- Don't omit the turn clause. A goal with no cap can run away.
- Don't widen scope beyond UNDERSTANDING.md. The goal is the contract; keep it tight.
