rl-goal

name	rl-goal
description	Discuss a goal with the user and write it down in the life-harness workspace, with clear checkable success criteria, consistent with their philosophy and existing goals. Use when the user runs /rl-goal, states a goal they want to set (e.g. "spend two focused hours a day building my side project"), names an existing goal to refine, or asks what to pursue next. Reads philosophy/ and goals/; writes to goals/open/ and goals/closed/.
metadata	{"loop":"life-harness","step":"2-goal"}

rl-goal — set a goal with criteria you can actually check

A goal is useful only if it (a) follows from the user's philosophy, (b) is consistent with their other goals, and (c) carries clear, checkable criteria for what "accomplished" means. This skill turns an intention into such a goal file, or refines an existing one. Your job is not to make the user feel productive for having a goal — it is to make the goal honest, aligned, and checkable, so a later review can tell the truth about whether it was reached.

Input

Whatever the user typed after /rl-goal is a seed, not a strict argument: a goal to shape, an existing goal to refine, or nothing → review their open goals and ask what to pursue. Ask for whatever else you need.

Steps

1. Locate the workspace (see rl-init conventions); if none is found, tell the user to run /rl-init and stop.

2. Load the lens and context. Read everything in philosophy/ and the live goals under goals/open/ (glance at goals/closed/ when consistency needs it). You can't check a goal for consistency without them.

3. Grill the intent first. Before shaping anything, invoke the grilling skill (model-invocable; not the human-only grill-me) to interrogate the user turn by turn — why this, why now, is it genuinely yours, what would "accomplished" really look like. Let it run to completion, then carry what surfaced into steps 4–5. If grilling isn't installed, say so and run that interrogation yourself. (Empty seed → summarise open goals, ask which to advance/refine/retire, then grill that.)

4. Check against philosophy and other goals — honestly. Does the goal honour the stated principles or quietly cut against one? Does it collide with or crowd out an open goal (two goals demanding the user's best hours are in tension)? If it conflicts, say so and work it out before writing — don't launder an off-lens goal into an acceptable-sounding one.

5. Forge checkable success criteria — the core of the skill. Drive toward criteria a later review can mark met / partial / not met from evidence, not vibes: prefer observable outcomes; make quantity, cadence, and window explicit ("two focused hours a day on ≥5 days/week", not "more focus"); fold what counts / what doesn't and how progress is observed into the criterion line, not separate essays. If a goal can't be made checkable, reshape it until it can, or record honestly that it's a direction, not a goal.

6. Write it down. One file per goal at goals/open/<slug>.md (kebab-case). When refining, edit that file in place — rewrite target and the criteria clean to the current truth (no "(re-baselined X→Y)" asides in a live line; that story goes in one history entry). Timestamps per the workspace convention (to the minute, offset + IANA zone, from the system clock). In ## Notes / history, keep the last ~3 entries; move older ones verbatim to goals/history/<slug>.md (append-only, not auto-loaded) with a one-line pointer. Cite philosophy only where load-bearing. When the goal becomes accomplished or abandoned, run the full close sweep (rl-init → Closing a goal), not just the two files: set this goal's status and move it to goals/closed/; flip its action file (and any open work/ task serving it) to done/abandoned and move those to closed/ too; then repoint every cross-reference from open/ to closed/ — the goal's actions: line, the action's goal: line, and each work task's goal:/action:. Shape:

   # <Goal title>
   
   - status: active                    # active | accomplished | abandoned
   - created: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM ±HH:MM (Zone/Name)
   - target: <one line — current truth only>
   - actions: actions/open/<slug>.md
   
   ## Why this goal
   How it follows from the philosophy and fits the other goals.
   
   ## Success criteria
   - [ ] Concrete, checkable criterion (quantity + cadence + window; what counts / how observed, in a line)
   
   ## Notes / history
   Last ~3 refinements, each a timestamped one-liner. Older → goals/history/<slug>.md.
   YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM ±HH:MM (Zone/Name) — created / refined: <what changed and why>
   

7. Confirm and point onward. Show the file, restate the criteria in one line, and point the user to /rl-plan to turn the goal into concrete, timed steps.