Agent skill · product strategy · sickn33
goal-loop
Draft and explain persistent goal-loop prompts for long-running agent work with clear stop conditions.
Why this skill is useful
Provides a structured markdown template for drafting persistent goal-loop prompts, which helps the AI generate specific, actionable agent instructions it wouldn't reliably produce on its own.
What it needs
Requires claude, codex account access. About 6k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 44,571 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Agent /goal Loop What /goal is /goal is a slash command that turns an agent prompt into a persistent agent looping plan → act → test → review → iterate until a stop condition is met, the user pauses, or the token budget runs out. Internally called the "Ralph loop." Agents with the /goal feature right now: Codex, Claude Code, and Hermes Agent. Key difference from a normal prompt: when a turn ends but the goal isn't met, the agent auto-continues instead of waiting for input. Lifecycle states: pursuing, paused, achieved, unmet, budget-limited. When monitoring a running /goal, every check should include a one-line update to the user: what the agent is doing and whether it is on track. Keep it extremely concise. Not: a budget command, a safety boundary, "run forever", or a replacement for /plan. It's a contract enforcer with a verification loop. Requirements An agent with the /goal feature — right now: Codex, Claude Code, or Hermes Agent The goals feature enabled in the agent's config Subscription auth — API-key auth does not work. A pro-tier plan is the realistic minimum for long runs. When to Use it Use only when all three are true: 1. Task is >30 min of mechanical work. 2. There's a verifiable stop condition (tests pass, coverage hit, eval ≥ X, build green). 3. Repo is agent-ready (working build, decent tests, AGENTS.md present). Fits: migrations, coverage lifts, TDD feature builds, refactors with contract tests, prompt/eval optimization, deploy retry loops, bug-repro-then-fix. Bad fits: exploratory work, vague "improve this", anything without a "done" definition, prod credentials, destructive shared-infra ops. The 5-part contract (every goal needs this) 1. Objective — one sentence, one concrete outcome. 2. Constraints — what must NOT change (public API, files, libs, conventions). 3. Validation command — the exact shell command that proves progress (pytest -q, pnpm test, etc.). 4. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills sickn33/goal-loop