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 approach for drafting goal-oriented prompts that enhance agent autonomy and planning capabilities.
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--ee1a6b