phoenix-intent

phoenix-intent — decompose → N verified goals → composite proof

phoenix-goal handles one goal with one acceptance check. Many real tasks are multi-faceted — "build the connector, integrate it, configure the scheduler, and notify the team" — with parallel independent sub-goals and sequential dependencies. phoenix-intent is the orchestration layer (hand it to phoenix-mission when you want the independent goals actually run concurrently):

decompose → validate all RED → execute (dependency-ordered) → prove composite done

The composite acceptance gate is satisfied only when all N goals are individually proven failure-first: each saw_red AND green_after_red AND currently_green on its own intact trace. No shortcut. No self-report.

The flow

vague intent  ("build and ship the feature, notify the team")
   │
   ▼  FRAME + confirm  ── restate intent, decompose into N goals (≤5), invite correction
   │
   ▼  FORMALIZE each goal  ── one phoenix_sense acceptance check per goal (must start RED)
   │                           write .phoenix-intent/intent.json
   │
   ▼  BASELINE  ── run `phoenix-mcp sense` for EACH goal check (per-goal PHOENIX_WORKSPACE)
   │              ALL must be RED — any green check is vacuous, re-target it
   │
   ▼  EXECUTE  ── per-goal phoenix-ralph loop (PHOENIX_WORKSPACE=.phoenix-intent/<goal_id>)
   │              unordered where depends_on=[], ordered where dependencies exist
   │              (use phoenix-mission to have the order enforced rather than assumed)
   │
   ▼  COMPOSITE PROOF  ── `phoenix-mcp intent-accept .phoenix-intent/intent.json`
                           ok=true only when ALL goals saw_red + green_after_red + green_now

The manifest (intent.json)

{
  "intent": "wire the Teams notification into the daily pipeline and verify end-to-end",
  "goals": [
    {
      "id": "build-connector",
      "title": "Build the Teams connector module",
      "kind": "build",
      "check": { "kind": "command_exit", "target": ["cargo", "test", "--", "teams"], "expect": 0 },
      "depends_on": []
    },
    {
      "id": "configure-webhook",
      "title": "Wire the webhook endpoint into the pipeline config",
      "kind": "configure",
      "check": { "kind": "regex_in_file", "target": ["config/pipeline.toml"], "expect": "teams_webhook" },
      "depends_on": ["build-connector"]
    },
    {
      "id": "notify-team",
      "title": "Send a test Teams notification and confirm receipt",
      "kind": "notify",
      "check": { "kind": "command_exit", "target": ["node", "scripts/verify-teams.mjs"], "expect": 0 },
      "depends_on": ["configure-webhook"]
    }
  ]
}