goal-convergence

Goal Convergence

Goal-oriented autonomous loop with external completion oracle. Based on Addy Osmani's Loop Engineering principle: "Keep going until a verifiable stopping condition holds, with a separate small model checking completion."

When to Activate

• User invokes /goal command
• Heartbeat auto-creates a goal from scan failures
• Triage item is promoted to a goal via /triage act <id> goal
• Session resumes with an active goal state file

Core Concept: Maker-Oracle Separation

The model that wrote the code is too nice grading its own homework. A second model (the oracle) with different instructions and READ-ONLY tools catches what the first talked itself into.

Maker (primary model, full tools)
  │
  ▼ produces iteration output
  │
Oracle (different model, read-only)
  │
  ├─ ALL conditions pass → CONVERGE (goal done)
  ├─ Some fail + budget remains → nextHint → LOOP (maker iterates)
  └─ Budget exhausted → ESCALATE (triage inbox)

Goal Lifecycle

CREATE → ACTIVE → [iterate] → CONVERGED
                       │
                       ├──── PAUSED (manual /goal pause)
                       └──── ESCALATED (budget exhausted or repeated failure)

States:

• active: Maker-oracle loop is running
• paused: Manually paused, resumes with /goal resume
• converged: All stopping conditions met, goal complete
• escalated: Cannot converge within budget, needs human triage
• failed: Explicitly abandoned

Stopping Conditions

Each goal has one or more stopping conditions. ALL must pass for convergence.

Type	Command Pattern	Example
test_pass	Test runner exits 0	npm test
lint_clean	Linter exits 0	npm run lint -- --quiet
coverage_threshold	Coverage >= N%	npm test -- --coverage
build_pass	Build succeeds	npm run build
custom_command	Any command exits 0	grep -r "TODO" src/ | wc -l

Oracle Protocol

The oracle receives:

1. The goal objective (natural language)
2. All stopping condition commands and their latest output
3. The maker's iteration summary
4. Previous iteration history (last 3)