>_ SNS-MyAgent

Goal Mode

Purpose

An autonomous, persistent objective for a session. While a goal is active, the agent steers its own turns toward the objective (with a token budget and wall-clock accounting) instead of waiting for step-by-step instructions.

How it works

  • /goal set <objective> starts mode and records the goal; the runtime (src/goals/runtime.ts) tracks per-turn and wall-clock usage.
  • Each turn, the goal runtime injects a steering prompt (goal-mode-active.md) so the model keeps the objective in mind; when the token budget is low it switches to goal-budget-limit.md; on continuation it uses goal-continuation.md.
  • State is persisted by the host (persist(mode) → goal / goal_paused / none), so a paused goal survives restarts.
  • Subcommands: set, show, pause, resume, drop, budget (see src/slash-commands/builtin-registry.ts goal entry).

Configuration

goal:
  enabled: true            # master toggle (schema default: true)
  statusInFooter: true     # show goal state in the TUI footer
  continuationModes: [...] # prompt modes used for continuation steering

Schema keys: goal.enabled, goal.statusInFooter, goal.continuationModes (src/config/settings-schema.ts).

Real example

> /goal set implement --dry-run flag for the backup command and verify it
> (agent keeps working across turns, steering itself toward the objective)
> /goal status / /goal show        # inspect current goal + budget
> /goal pause                      # suspend without losing the objective
> /goal resume
> /goal drop                       # end the objective

Expected behavior

  • With goal.enabled: true, a set goal changes the injected system/steering prompts so the model maintains focus across turns.
  • Token budget accounting logs usage per turn and can trigger a budget-limit steering prompt when exhausted.
  • persist writes mode + state so a paused goal can be resumed next launch.

Failure behavior

  • Plan mode and goal mode conflict: plan mode reports “blocked by goal mode” when goal mode is active.
  • Goal mode is session-scoped; a dead process loses in-memory goal state unless it was persisted by the host.

Limitations

  • Budget steering is prompt-based, not a hard kill-switch; the model may still overshoot slightly before the budget-limit prompt takes effect.
  • No multi-session goal ownership: the goal lives in the session that set it.

Screenshot

Goal mode active objective

/goal show with an active objective; the footer carries the Goal indicator and token budget.