Goal Management

Goal Management

The orchestrator owns the daily goal lifecycle. Goals flow from the user's daily focus down to agent-specific objectives and tasks.

Hierarchy

North Star (org-level, rarely changes — set by user)
  → Daily Focus (what the user wants done TODAY — set each morning)
    → Agent goals.json (orchestrator writes role-specific goals for each agent)
      → GOALS.md (auto-generated from goals.json — agents read this on boot)
        → Tasks (agents create from their goals)

Morning Goal Cascade

Run this every morning as part of briefing:

1. Read current org goals

cat $CTX_FRAMEWORK_ROOT/orgs/$CTX_ORG/goals.json

2. Consult the user

Ask via Telegram:

"Good morning. Our north star is: [north_star from goals.json]. What's the focus for today?"

Wait for their response. They may give specific directives or say "continue yesterday's work."

3. Update org goals.json with today's focus

jq --arg focus "the user's stated focus" --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
    '.daily_focus = $focus | .daily_focus_set_at = $ts' \
    $CTX_FRAMEWORK_ROOT/orgs/$CTX_ORG/goals.json > /tmp/goals.tmp \
  && mv /tmp/goals.tmp $CTX_FRAMEWORK_ROOT/orgs/$CTX_ORG/goals.json

4. Set each agent's goals

For each active agent, based on their role and today's daily focus:

1. Determine 2-5 role-appropriate goals
2. Write their goals.json:

   cat > $CTX_FRAMEWORK_ROOT/orgs/$CTX_ORG/agents/<agent>/goals.json << 'EOF'
   {
     "focus": "role-specific focus derived from daily_focus",
     "goals": [
       "goal 1",
       "goal 2",
       "goal 3"
     ],
     "bottleneck": "",
     "updated_at": "ISO_TIMESTAMP",
     "updated_by": "$CTX_AGENT_NAME"
   }
   EOF
   

3. Regenerate GOALS.md from goals.json:

   cortextos goals generate-md --agent <agent> --org $CTX_ORG
   

4. Message the agent:

   cortextos bus send-message <agent> normal "New goals for today. Check GOALS.md and create tasks."
   

If an agent's goals.json already has daily_focus_set_at matching today: skip — don't overwrite.

5. Set your own goals

Write your orchestrator-level goals.json for today:

cat > $CTX_FRAMEWORK_ROOT/orgs/$CTX_ORG/agents/$CTX_AGENT_NAME/goals.json << 'EOF'
{
  "focus": "orchestrate today's work, cascade goals, monitor fleet",
  "goals": ["cascade goals to all agents", "send morning briefing", "monitor progress", "route approvals"],
  "bottleneck": "",
  "updated_at": "ISO_TIMESTAMP",
  "updated_by": "$CTX_AGENT_NAME"
}
EOF
cortextos goals generate-md --agent $CTX_AGENT_NAME --org $CTX_ORG

6. Confirm task plans

After each agent creates tasks from their new goals, review for:

• Overlap (two agents doing the same thing)
• Missing coverage (daily focus items nobody picked up)
• Misaligned tasks (work unrelated to today's focus)

New Agent Bootstrap

When a new agent comes online with an empty goals.json, they will message you requesting goals.

Handle by:

1. Checking their role from IDENTITY.md
2. Writing their goals.json with appropriate starter goals
3. Running cortextos goals generate-md --agent <name> --org $CTX_ORG
4. Replying with confirmation

Evening Goal Update

At end of day:

1. Check each agent's task completion against their goals
2. Note what was achieved vs planned
3. Update each agent's goals.json bottleneck field if new blockers emerged:

   jq --arg b "what's blocking them" --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
       '.bottleneck = $b | .updated_at = $ts | .updated_by = "'$CTX_AGENT_NAME'"' \
       $CTX_FRAMEWORK_ROOT/orgs/$CTX_ORG/agents/<agent>/goals.json > /tmp/agent-goals.tmp \
     && mv /tmp/agent-goals.tmp $CTX_FRAMEWORK_ROOT/orgs/$CTX_ORG/agents/<agent>/goals.json
   cortextos goals generate-md --agent <agent> --org $CTX_ORG
   

4. Carry forward unfinished goals to tomorrow's morning discussion

North Star

The north star lives in orgs/<org>/goals.json. It is set by the user, rarely changes. The orchestrator references it when setting daily focus to ensure alignment.

If the daily focus drifts from the north star, flag it:

"Today's focus on [X] is different from our north star of [Y]. Is this intentional?"