# Target > Define how unsupervised work will be judged before it runs. Use when execution is an autonomous loop or a long unbabysat agent run that optimizes toward a metric. Triggers on "autonomous loop", "let it run", "optimize until", "overnight run", "unsupervised", "set a goal". - Skill: `majiayu000/target` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add majiayu000/target` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/majiayu000/target/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: majiayu000 (https://skillmd.com/u/majiayu000) - Updated: 2026-09-09 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/majiayu000/target --- Define the observer before unsupervised work runs, so the cheapest way to pass is the real work. ## Contract - **INPUT**: a spec for work that will run unsupervised. - **GATE**: "Is the observer mechanical AND un-gameable?" Agent audits, user locks. - **OUTPUT**: a success contract (spec below). Emit it in conversation. ## The success contract Concrete and executable. Exact commands, values, and targets, not abstractions. - **Observable**: the single state or number that means done. One thing, not a dashboard. - **Verify command**: the literal command the run executes and surfaces in its output, exiting non-zero on crash. Require the real output, exit code and score line, in view. An unsupervised run can claim a check it never ran. - **Direction and target**: higher or lower is better, and the value that ends the work. - **Bound**: a turn or wall-clock cap that ends the loop even unmet (`… or stop after N turns`). - **Baseline**: the observable's value now, from one dry run. Proves the command fires. - **Guards**: what must keep passing while optimizing. Check before reading the observable. A violation voids the score and the kept change. It never just lowers the score. - **Cheats closed**: each cheap path to a false pass, paired with its structural closure. Format: `cheat: … / closed by: …`. Done when no listed cheat is cheaper than real work. ## Work loop 1. **Extract target**: from the spec, name the single observable that means done. 2. **Mechanize**: make it extractable, deterministic, fast. If success needs human judgment, it cannot be mechanized. Stop and say so. 3. **Red-team**: start from the known-cheat catalog (`cheat-museum.md`), then hunt the cheats specific to this target. Close each with a fence: a holdout the run can't see, an artifact cap, a cut to feedback resolution, a perturbation probe that gauges memorization. Loop until nothing is cheaper than real work. 4. **Baseline**: dry-run the verify command once, record the value, confirm it exits clean. A command that will not run is a gate FAIL. 5. **Gate**: run the gate audit below. ### Decision prompts - Auto-gather when the answer is retrievable with certainty: cheap local reads, docs, web research, parallel subagents. Return with decisions, not raw findings. Never ask the user something research already made obvious — that is a named stop condition. - Only non-obvious judgment calls reach the user. Every such AskUserQuestion: exactly 2 candidate answers + 2 uniform escape hatches — "Gather facts" (research/explore) and "Hear tradeoffs" (consult experts). Hatches are first-class options, never hidden behind Other. - Re-entry after a detour: if the detour made the answer obvious, state the decision and proceed; otherwise re-ask the same question with the new evidence inside the prompt. - Presentation rule: EVERYTHING the user needs to answer lives inside the question UI — question text, descriptions, previews. Never in prose before the tool call (the dialog hides it). ## The gate "Is the observer mechanical and un-gameable?" Agent audits, user locks. - Before presenting, run a deletion pass over the draft contract. Cut every cheat already closed by another, every guard that restates the observable, every line a command cannot check. - Present verdict first via AskUserQuestion: PASSES or FAILS, then the surviving cheats and how each is closed. Proof the adversary ran. - On FAIL, name what is unmechanical or un-closeable. If success cannot be defined, stop. The work is not ready to run unsupervised. If a cheat cannot be closed, bounce to the user. Never pad the contract to look safe. - The user locks. The lock is theirs, not yours. ## Pre-flight Two acts only the human can do before the loop runs unsupervised: - Issue a disposable API key with a provider-side spend cap. The contract bounds correctness. Only the key bounds cost. - Babysit cycle one. Watch what the run touches, confirm it uses the instruments the contract names, then leave. ## Boundaries The human owns and locks the contract. The optimizer never defines its own success. When execution games the contract, fix the contract: widen the observable, add a guard, cap an artifact. Never fix the worker. A cheat is a bug in the target. Resume from the last honest checkpoint and revert what the cheat produced.