formulate-top-goal · diff
git:20260615.7a62936 to git:20260923.cbc38aa
34 added, 17 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: formulate-top-goal
- description: 'Express the user''s chosen research direction as a formal goal statement
- in the format: ''Achieve [what], such that [effect], under [constraints]''. Confirm
- with user before proceeding to decomposition.'
- execution: dialogue
+ description: "Formalize a research goal as an outcome, desired effect, and explicit constraints."
---
- # Formulate Top Goal
+ # formulate-top-goal
- Crystallize the user's direction into a formal, confirmable goal statement.
+ ## Purpose
- ## Execution
+ Formalize a research goal as an outcome, desired effect, and explicit constraints.
- Dialogue — inline, no subagent.
+ ## Input contract
- ## Format
+ ```yaml
+ required: [research_intent]
+ optional: [actor_profile, constraints, evidence_context]
+ constraints: [goal wording must identify an observable outcome and relevant boundary conditions]
+ ```
- "Achieve [what], such that [effect], under [constraints]"
+ ## Procedure
- ## Process
+ 1. State the outcome that should change and the desired direction of change.
+ 2. Identify scope, actors, resources, time, and non-negotiable constraints.
+ 3. Separate goal content from proposed methods and assumptions.
+ 4. Emit a testable top-goal statement with unresolved choices.
- 1. Draft the goal statement based on accumulated context (direction + ActorProfile + obstacles accepted)
- 2. Present to user
- 3. Ask: "Is this what you want to achieve? Should I adjust anything?"
- 4. Iterate until user confirms
+ If the top goal has explicit success conditions but remains too broad to execute, consider `decompose-and-or-goal` as the next tactic.
- ## Output
+ ## Output contract
- Confirmed top-level goal statement.
+ ```yaml
+ produces: [top_goal, desired_effect, constraint_set, goal_assumptions, open_goal_questions]
+ delta_fields: [findings, hypothesis_updates, assumption_updates, decisions, uncertainties, open_questions]
+ ```
+
+ ## Quality gates
+
+ - Outcome and desired direction are observable.
+ - Constraints are not hidden in method wording.
+
+ ## Failure and counterexamples
+
+ Do not accept "understand the topic" as a top goal without an outcome or decision target.
+
+ ## Provenance map
+
+ - `resolved: formulate-top-goal`