Goal Set — Declare Session Primary Goal

🌱 ShiningPlague-authored. No upstream version exists. Part of the session-goal tracking system (/goal-set + /goal-add-minor + /goal-check).

Write the session's primary goal to production/session-state/active-goals.json. This is the goal that /goal-check validates at session close. Designer-invoked only — the assistant doesn't pick this; designer declares it.

If an artifact named here is absent: say so plainly in one line, skip that step, and continue. Never invent the file to satisfy a checklist, and never fail a close because an optional artifact was never created.

When to fire

• Session start, after designer states clear intent ("today we're authoring game-concept.md", "this session is META framework hardening", "we're shipping the Combat GDD")
• Whenever designer wants to formalize what THIS chat is trying to accomplish
• Auto-propose at session start if designer's first prompt is a workstream × activity declaration

When NOT to fire

• Mid-chat exploratory talk without commitment yet
• Designer hasn't picked a workstream + activity
• Goal would be vague ("do stuff", "work on it") — push back, ask designer to make it concrete

Procedure

Step 1: Read current active-goals.json

cat production/session-state/active-goals.json

If primary_goal is already set + frozen: false, ask designer: "Existing goal is X. Replace, keep, or amend?"

If frozen: true, refuse to overwrite — primary goal is locked until session closes. Offer /goal-add-minor instead.

Step 2: Capture goal + expected outcomes

Ask designer for:

• Goal text (1 sentence — what does shipping this session look like?)
• Expected outcomes (3-7 concrete bullets — what artifacts/decisions/behaviors will exist when goal is met?)

Per project-local /brainstorming SKILL: expected outcomes must be concrete (not "improved X" — say what clicks-into-what-result).

Step 3: Write to active-goals.json

Update fields:

• session_id: YYYY-MM-DD-<workstream>-<topic-slug>
• session_started: today's date
• session_focus: <Workstream> × <Activity> per session-focus model
• frozen: false (becomes true when designer fires first work-skill like /writing-plans)
• primary_goal.text: the goal sentence
• primary_goal.set_at: today
• primary_goal.expected_outcomes: the concrete bullets
• audit_log: append {ts, event: "goal_set", note: <goal text>}

Step 4: Update session-start hook awareness

If the project has written the optional tools/generate_session_context.sh (the template never ships it — .claude/hooks/session-start.sh runs it only when it exists), propose extending it to surface the active primary goal at session start. If there is no such script, skip this step — the goal still lives in active-goals.json and /goal-check reads it from there.

Step 5: Confirm + chain-propose

Report to designer:

• "Primary goal locked: <text>"
• "Expected outcomes: <list>"
• "Goal becomes FROZEN when first work-skill fires (per session-focus discipline)"
• "I'll surface it at session close for /goal-check verification"

Propose firing first work-skill if designer has chosen activity (chain-propose).

Cross-skill awareness

• After this fires, /goal-add-minor can append mid-session minor goals
• /goal-check at session close validates all goals
• /session-close Step 0 reads this file for pre-close verification
• Pairs with built-in CC /goal command if available (this skill = persistent file-backed wrapper; /goal = per-turn evaluator). Both can coexist.

Failure modes

• ❌ Setting vague goals ("do stuff") — push back for concreteness
• ❌ Overwriting frozen primary goal — refuse, offer /goal-add-minor
• ❌ Skipping expected outcomes — refuse, they're the verification criteria
• ❌ Auto-firing without designer declaration — this is designer-invoked