# goals

Substantial work goes in as a written goal: the outcome, the surfaces, the constraints, and the bar it has to clear — runnable end to end.

## What it is
For substantial work I write a goal rather than a chat message: the real outcome in one line, the exact files and surfaces it touches, hard constraints, how each change gets verified, and the artifact I want back. A well-written goal runs start to finish without me.

## Why
Half-stated goals produce half-right work that needs a second round anyway. Writing the outcome, constraints, and bar once, up front, is cheaper than discovering them through corrections — and it makes the run repeatable.

## How Andrew uses it
The goal text is the contract — it names what done means so the session can hold itself to it. One-shot goals cover a bounded task; longer ones decompose into parallel workstreams with the expensive model reviewing rather than typing. I keep a record of which goal shapes worked, and consult it before writing the next one.

## How to get it
The whole method is downloadable and adaptable — `method/steps/goal-prompt.md` inside the zip, with the structure I use: outcome, surfaces, constraints, verification bar, handoff artifact.

_Distilled from: ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md § /goal_
