LAYER 05 · Scale beyond one agent

Goals, plan mode, and todos

Three similar ideas own durable objectives, collaboration mode, and the current checklist—they are not one array

18 min3 source anchorsupstream@47f9438
goal state · plan mode · todo projection
The question this chapter resolves

Why can all todos be complete while the goal is not?

Build intuition

A goal is the contractual outcome, plan mode is the current collaboration protocol, and todos are today's site checklist. An empty checklist does not prove the contract passed acceptance.

MECHANISM

Mechanism

ctx.goals folds revisioned durable state from goal/* SessionEvents and keeps live continuation activation in-process; goal-round-driver controls continued rounds.

plan-mode records collaboration mode and plan state; todo_write logs a full three-state list snapshot. Each has its own projection, invariants, and UI.

Step 1 of 5

Create durable goal

The goal defines success conditions and revision.

INVARIANTS

What extensions must preserve

  • Goal revisions prevent stale updates
  • Todo lists are last-write-wins and need no stable item id
  • Plan-exit schema stays stable during transitions
FAILURE MODES

The tempting wrong turns

  • ×Inferring goal state from todo completion
  • ×Treating a plan as hidden model reasoning
  • ×Allowing goal continuation to spin without bounds
VERIFY IN SOURCE

Do not trust the conclusion—verify it

These anchors are pinned to official deepseek-harness@47f9438; account for later breaking changes when reading current upstream.

KNOWLEDGE CHECK

Pause for ten seconds before revealing

Why does TodoItem deliberately omit a stable id?

Why the next chapter follows

With durable objectives and current work state, we can delegate subtasks and register long-running work as jobs.

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An independent learning project. Explanations derive from source; upstream remains authoritative.