prd-to-goal

/ork:prd-to-goal — PRD → /goal Decomposition

Converts a PRD / issue / spec into a single copy-pasteable /goal line. The hard part of /goal is not running it — it is writing an until clause that is convergent (terminates), falsifiable (testable boolean), and observable (the agent can actually check it without subjective judgement). This skill makes that decomposition reproducible.

1. When to use

Use it when:

• You have a written PRD, GitHub issue, or spec and want to run /goal against it.
• Past /goal runs drifted, looped, or burned tokens because the until clause was vague (until tests pass, until done, until design is good).
• You need to justify the abort budget — turns, tokens, no-progress threshold.

Skip it when:

• One-shot bug fix where the failing test is the acceptance criterion. Just run /goal until pnpm test -- auth.spec.ts passes.
• No written PRD exists. Run /ork:write-prd first — vibes do not decompose.
• The work is destructive or irreversible (DB migrations, mass file deletes). /goal retries; you do not want retries on DROP TABLE.

2. Inputs the skill accepts

3. The decomposition algorithm

1. Extract acceptance criteria. Pull every MUST, SHOULD, Definition of Done, Acceptance Criteria, and checkbox-style line. If the doc has none, stop and tell the user to run /ork:write-prd first — there is nothing to converge on.
2. Map each criterion to an observable boolean. Each criterion must reduce to a single shell-checkable assertion. Examples of observable state:
   • test -f path/to/file (file exists)
   • pnpm test -- pattern passes (test command exits 0)
   • gh pr view <N> --json state | jq -r .state == "MERGED"
   • wc -l < src/auth.ts returns a number within bound
   • pnpm lint exits 0
   • curl -sf $URL returns 2xx
3. Reject non-observable criteria. Drop or rewrite criteria that depend on subjective judgement (code is clean, design feels right, users are happy). Either find a proxy (lint exits 0, Lighthouse score > 90, NPS survey ID exists) or surface the criterion back to the user as out of scope for /goal.
4. Compose the until clause. AND-join the observable assertions in priority order — the cheapest, most likely-to-fail check first so the loop short-circuits early. Three to five assertions is the sweet spot; more than seven usually means the PRD is two PRDs.
5. Compose the abort-if clause. Pick a turn cap, token cap, and no-progress detector. Sensible defaults:
   • Turns: 15 for a single feature, 30 for a refactor, 5 for a bug fix.
   • Tokens: 100000 (1 USD-ish on Sonnet) for a feature, 30000 for a bug fix.
   • No-progress: 3 turns with no file changes and no new test passing.

4. Output template

The skill emits exactly two lines, ready to paste:

/goal until <assertion_1> AND <assertion_2> AND <assertion_3>
/goal abort-if turns > <N> OR tokens > <T> OR no_progress_for_<K>_turns

No commentary, no markdown wrapper — the user copies the block straight into Claude Code.

Optional: rubric emission (.claude/rubric.json)

When the user wants graded feedback beyond pass/fail booleans, the skill MAY also emit .claude/rubric.json conforming to ork-rubric/1.0 (schema: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/shared/rubric.schema.json), mapping each acceptance criterion to one dimension:

{
  "rubric": "ork-rubric/1.0",
  "skill": "prd-to-goal",
  "dimensions": [
    { "name": "regression_test_added", "weight": 0.4, "min_pass": 8, "min_blocker": 3 },
    { "name": "auth_suite_green",      "weight": 0.4, "min_pass": 10, "min_blocker": 5 },
    { "name": "lint_clean",            "weight": 0.2, "min_pass": 10, "min_blocker": 0 }
  ]
}

Scores are 0–10 (min_pass = soft floor, min_blocker = hard blocker regardless of composite); dimension weights MUST sum to 1.0 — see the schema for the full contract.

The file is deliberately user-editable before the /goal run — that is the point. Adjusting weights and min_pass thresholds is how the user injects judgement into the loop without rewriting assertions (rubric-as-environment-feedback, Lance Martin 2026-06-09). The post-timeout grader (§8) treats the rubric, if present, as the user's intent — senior to the literal assertion text.

5. Worked examples

Example A — Bug fix PRD

Input (issue body):

Title: Login fails on emails containing "+"
Acceptance Criteria:
- New regression test in tests/auth/test_login.py covers email with "+"
- The new test passes
- All existing auth tests still pass

Output:

/goal until test -f tests/auth/test_login.py AND pnpm test -- tests/auth/test_login.py passes AND pnpm test -- tests/auth passes
/goal abort-if turns > 5 OR tokens > 30000 OR no_progress_for_3_turns

Rationale: file existence is the cheapest check; the targeted test is the regression gate; the broad auth suite catches collateral damage.

Example B — Feature PRD

Input (PRD excerpt):

Feature: User Avatar Endpoint
MUST:
- New route GET /users/:id/avatar registered
- Returns 200 with { url: string, updatedAt: ISO8601 } for known user
- Returns 404 for unknown user
- Integration test covers both cases
- OpenAPI spec updated

Output:

/goal until grep -q "users/:id/avatar" src/routes/users.ts AND pnpm test -- tests/integration/users.avatar.spec.ts passes AND grep -q "/users/{id}/avatar" openapi.yaml AND pnpm lint passes
/goal abort-if turns > 15 OR tokens > 100000 OR no_progress_for_3_turns

Rationale: route grep catches a handler that was stubbed but never wired; the integration spec encodes both 200 and 404; OpenAPI grep enforces the docs MUST; lint guards against half-typed code shipping.

Example C — Refactor PRD

Input (PRD excerpt):

Refactor: split monolithic src/auth.ts (1842 LOC) into per-strategy files
Definition of Done:
- src/auth.ts under 200 LOC
- New files in src/auth/strategies/*.ts cover oauth, jwt, password
- All auth tests still pass
- Lint clean
- No new files outside src/auth/

Output:

/goal until [ $(wc -l < src/auth.ts) -lt 200 ] AND test -f src/auth/strategies/oauth.ts AND test -f src/auth/strategies/jwt.ts AND test -f src/auth/strategies/password.ts AND pnpm test -- tests/auth passes AND pnpm lint passes
/goal abort-if turns > 30 OR tokens > 150000 OR no_progress_for_3_turns

Rationale: the LOC bound is the convergent signal — without it, /goal can keep "improving" forever. File-existence checks pin the structural decomposition; tests + lint guard correctness. Higher budget because refactors run longer than bug fixes.

6. Recipe Library — pre-built loops

Where §3–5 generate a custom /goal line from a spec, the recipe library ships ready-made ones for the recurring autonomous loops. Each is a loop shape wrapped around an ork worker skill, following the same convergent / falsifiable / budgeted rules as a generated line.

Full recipes — the exact /goal until … abort-if … lines, convergent signal, and per-recipe guardrail: references/recipe-library.md. That file is the in-repo source intended for an ork-loops pack on skills.sh (not yet built; the channel Forward Future's Loop Library uses), so the loop recipes can travel while ork supplies the machinery each pass runs on.

7. Anti-patterns

8. Post-timeout assertion grader

If the /goal loop hits abort-if (turn/token cap or no-progress stall), do NOT retry the same line and do NOT let the looping agent critique its own assertions. Spawn a FRESH-context grader that audits the assertion set itself:

# Bare-eval pattern — independent context window, zero shared state:
Bash("CLAUDE_CODE_FORK_SUBAGENT=1 claude -p --bare \"$(cat /tmp/grader-prompt.txt)\"")
# or: Agent(subagent_type="general-purpose", prompt=grader_prompt)  # fresh spawn, no producer prose

The grader receives the /goal line, .claude/rubric.json (if emitted), a compressed summary of the last N turns, and freshly regenerated repo-state evidence. It returns one verdict:

Grading must happen in an independent context window — never self-critique (verifier sub-agents outperform self-critique because the grader does not share the producer's context; Lance Martin, 2026-06-09). Budget: one grader call per timeout, and the grader never loops itself.

Full pattern (prompt template, independence rules, worked example): ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/chain-patterns/references/assertion-grader.md.

9. Related skills

• ork:write-prd — if the input has no acceptance criteria, run this first.
• ork:brainstorm — useful when the PRD itself is contested and you want options before writing the goal.
• ork:audit-full — after /goal exits, run audit-full to confirm the assertions actually held end-to-end (the loop trusts the boolean; audit re-checks the intent).