Autonomous Goal Loop (/goal)

The /goal command lets you set a high-level goal and have OpenCrabs work toward it autonomously — executing actions, self-evaluating with an LLM judge, and continuing until the goal is satisfied or a turn budget runs out.

How It Works

1. Set a goal: /goal <description of what you want>
2. The agent loops: executes an action, then an LLM judge evaluates whether the goal is met
3. Self-correction: if the goal isn’t satisfied, the agent continues with a correction prompt
4. Completion: the loop ends when the judge says the goal is met, or the turn budget (default 20 turns) is exhausted

This is fully hands-off. Set the goal, walk away, come back to results.

Usage

/goal <text>       — Set a new goal and start the autonomous loop
/goal status       — Check current goal progress
/goal pause        — Pause the autonomous loop
/goal resume       — Resume a paused goal
/goal clear        — Remove the current goal

Examples

/goal Fix all failing tests in the auth module and make sure clippy passes
/goal Research the top 5 Rust web frameworks and write a comparison in research/frameworks.md
/goal Set up a CI pipeline with GitHub Actions for this project
/goal Refactor the database layer to use connection pooling
/goal Find and fix all TODO comments in src/handlers/

Turn Budget

The default turn budget is 20 autonomous turns. Each turn is one full LLM round-trip (action + evaluation). The agent uses a lightweight LLM judge to evaluate progress, keeping costs low.

If the budget runs out before the goal is satisfied, the agent reports what it accomplished and what remains.

Best Practices

• Be specific: “Fix the login bug” works better than “make the app better”
• Set boundaries: mention files, modules, or constraints in the goal
• Use for multi-step tasks: /goal shines on tasks that need repeated execution and self-correction
• Check status: use /goal status to monitor progress on long-running goals
• Pause when needed: /goal pause if you need the agent for something else

Self-Goaling (v0.3.61)

The agent can also set and drive its own multi-turn goals autonomously via the goal_manage tool. This lets the agent break down a complex request into self-directed goal loops without the user needing to invoke /goal manually. The agent evaluates its own progress and adjusts course, the same way a user-set /goal loop works.

Availability

/goal works across all channels: TUI, Telegram, Discord, Slack, and WhatsApp. Set autonomous goals from wherever you talk to your agent.

When to Use /goal vs /btw vs Plans

/goal is best when you have a clear outcome and want the agent to figure out the steps itself.