Goal Maker: Skill for Codex that turns vague long-term goals into a manageable PM cycle

Working with large, long-term tasks in Codex (or similar AI agents) is a classic challenge. The goal begins blurred, the agent quickly dives into the implementation, verification becomes obsolete, and the entire process loses direction.

Tolibear’s Goal Maker is a specialized Codex Skill that introduces a clear finite-state PM loop. It turns any large goal into a structured task board with Scout, Judge, Worker roles and mandatory reports.

## What does Goal Maker decide?

• Drift of targets - the agent stops wandering and constantly returns to charter.
• Premature implementation – there is always a Scout and a Judge before coding.
• Lack of evidence – each task completed leaves a compact receipt.
• Obsolescence of verification - Board always contains the current state.

Codex works like a real project manager with a clear process.

## Basic model and roles

Goal Maker is built around four key primitives:

• Charter (goal.md) - description of the purpose, limitations, current tranche (stage) and stop rule.
• Board (state.yaml) is the only source of truth about tasks, statuses and receipts.
• Task – At any given time, only one task is active.
• **Receipt - Compact proof of what was done, why the task was completed/blocked or escalated.

** Roles (agents):**

• Scout - scout: analyzes the repository, specifications, finds candidates for tasks.
• Judge: evaluates priorities, risks, scope, verifies completion.
• *Worker: Performs one clearly defined task.
• PM is the main stream of /goal, which owns the board, selects the next task and leads the process.

## How it works

1. Install Skill:

   bash copy

   npx goal-maker

2. In Codex, call:

   code copy

   $goal-maker

Skill creates a docs/goals/<slug>/ folder with goal.md and state.yaml.

3. Start the main cycle:
   code copy

   /goal Follow docs/goals/<slug>/goal.md

Codex also operates in a cycle: Blurred Purpose → Discovery (Scout) → Board → One Active Task → Receipt → Board Update → Repeat

## Target folder structure

docs/goals/<slug>/
Goal.md # Charter
─state.yaml # Taskboard + receipts
ки ─ Notes/ # Additional major notes

Most of the results are stored directly in state.yaml. Large reports are made in notes/.

## Advantages

• Great for multi-hour and multi-day purposes (the author mentioned a record of 71 hours).
• Discipline of the agent: does not allow you to write code for a large purpose.
• Transparency – you can always see what’s done and why.
• It is easy to check the status of the board through the built-in script.
• Version 0.2.x with improved receipts (v1 not supported).

## Who's good for Goal Maker?

• Developers who use Codex for serious refactoring, project improvement, or long-term features.
• Those who want to turn AI from a “fast coder” to a real junior/senior developer running PM.
• Teams and solo developers working with large codebases.

## Conclusion

Goal Maker is a powerful tool for those who are tired of chaotic long sessions with AI. Instead of writing me a big feature, you get a structured, controlled process with intelligence, risk assessment, and proof of work done.

Reference to repository: https://github.com/tolibear/goal-maker