Goal Writer

Overview

Draft structured individual performance goals aligned with organizational strategy. Uses the goal-writer agent to proactively gather context before writing.

When to Use

• Writing individual performance goals for a review cycle
• Preparing for a goal-setting talk with a manager
• Creating development goals, compliance goals, or strategic goals
• Turning achievements and planned work into structured goal documents

When NOT to Use

• OKR creation (different format)
• Team-level goal cascading (different scope)
• Retrospectives or self-assessments without forward-looking goals

Workflow

digraph goal_flow {
    "User requests goals" -> "Launch goal-writer agent";
    "Launch goal-writer agent" -> "Agent gathers org strategy";
    "Agent gathers org strategy" -> "Agent gathers achievements";
    "Agent gathers achievements" -> "Agent gathers plans";
    "Agent gathers plans" -> "Agent confirms understanding";
    "Agent confirms understanding" -> "Agent drafts goals";
    "Agent drafts goals" -> "Present to user";
    "Present to user" -> "Iterate?" [label="review"];
    "Iterate?" -> "Launch goal-writer agent" [label="changes needed"];
    "Iterate?" -> "Write final file" [label="approved"];
}

Implementation

1. Launch Agent: Use the Agent tool (general-purpose) with a prompt that instructs it to follow ~/.claude/agents/goal-writer.md exactly

   • Read the agent file first and include its instructions in the prompt
   • Pass any context the user already provided (strategy docs, achievements, plans)
   • The agent will proactively ask for missing information

2. Provide Context: If user has strategy documents (PPT, PDF), read them first and pass extracted content to the agent

3. Review Output: Present the agent's drafted goals to the user

4. Iterate: If changes needed, relaunch agent with feedback

5. Write File: Save final goals to the user's requested location (default: ~/Desktop/goals-{year}.md)

Goal Structure

Each goal follows this format:

### Goal N: [Action-oriented title]

**Aligned with:** [Specific org strategy]

[What this goal entails — 2-3 sentences]

**Success Indicators:**
- 2 (Partly achieved): [Minimum outcome]
- 3 (Achieved): [Target outcome]
- 4 (Exceeded): [Outstanding outcome]

Critical Rules

1. Always gather context first — never draft goals without understanding org strategy and personal context
2. Align every goal with a specific organizational strategy
3. Include success indicators at levels 2, 3, and 4
4. Separate achievements from goals — list achievements separately as evidence
5. Ask proactively — don't wait for volunteered info, prompt for specifics