Goal mode
Found this helpful? Share it:
Found this helpful? Share it:
Normally you send a message and get one answer. In goal mode you describe what should be TRUE, and the agent keeps going by itself until it gets there, tells you it is stuck, or runs out of attempts 🎯
You can also pick Set goal from the settings menu next to the message box if you would rather not type the command. It works in a brand new chat too: the goal simply becomes that chat's first turn.
Write a goal that can be checked. "Make the test suite pass" has a clear finish line; "improve the code" does not, so the agent can never tell you it is done.
Your goal appears in the conversation as its own blue message, right where you set it. It stays exactly as you wrote it.
Above the message box a blue Goal active banner keeps the goal visible wherever you scroll, with how long it has been running and buttons to View the full text, Pause it, or Clear it.
Between attempts you see a thin Continuing on the goal divider. That is the agent being handed the goal again, not you sending anything. Everything the agent actually does still shows up normally.
You can keep talking during a goal. Your message is answered first, then the goal picks back up.
| Ending | What happened |
|---|---|
| Goal achieved | The agent decided the goal is met and said what it did. |
| Goal blocked | The agent needs something only you can provide. The card says exactly what. |
| Out of attempts | It used every attempt without finishing. |
| Stopped making progress | Several attempts in a row did nothing. It stops rather than spend more. |
| Paused on usage limit | You reached a usage limit. The goal stops instead of failing over and over. |
| Goal paused | You paused it, or pressed Stop while it was working. |
| Goal cleared | You cleared it, or replaced it with a new goal. |
| Left behind | You edited an earlier message or carried on somewhere else, so the conversation moved off the branch the goal was on. |
A card at the end of the conversation says how it ended, with the agent's own summary and, if it is blocked, exactly what it needs from you. Your original goal is still there, collapsed, one click away.
Everything except Goal achieved, Goal cleared and Left behind is a pause, not an end. The banner stays on screen in amber with a Resume button, and the outcome card offers the same thing. Resuming picks the goal back up once you have cleared whatever stopped it.
Pause on the goal banner stops it for now and keeps it resumable. Clear closes it for good. Pressing Stop while it is working pauses it too. Either is safe to repeat: nothing extra happens if it already ended.
Setting a new goal while one is live replaces it, so you are asked first: Clear current goal makes room for the new one, Keep current goal leaves everything as it was. A replaced goal is closed in the conversation so you can still see how far it got.
A goal runs up to 10 attempts by default. Each attempt is a normal turn and costs the same as one, so a goal costs roughly what those turns would have cost had you sent them yourself.
Goal mode needs an autonomy mode where the agent can act. In read-only the agent cannot do anything, so goals are not available there. Read chat settings to change it.
Related articles
Up next
Share a conversation with your workspace, and what changes for everyone once you do.
Was this helpful?