Objective Skill

Overview

Objectives are coordination documents for goals requiring multiple plans/PRs to complete. Unlike erk-plans (single executable implementations), objectives track progress across related work and capture lessons learned along the way.

Scope range:

• Small: Feature requiring 2-3 related PRs
• Medium: Refactor spanning several plans
• Large: Long-running strategic direction emitting many plans

Objective vs Erk-Plan

Key Design Principles

1. Human-first – Plain markdown, no machine-generated metadata
2. Incremental capture – Each action gets its own comment
3. Lessons as first-class – Every action comment includes lessons learned
4. Clear roadmap – Status visible at a glance in the body
5. Body stays current – Update body when roadmap status changes
6. Steelthread-first – Each phase starts with minimal vertical slice proving the concept works
7. One PR per sub-phase – Sub-phases (1A, 1B, 1C) are sized for coherent single PRs
8. Always shippable – System remains functional after each merged PR
9. Body is source of truth – Body always contains complete current state; comments are the changelog
10. Two-step for all changes – Every addition (context, decisions, phases) gets a comment AND body update
11. Context over code – Provide references to patterns, not prescriptive implementations
12. Session handoff ready – Body should be self-contained for any session to pick up and implement

Quick Reference

Creating an Objective

gh issue create --title "Objective: [Title]" --label "erk-objective" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
# Objective: [Title]

> [1-2 sentence summary]

## Goal

[What success looks like - concrete end state]

## Design Decisions

1. **[Decision name]**: [What was decided]

## Roadmap

### Phase 1A: [Name] Steelthread (1 PR)

Minimal vertical slice proving the concept works.

| Step | Description | Status | PR |
|------|-------------|--------|-----|
| 1A.1 | [Minimal infrastructure] | pending | |
| 1A.2 | [Wire into one command] | pending | |

**Test:** [End-to-end acceptance test for steelthread]

### Phase 1B: Complete [Name] (1 PR)

Fill out remaining functionality.

| Step | Description | Status | PR |
|------|-------------|--------|-----|
| 1B.1 | [Extend to remaining commands] | pending | |
| 1B.2 | [Full test coverage] | pending | |

**Test:** [Full acceptance criteria]

## Current Focus

**Next action:** [What should happen next]
EOF
)"

Logging an Action

Post an action comment after completing work. See format.md for full template.

gh issue comment <issue-number> --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Action: [Brief title]
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD | **PR:** #123 | **Phase/Step:** 1A.2
### What Was Done
### Lessons Learned
### Roadmap Updates
EOF
)"

After posting, update the issue body (roadmap statuses, “Current Focus”).

Spawning an Erk-Plan

To implement a specific roadmap step, create an erk-plan that references the objective:

erk plan create --title "Implement [step description]" --body "Part of Objective #123, Step 1.2"

Workflow Summary

1. Create objective – When starting multi-plan work
2. Log actions – After completing each significant piece of work
3. Update body – Keep roadmap status current
4. Spawn erk-plans – For individual implementation steps
5. Close – When goal achieved or abandoned (proactively ask when all steps done)

Resources

references/

• format.md – Complete templates, examples, and update patterns
• workflow.md – Creating objectives, spawning plans, steelthread structuring
• updating.md – Quick reference for the two-step update workflow
• closing.md – Closing triggers and procedures