goalkeeper

Real reject-cycle, 3 minutes wall-clock. Goalkeeper caught a MAX_RUNTIME_MS = 9999 // TODO sentinel placeholder in a benchmark test where the validator passed both rounds. Round 1: validator green, judge reject on DoD #3 + #7 with a 3-step fix-list. Round 2: real threshold (500ms = 10x measured baseline) with justification, validator green, judge approve. Full transcript with quoted verdicts: docs/demo.md. Long-form writeup on dev.to.

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How it differs

	OpenAI Codex /goal	Ralph loop	goalkeeper
Durable goal across many turns	✓	✓	✓
Validator back-pressure	optional	core	core
Independent judge gate against an explicit Definition of Done	—	—	core
Anti-placeholder rule (stubs / .todo / it.only auto-reject)	—	informal	enforced
Linear chains of role-specific goals with judge-gated handoff	—	—	/goal-chain
Auto-pauses after N consecutive rejections	—	—	5 (configurable)
Append-only checkpoint log per goal	—	informal	enforced
Spec lives in	CLI prompt	PROMPT.md	contract.md (validated against JSON Schema)
Pre-existing validator failures distinguished from goal-caused	—	—	validator_baseline_*

Inspired by OpenAI Codex /goal and Geoffrey Huntley's Ralph loop, with one key addition: the judge.

Why

Codex /goal runs autonomously until a stop-condition is met. The Ralph loop runs while :; do cat PROMPT.md | claude-code; done and leans on validators (compile, test, lint) to back-pressure the model. Both work, but both have the same failure mode: a passing validator is not the same as a finished feature. Tests can pass on stubs. Linters can pass on .todos. Codex can declare victory the moment its stop-condition string matches.

goalkeeper adds a second gate. After your validator passes, a fresh subagent — independent context, no rationalizations from the executing agent — reviews the diff and the progress log against your written Definition of Done, and either approves or returns a structured fix-list. After 5 rejections it pauses and asks for human help.

Install

Add the goalkeeper marketplace, then install the plugin:

# inside Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add bonfire-systems/goalkeeper
/plugin install goalkeeper@goalkeeper

Skills become available under the goalkeeper: namespace. Invoke as /goalkeeper:goal "<objective>", /goalkeeper:goal-prep, /goalkeeper:goal-judge, etc. (Most users alias the namespace away — see "Aliasing" below.)

Aliasing the namespace

If you primarily use goalkeeper and want shorter commands, add aliases to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "aliases": {
    "/goal": "/goalkeeper:goal",
    "/goal-prep": "/goalkeeper:goal-prep",
    "/goal-pause": "/goalkeeper:goal-pause",
    "/goal-resume": "/goalkeeper:goal-resume",
    "/goal-clear": "/goalkeeper:goal-clear",
    "/goal-judge": "/goalkeeper:goal-judge",
    "/goal-chain": "/goalkeeper:goal-chain"
  }
}

Quick start

/goal-prep "Migrate the test suite from Jest to Vitest"

goalkeeper reads your repo, asks a few targeted questions (objective, definition-of-done, validator command, non-goals), writes .claude/goals/<slug>/contract.md, and offers to start. Once running, it: