capture-goals

Capture Goals

Sit down with the people who own the project, draw out everything in their heads, and turn the mess into a clean set of actionable cards. This is the recurring planning session -- run it whenever thinking has outpaced the board.

Step 1: Identify the Project and Read State

Check $ARGUMENTS for a slug or name. Otherwise discover the projects directory and list active projects; ask which one.

Read MISSION.md (so tasks serve the goal) and the current board per BOARD-FORMAT.md (so you don't duplicate existing cards).

Step 2: Facilitate the Dump

There may be more than one person in the room (e.g. the user and a partner). Address the room, capture every voice. Invoke /grill-it to draw thoughts out and pressure-test them -- but tuned for elicitation, not interrogation. Keep it conversational:

• "What needs to happen for this to move forward?"
• "What's worrying you / what's blocked?"
• "What did we say last time that hasn't been done?"
• "Anything dated -- deadlines, appointments, hard dates?"

Let it run loose. Capture raw thoughts verbatim as they come; don't organise yet. Stop when the room is empty of ideas.

Step 3: Organise into Tasks

Turn the raw dump into discrete cards. Each card must be:

• Actionable -- starts with a verb, names one concrete thing to do.
• Atomic -- one card, one task. Split compound thoughts ("sort finance and book the inspection" -> two cards).
• Non-duplicate -- check it against existing board cards; merge rather than repeat.
• Dated when a date surfaced -- attach @{YYYY-MM-DD} per BOARD-FORMAT.

Drop pure venting and anything already done. Group nothing yet -- a flat list is the output here.

Step 4: Confirm the List

Present the organised cards back to the room before writing:

From that session, here are the cards:

• {task}
• {task} @{date}

Add, drop, reword, or split anything?

One round of refinement, then write. This is the moment for human judgement -- don't skip it.

Step 5: Write to the Board

Read-modify-write <slug>.kanban.md -- never overwrite the file. Append the confirmed cards to the Backlog column.

Then triage near-term work:

Pull any of these into This Week?

• {card}
• {card}

Move selected cards from Backlog to This Week. Leave the rest in Backlog. No pressure to schedule.

Step 6: Surface Milestones

If any card carries a hard date that belongs in the journal (a deadline, not just a target), offer:

{N} of these are dated milestones. Push them to the journal via /schedule-goals?

Hand off to /schedule-goals for the ones the user picks.

Step 7: Confirm

Captured {n} cards for {Project}:

• Backlog: {n}
• This Week: {n}
• Milestones to journal: {n or "none"}

Worth a decision record? (if the session shifted direction, write one per DECISIONS-FORMAT.)