Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Brief

Saves and maintains the durable Goldfish brief for a project (goal, constraints, success criteria, status). Use when starting multi-session work, capturing approved project direction, updating goals or constraints, or when the user asks for durable strategic context that should persist across sessions

UncategorizedID: anortham/goldfish/brief

Repository

anortham/goldfish
anortham
31

Install this agent skill to your local

pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/anortham/goldfish/tree/HEAD/.agents/skills/brief

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.agents/skills/brief/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
brief
Description
Saves and maintains the durable Goldfish brief for a project (goal, constraints, success criteria, status). Use when starting multi-session work, capturing approved project direction, updating goals or constraints, or when the user asks for durable strategic context that should persist across sessions

Brief

Workspace binding

For user-level MCP registrations, pass workspace as the conversation's host-native absolute project root on every checkpoint, brief, and current-project recall call. In a git worktree, pass the worktree path, not the main checkout. Change it when you enter or leave a worktree. Omission and "current" work only with fixed absolute GOLDFISH_WORKSPACE or supported legacy Roots. recall({ workspace: "all" }) is explicit cross-project search, never a fallback; it is invalid for checkpoint and brief. Cwd, registry, and parent-walk candidates are suggestions only. If unbound, retry with {"workspace":"<absolute-project-root>"}.

Core Split

Goldfish brief = durable direction.

  • Harness plan mode owns execution planning for the current session.
  • docs/plans/ owns implementation specs and task breakdowns.
  • Goldfish brief owns the compact strategic context that future sessions need.

Do not copy a harness task list or docs/plans/ checklist into the brief. Link to execution artifacts instead.

What Belongs In A Brief

Keep the brief compact and stable:

  • Goal
  • Why now
  • Constraints
  • Success criteria
  • References to docs/plans/... or other design docs
  • Status

What Does Not Belong

  • Step by step task breakdowns
  • File by file implementation notes
  • A mirrored ExitPlanMode plan blob
  • Session noise that belongs in checkpoints
  • Git logs, command output, or test transcripts (name the commit or doc instead)

Save A Brief

brief({
  workspace: "/absolute/path/to/project",
  action: "save",
  title: "Brief API surface around strategic context",
  content: "## Goal\n\nRename the forward-looking artifact to brief.\n\n## Why Now\n\nHarnesses now own execution planning.\n\n## Constraints\n\nKeep one-release compatibility for plan callers.\n\n## Success Criteria\n\nRecall, skills, hooks, and docs all present brief as canonical.\n\n## References\n\n- docs/plans/2026-04-16-brief-repositioning-design.md",
  tags: ["memory", "migration"],
  activate: true
})

Lifecycle

  • Save a brief when a direction needs to survive session boundaries.
  • Update it when goals, constraints, or success criteria change.
  • Complete it when the direction has landed.
  • Archive it when it has been superseded.

Only one brief should be active per workspace.

Retrieval

  • brief({ action: "get", workspace: "/absolute/path/to/project" }) gets the active brief.
  • brief({ action: "list", workspace: "/absolute/path/to/project" }) shows saved briefs.
  • recall({ workspace: "/absolute/path/to/project", limit: 0 }) shows the active brief without loading checkpoints.

Rules

  • Treat the brief as a compact strategic document.
  • Use checkpoints for evidence of work done.
  • Use docs/plans/ for execution detail.
  • If an older workflow says plan, translate it to brief semantics unless the user is asking about a legacy artifact on purpose.
Brief Skill | Agent Skills