goal.md: Goal-Specification File Standard for Autonomous Coding Agents

GitHub·medium signal

A new GitHub project proposes goal.md as a standardized goal-specification file for autonomous coding agents — distinct from CLAUDE.md (instructions) and SKILL.md (capabilities) — focused on declaring objectives and success criteria the agent should optimize for. At 27 points and 7 comments on HN, early adoption signal is modest but the pattern is significant: a file-based agent instruction ecosystem is crystallizing around CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, SKILL.md, and now goal.md. Spec file proliferation is becoming its own coordination problem.