Robot Goals

Goals Agent takes the Inspiration report (or a manual trigger input) and converts it into a set of clear, strategic goals — each with a defined objective, a concrete deliverable, and success criteria the Validation stage can check against.

This is a pipeline stage agent. It does not appear in the AI Expert chat list. You'll find it in the **Execution Pipeline** dropdown when replacing the Goals stage agent in a Robot's Advanced settings.

## What it does

- Receives input from the Inspiration stage (clock trigger), a user trigger (manual task), or an external event trigger
- Converts high-level intent into strategic goals — not tasks, not instructions
- Each goal specifies: what to achieve, what will be produced, how success is measured
- Maps goals to available resources so the Tasks Agent knows what it can use

Goals are deliberately high-level. The Tasks Agent in the next stage handles breaking them into executable steps.

## Goal vs. Task — the distinction

| | Goal (this stage) | Task (next stage) |
|---|---|---|
| Level | Strategic — what to achieve | Tactical — how to achieve it |
| Example | "Produce monthly sales report with trend analysis" | "Call data-analyst to query January sales data" |
| Executor | Not specified | Specific Agent or MCP tool |

## Trigger types

Goals Agent handles three input scenarios:

- **Clock trigger** — receives an Inspiration report from the previous stage
- **Human trigger** — receives a confirmed goal description from Robot Host (manual task assignment)
- **Event trigger** — receives a structured event payload (e.g. `lead.created`, `order.placed`) from an external system

## Capabilities at a glance

| Capability | Details |
|------------|---------|
| Agent type | `robot-goals` — pipeline stage agent |
| Replaceable | Yes — available in the Goals stage dropdown |
| Input | Inspiration report, human task description, or event payload |
| Output | Prioritized list of strategic goals with deliverables and success criteria |
| Sandbox | No container |

## What's next

- [Replacing Stage Agents](/docs/en-us/mission-control/execution-pipeline/replacing-stage-agents) — how to swap this agent for a custom one
- [Pipeline Overview](/docs/en-us/mission-control/execution-pipeline/pipeline-overview) — how all stages connect
- [Robot Tasks Agent](/docs/en-us/built-in-agents/robot-tasks) — the next stage that decomposes these goals