smalltalk pre-release

Missions and runs

A mission is a declared definition of work: one to three goals, optional constraints and inputs, and the steps, products and gates that get it done. A run is one execution of it.

version 2

mission "example/first-note" state="ready" {
  goal "Leave a short note in the workspace."

  step "write-note" timeout="10m" {
    assigned-to "agent/example/worker"
    goal "Create notes/hello.md in ${ST_WORKSPACE} with one sentence that says what this project is for."
  }
}

Publish, then start#

Publishing and starting are separate on purpose.

• Publishing stores an immutable revision of the mission. It starts nothing.
• Starting creates a run pinned to exactly one revision and one set of inputs.

st missions publish first-note.kdl --as person/ada
st missions start example/first-note --id example/first-note/1 \
  --workspace ~/src/garden --as person/ada --follow

Because a run is pinned, publishing a new revision never changes a run that is already going. A mission allows one active run at a time unless it declares concurrent-runs.

Keep the KDL for the missions you rely on in a Git repository, so they're backed up and you can publish them again anywhere. See keep your declarations in a repository.

Revising a running mission#

Plans change mid-flight, so a running mission can be revised. Each accepted revision becomes a new, immutable generation of the run. Completed work that is still compatible carries forward; only the steps that changed, and the steps that depend on them, start over. Older generations stay readable.

A mission or a step can require a person to approve any revision to it.

Missions are finite#

Every run ends. Being available for the long haul is the job of seats, not of missions that never finish.

Recurring or event-driven work comes from starting fresh, finite runs:

• A schedule starts one exact mission revision on an interval.
• An observer watches something outside, such as a GitHub pull request or a local file, without spending agent turns. A subscription starts a mission when the fields it cares about change.

Nobody polls in a turn. Changes in the graph move the work forward.