Goals

A goal keeps DataMind Oda working on one objective across many turns in a chat, until the goal is met or Oda needs you. This page covers how a goal behaves, the surfaces it adds to your chat, and how to manage it.

Set a goal with /goal

1. In the message box, type /goal followed by the objective, for example /goal Prepare the monthly report.
2. Send it. The command appears in the chat as a Command input bubble, and the goal appears at once: a pill by the message box, and a card in the chat's Activity panel.
3. Oda works the goal in the same chat until the goal is met or it needs you. When a turn ends with work left, Oda continues on its own in an automatic round.

Run /goal with no objective to see the current goal. When no goal is set, the result reads No goal is currently set. and a usage line lists the accepted forms: Usage: /goal [<objective>|clear|edit <objective>|pause|resume].

Commands start with a slash at the beginning of the message; Slash commands and references covers how they are typed, and Set and manage goals with /goal covers the command's answers.

How a goal behaves

A goal is always in one of four states:

• Active: Oda is working toward the objective. While the goal is also allowed to continue, it takes round after round on its own; Working in goal rounds covers how the rounds run.
• Paused: the goal was stopped from your side. Pausing stops the turn that is running at that moment, so work in flight is stopped rather than finished; the goal stays in the chat, and nothing happens until you resume it.
• Blocked: progress stopped on a concrete obstacle, such as a limit it reached or a problem Oda reported. A blocked goal carries the blocker and waits for you; it does not continue by itself.
• Complete: the objective was achieved, and Oda stopped working on it.

An active goal either keeps going or waits. One that keeps going takes its next round as soon as the chat is free; one that waits does nothing until you resume it. Whether a goal keeps going is decided fresh every time Oda starts and is not saved with the goal. So when you reopen Oda, or branch a chat into a new conversation, an active goal waits for you, even though nothing about the goal itself changed. The reopen case shows as an on-hold notice (When a goal needs you); Resume continues the goal.

A chat holds one goal at a time. An unfinished goal cannot be replaced: to change course, edit its objective in place; to start over, clear the goal first. A completed goal can be replaced directly.

What Oda may change on its own

A goal is managed from both sides: your messages, and Oda while it works. Inside the same rules, Oda can:

• Set a goal. When your request is a long-running objective, Oda can create the goal for the chat without you typing /goal; it leaves quick, single-answer tasks alone.
• Keep it moving. Oda works a round at a time and leaves the goal active while work remains. A goal carries a round limit, the most rounds it may take. Oda's default is 256 rounds; a chat that runs under a preset with its own cap uses that preset's number instead, such as the 300 rounds and 72-hour limit of a Relentless chat (Agent modes). At a limit the goal stops as blocked instead of continuing.
• Finish or block it. When the objective is achieved, Oda marks the goal complete, and only with evidence that the whole objective holds. When something concrete stops progress, Oda can report the goal blocked with the condition and what it tried; from a round, the same blocking condition must last three rounds in a row (the default) before the block counts.
• Never resume it for you. A paused or waiting goal starts again only from your side; an attempt by Oda to resume a paused goal is refused.

Changes to a goal are accepted only from its own chat: from you, or from Oda as it works the goal. A helper working inside a task cannot change the goal itself. Every change is checked against the goal's current state first, and a change that no longer matches it is refused, leaving the goal as it was.

Every accepted change is saved with the chat as one complete record: it lands whole or not at all. The saved goal carries its objective, its state, the rounds it has run against its limit, and any blocker; the goal you see on the chat's surfaces comes from the same record, so the two cannot disagree.

Follow a running goal

While the goal runs, a pill sits by the message box and shows:

• the label Goal, or Paused when the goal is paused;
• your objective, shortened when it is long;
• how many actions Oda has taken for the goal and how long it has worked, for example 68 actions · 12:04, ticking each second.

An action is one step in which Oda thinks and calls its tools. The time counts only while Oda is working on the goal: time while Oda is closed, or while the goal waits for you, is left out. Click the pill to open the goal's card in Activity, or choose Open in Activity in the pill's menu.

The goal card in Activity

Every goal has a card in the chat's Activity panel. While the goal works, the card shows:

• Goal, the state Working and the time worked, for example 9h 12m;
• your objective, with Show more and Show less when it is long;
• the plan, when Oda keeps a to-do list in the chat: Plan: 6 of 9 done with a bar. Without a to-do list there is no plan line (The task list and standing plan);
• what Oda is doing now, for example Now: thinking, Now: running a command · 6m, Now: waiting on 3 agents · 12m, Now: waiting on a background job · 4m or Now: waiting for your answer · 3m;
• the actions and the latest activity, for example 1,840 actions · last activity just now;
• the actions Pause, Edit and Clear.

A running subagent, workflow, web search or page fetch shows as Now: running a subagent, Now: running a workflow, Now: running a web search or Now: running a page fetch; another tool shows its own name. Now: waiting on 3 agents counts the teammates Activity shows running. The times on the card move every 30 seconds.

When nothing has happened for 20 minutes and Oda is neither waiting nor running a tool, the card turns to the warning colour and reads, for example, No activity for 25m.

When a goal stops

A paused, on-hold or blocked goal keeps its card, with Resume and the reason it stopped:

Choose Resume to continue. When all of the goal's automatic rounds are used, Resume is not offered; adjust the goal first.

When a goal completes or is blocked inside a round Oda is running on its own, Oda stops there and writes one closing message: the outcome, a summary of what was done and how it was verified, and where the results are. A blocked goal's closing message states the concrete condition, what Oda tried, and what it needs from you to continue. After that message, Oda does no further work on the goal until your next instruction.

When a goal needs you

A notice appears at the top of the chat when the goal cannot continue on its own; while a notice is up, the pill does not show.

• On hold. The notice reads Goal on hold. Review unfolds it and names the reason, for example Paused: Oda was closed. Resume to continue. It also shows the actions and the time worked. Choose Resume to continue.
• Blocked. The notice reads Goal blocked followed by the reason: Time limit, Round limit or Needs input. When the goal gave one, the unfolded notice spells out the blocker in the goal's own words.
• Review unfolds the notice, where Edit and Drop goal join Resume; Escape folds it again. When all of the goal's rounds have been used, Edit appears in place of Resume, so you can adjust the objective first.
• Hide puts the notice away until the goal changes. It does not clear the goal.

The full list of messages Oda can show is on Updates and troubleshooting.

When the goal is met

The card stays in Activity as a final card: Goal met · 9h 12m · 1,840 actions, with a check mark, above the objective. It is still there after you close and reopen the chat. The pill also shows Goal met · 9h 12m · 1,840 actions.

• Choose Dismiss on the card or the pill to put both away for this goal.
• The pill also leaves when you send your next message; the card stays until you dismiss it.
• A new goal replaces the final card.

Pause and resume a goal

• To stop the goal from continuing, choose Pause goal on the pill or Pause on its card. The pill shows Paused, and the goal stays in the chat.
• To continue, choose Resume goal or Resume. The goal starts working again.
• While a change is being applied, its control is disabled, so the same change cannot be sent twice.
• If a change does not go through, the surface shows a short error note and the goal stays as it was.

Edit or clear a goal

• To change the objective, choose Edit objective in the Goal actions menu, Edit on the card, or Edit in the notice. The editor opens on the current objective, in a field labelled Goal objective.
• Press Enter or choose Save goal to keep the change; Escape or Cancel edit closes the editor without saving. An objective that is only spaces cannot be saved.
• To remove the goal, choose Clear goal in the pill menu, Clear on the card, or Drop goal in the notice. When the change goes through, every goal surface leaves at once; if it is refused, the goal stays.

The round limit

The automatic rounds are a safety cap, not a measure of progress. Oda can do a whole goal in one long turn, so the card and the pill never count rounds. /goal shows the rounds used against the limit, for example Automatic rounds used: 1 (limit 300); Working in goal rounds covers the limits.

Questions, answered

How do I set a goal?

Set it with /goal and the objective, for example /goal Prepare the monthly report. A pill and a card appear at once, and Oda starts working the goal.

Can Oda set a goal without me asking?

Yes, when your request is a long-running objective. Oda can create the goal for the chat without you typing /goal; it leaves quick, single-answer tasks alone.

How do I see how far a goal has come?

Open the goal's card in Activity. It shows the time worked, the plan from Oda's to-do list as Plan: 6 of 9 done, what Oda is doing now, and how many actions it has taken. There is no estimate of how much time is left.

Why does the card say No activity?

Nothing has happened for at least 20 minutes while Oda was neither waiting nor running a tool, so the card turns to the warning colour. Open the chat to see where it stands; you can Pause the goal, or stop the reply and send a message.

Why is my goal on hold?

The goal stopped continuing on its own, and the card and the unfolded notice say why, for example Paused: lost connection, Stopped by you or Paused: Oda was closed. Choose Resume to continue; Hide puts the notice away until the goal changes, without clearing the goal.

What does Goal blocked mean?

The goal stopped and will not continue by itself. The notice adds the reason, such as Time limit, Round limit or Needs input, and the card reads, for example, 72h time limit reached or the goal's own words. Choose Resume to continue; when all its rounds are used, Edit appears instead, so you can adjust the objective first.

Is a paused goal the same as a blocked one?

No. A paused goal was stopped from your side; resume it to continue. A blocked goal was stopped by a concrete obstacle and carries the reason; resume works the same way, except when all of its rounds are used.

Why doesn't Oda mark a goal blocked at the first problem?

A block reported from a round must be a lasting one: the same blocking condition has to last three rounds in a row (the default) before the goal can be marked blocked from a round. A one-off snag does not stop the goal.

Can I change the goal after I set it?

Yes. Choose Edit objective in the pill menu, or Edit on the card or the notice, and save the new objective. An objective that is only spaces cannot be saved. To start over with a different goal, clear the current one first.

What happens when the goal is met?

The card stays in Activity as Goal met · 9h 12m · 1,840 actions, also after you reopen the chat, and the pill shows the same until your next message. Choose Dismiss to put both away; a new goal replaces the card.

Does a goal keep working without new messages from me?

Yes. While the goal is active, Oda keeps working in the same chat without a new message from you. If Oda is closed, the goal goes on hold and waits for Resume.

What happens to a goal when I branch the chat into a new conversation?

The new conversation carries the goal with it: the same objective and the same rounds it has run. It does not continue on its own there; resume it in the new conversation to keep going. The original conversation keeps its own goal.