Using Claude goals through small task files
Even with years of software development experience in companies, Claude’s /goal instructions can feel hard to use outside a very narrow task. One practical setup is to keep a ./tasks folder with separate markdown files for work that is still to do, already done, or currently being handled by the AI agent. Every change becomes its own task file, and the next task is prepared while the agent works on the current one.
This lets the product grow step by step without defining the whole system in detail upfront. After each task is implemented, git add and are used to save the change as a clear . live in ./, while ./ only tells Claude to read ./.
As the app grows, more design documents are added, such as ./docs/SCHEMA.md, ./docs/, ./docs/API.md, ./docs/.md, ./docs/NAVIGATION.md, and ./docs/SECURITY.md. The document is treated as the most important one because it explains the shape of the whole system.
Key points
- Break development work into small markdown task files.
- Use file names to separate todo, doing, and done work.
- Prepare the next task while the AI agent handles the current one.
- Save each finished task with git add and .
- Keep stable project guidance in and topic-specific design documents.