yoi/.yoi/tickets/open/20260608-125430-objective-records-for-medium-term-goals/item.md

id	slug	title	status	kind	priority	labels	workflow_state	created_at	updated_at	assignee
20260608-125430-objective-records-for-medium-term-goals	objective-records-for-medium-term-goals	Define Objective records for medium-term goals	open	task	P2	objective ticket planning workflow design	planning	2026-06-08T12:54:30Z	2026-06-08T12:54:30Z	null

Background

Tickets are settling into a concrete implementation/work-item unit: Intake/Planning shapes user intent into Tickets that can be implemented, reviewed, and completed. Parent/child Ticket relationships are useful for decomposition, but they are not sufficient for medium-term strategic context.

Some work needs a separate record for the goal, motivation, strategy, success criteria, and decision context that spans multiple Tickets without turning the Ticket hierarchy into a roadmap/project-management system.

Use the term Objective for this concept. Project is too broad, and Initiative feels too business/process-heavy.

Goal

Design a lightweight Objective record type for medium-term goals that can group and contextualize multiple Tickets while keeping Tickets focused on implementable work items.

Requirements

• Define Objective as a first-class project record distinct from Ticket.
  • Objective: medium-term goal, motivation, strategy, success criteria, and decision context.
  • Ticket: implementable work item shaped by Intake/Planning.
  • OrchestrationPlan: current execution plan for queued/in-progress work.
• Keep Objectives lightweight and Markdown-oriented initially.
  • Avoid building a full roadmap/project-management system in the first version.
  • Prefer a simple local file backend under a clear .yoi/ path.
• An Objective should be able to record at least:
  • title;
  • goal statement;
  • motivation/background;
  • strategy or design direction;
  • success criteria / exit conditions;
  • linked Tickets;
  • important decisions or pivots;
  • current state such as active/paused/done, if useful.
• Tickets should be able to reference an Objective or be listed under it.
  • The relation should not replace Ticket dependency/blocking metadata.
  • A Ticket can belong to an Objective without depending on every other Ticket in that Objective.
• Orchestrator/Intake/Planning should be able to use Objective context when shaping or routing Tickets.
  • Objective context should help answer “why this direction?” and “what judgment criteria apply?”
  • It should not allow agents to skip reading the actual Ticket body/thread before implementation decisions.
• Panel/CLI should eventually be able to show Objective context and linked Tickets, but first design can focus on record shape and workflow semantics.
• Clarify how Objectives differ from:
  • parent/child Tickets;
  • typed Ticket relations such as depends_on / blocks;
  • OrchestrationPlan execution decisions;
  • local Pod/session runtime claims.

Non-goals

• Replacing Tickets.
• Replacing typed Ticket relation metadata.
• Replacing OrchestrationPlan.
• Implementing full roadmap scheduling, milestones, OKRs, or dependency graph solving.
• Making every Ticket require an Objective.

Acceptance criteria

• There is a documented concept and proposed file/API shape for Objective records.
• The design explains when to create an Objective versus a parent Ticket.
• The design explains how Tickets link to Objectives without conflating that link with dependency/blocking relations.
• The design explains how Orchestrator/Intake should consult Objective context while still treating Ticket body/thread as the implementation authority.
• A first implementation path is identified with minimal schema and tooling scope.
• target/debug/yoi ticket doctor and git diff --check pass for any record changes.