Give an agent a goal

Set one goal in a chat or agent conversation, and the agent keeps working on it until the goal is met, blocked, or stopped. Use a goal for long work in many steps, such as extracting data from many files, where you do not want to type "continue" after each part.

Who can use it

Any workspace member who can run the agent in that conversation can start, pause, resume, edit, or clear a goal. Goals are available in Project chats and in agent conversations. They are not available in automations, dashboards, or background sub-agents.

Start a goal

1. Open the composer menu and select Goal. A Goal chip shows in the composer.
2. Write the objective. Make it concrete and say when the work is complete, for example "Extract all 63 batches into results.xlsx and check every row".
3. Send the message. The goal and the first answer start together.

A conversation has one goal at a time. If it already has one, d5s shows This chat already has a goal. Clear it first.

You can also ask the agent to set a goal, for example from Slack or email. The agent sets one only when you ask for it, and only when a workspace member sends the request. In Slack and other chat apps, your chat account must be linked to d5s in that same chat workspace. From email, you must send from your verified d5s address. Messages from other people, scheduled wakeups, and webhook events cannot set a goal. A goal set from a private message shows only to people who can see that message.

While the goal runs

A goal bar above the composer shows the status, the objective, and the time spent. After each answer, the agent continues on its own. It stops when:

• it verifies that the full objective is met (Goal achieved);
• it cannot make progress without you or an outside change (Goal blocked);
• it uses its token budget, if you asked the agent to set one (Goal unmet (tokens));
• your workspace has no credits left (Out of credits);
• an answer fails, the next answer cannot start, or you select Pause (Goal paused).

When the agent asks for an approval or asks you a question, it waits for you. After your answer, it continues the goal.

Stop ends the current answer. The goal stays active and continues after the next answer that ends normally. A message you send during a goal runs first.

Your usual limits still apply: the step limit per answer, your workspace credits, and an agent's daily budget.

Control a goal

Select the goal bar to see the full objective, the last status note, tokens used, time spent, the number of automatic answers, and who set the goal.

• Pause stops automatic answers. The current answer ends normally.
• Resume starts an answer now. For a goal that stopped at its token budget or for credits, the token count starts again from zero.
• Edit changes the objective in the composer. Cancel restores your earlier draft.
• Clear removes the goal. Then you can start a new one.

Other people who have the conversation open see each change at once.

If it does not continue

• Out of credits: add credits, then select Resume.
• Goal paused with a note: read the note, fix the cause, then select Resume.
• Goal blocked: give the agent what it needs in a message, then select Resume.