/goal — the agent works until it's done

Here's a session that happens ten times a day:

You:     Fix the type errors in src/auth/
Agent:   [edits three files, runs tsc, finds two new errors]
Agent:   stops. Waits for you.
You:     keep going
Agent:   [edits two more files, runs tsc, finds one more error]
Agent:   stops. Waits for you.
You:     keep going
Agent:   [edits one file, runs tsc, clean]
Agent:   "All type errors resolved."

Three prompts that said nothing except "don't stop." You were the bottleneck. The agent knew what to do. It just needed permission to keep doing it.

/goal removes you from the loop:

/goal npm run check
Fix the type errors in src/auth/

After each agent turn, Elyra runs npm run check. If it exits with code 0, the goal is met and the agent stops. If it fails, the output goes back to the agent as a new prompt — "this is what's still broken, keep going" — and the agent continues automatically.

No manual "keep going." No checking back every thirty seconds. You set the bar and the agent works until it clears it.

What makes a good goal

A goal is any shell command with a binary pass/fail:

/goal npm run check
/goal npx tsc --noEmit
/goal npm test -- --run test/auth.test.ts
/goal grep -rL "TODO" src/

The command runs after every agent turn with a 30-second timeout. If it passes (exit 0), the goal is met. If it fails, the agent sees the output and tries again.

Good goals are specific and fast. npm test works but might be slow. npm test -- --run test/auth.test.ts is better — it checks exactly what matters without running the full suite on every turn.

What happens in practice

/goal npx tsc --noEmit
Refactor the auth module to use the new session types

Goal set: npx tsc --noEmit
The agent will keep working until this command exits with code 0.

[Agent edits src/auth/service.ts, src/auth/types.ts]
Goal check failed (exit 2), continuing...

[Agent reads the tsc errors, fixes src/auth/middleware.ts]
Goal check failed (exit 2), continuing...

[Agent fixes the last import in src/auth/index.ts]
Goal met: npx tsc --noEmit

Three iterations, zero intervention. The agent saw the compiler errors after each turn and knew exactly what was left. You could have been making coffee the entire time.

Clearing a goal

Type /goal with no arguments to clear the active goal. The agent goes back to normal interactive mode — one turn at a time, waiting for your input.

/update — stay in the flow

The other friction point we fixed is smaller but annoying in a different way.

Before this release, updating Elyra meant:

1. See "Update available: 0.7.10 → 0.7.11" on startup

2. Finish your current work

3. Exit Elyra

4. Run elyra update in the terminal

5. Start Elyra again

6. Resume your session

Now:

/update
Updating 0.7.10 → 0.7.11...
Updated to 0.7.11. Restarting...

Elyra downloads the update, restarts itself, and you're back in a fresh session. The whole thing takes a few seconds. If the update fails — wrong permissions, network issue, whatever — you get a clear error with the manual command to run.

The startup notification now says "Type /update to update and restart" instead of the old "Run elyra update" message. One less context switch.

Get it

elyra update

Or, if you're already running v0.7.11 or later:

/update

Elyra v0.7.11 — changelog