Objectives & Planning

Objectives

An objective is a high-level description of what you want built. Tack takes the objective and runs it through a planning → approval → execution → merge pipeline.

tack plan "Add pagination to all list endpoints"

Objectives have a lifecycle:

planning → approved → executing → completed | partial | failed

The Planner

When you submit an objective, Tack spawns a planner agent. The planner:

1. Explores your codebase to understand its structure
2. Identifies what needs to change
3. Decomposes the objective into independent streams
4. Assigns file scopes and dependencies to each stream

The planner outputs a structured plan that Tack validates and presents for your review.

Plan Approval

Plans require human approval before execution begins:

tack show <plan-id>    # Review streams, file scopes, dependencies
tack approve <plan-id> # Start execution
tack reject <plan-id>  # Return to planning

Simple Mode

For tasks that don't need decomposition — bug fixes, small changes:

tack plan "Fix the typo in README.md" --simple

Simple mode creates a single-stream plan and auto-approves it. No planner agent, no approval step.