---
license: mit
pretty_name: goalpost benchmark
size_categories:
- n<1K
tags:
- claude-code
- coding-agents
- agents
- benchmark
- evaluation
- verification
configs:
- config_name: default
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/runs.jsonl
---

![goalpost: makes Claude Code's /goal actually finish the job](banner.png)

# goalpost benchmark

Does Claude Code's built-in `/goal` know when the work is really done? This dataset has every valid run from the benchmark behind [goalpost](https://github.com/syntaxixr/goalpost), a hooks plugin that makes `/goal` pass real checks before Claude is allowed to stop.

33 runs: Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 4.5, four small tasks (a ledger, a text toolkit, a job queue, a spreadsheet engine), each run with plain `/goal` and with goalpost. Every task has hidden checks the agent never sees, and every run was graded three times.

![Same model, same task: plain /goal ends at 28/34 hidden checks, with goalpost at 34/34](teaser.gif)

## What it shows

| | plain `/goal` | with goalpost |
|---|---|---|
| Sonnet 5.5, runs fully correct | 8 of 9 | 9 of 9 |
| Haiku 4.5, hidden checks passed (mean of the 4 task means) | 79.8% | 89.7% |
| Haiku 4.5, runs fully correct | 1 of 8 | 1 of 7 |
| Time per run (Sonnet / Haiku) | 2.7 / 5.7 min | 5.2 / 15.1 min |
| Cost per run (Sonnet / Haiku) | $0.46 / $0.64 | $0.91 / $1.25 |

The built-in judge said "met" in all 17 plain runs, and 8 of those were broken (1 Sonnet, 7 Haiku). It reads the conversation and never runs anything. goalpost never ended a Sonnet run with failing checks, and it moved Haiku the right way, but it did not make Haiku reliable, and it costs about twice the time and money.

Runs vary a lot. With two runs per task, plain Haiku scored 82% and 4% on two runs of the same spreadsheet prompt. Without that task the Haiku means are 92.0% (plain) and 94.4% (goalpost), so most of the Haiku gap comes from one task.

The samples are small. My account's rate limit cut several runs, which is why the Haiku arms have 8 and 7 runs. Every run that was thrown out, and why, is listed in the [full report](https://github.com/syntaxixr/goalpost/blob/main/docs/BENCHMARK.md).

The pair in the gif (Haiku, text toolkit task) is the most striking of the 33, picked for the video. The table above is the honest summary.

## Fields

One row per run in `data/runs.jsonl`:

- `run_id`, `round`, `model`, `task`, `arm` (`bare` or `goalpost`), `rep`, `claude_code_version`, `started_at`
- `hidden_checks_passed`, `hidden_checks_total`, `requirements_passed`, `requirements_total`, `score`, `fully_correct`, `graded_times`
- `builtin_judge_final_verdict`: the last verdict of the built-in `/goal` judge (`met` in 32 runs, `none` in one run where it never gave a final verdict)
- `done_while_checks_failed`: the judge said `met` but hidden checks failed
- `goalpost_end`, `goalpost_stop_blocks`, `goalpost_denies`, `goalpost_audits`: what goalpost did (empty for plain runs)
- `wall_seconds`, `cost_usd`, `turns`, `tool_calls`, `subagents`, `diff_stat`
- `requirements`: every hidden check with its result
- `agent_last_message`: what the agent said at the end, cut to 1500 characters

```python
from datasets import load_dataset
runs = load_dataset("syntaxixr/goalpost-benchmark", split="train")
```

The tasks, the hidden graders and the harness are in the [repository](https://github.com/syntaxixr/goalpost/tree/main/bench), so every number here can be re-run.