The BUILD file format looks a lot like Python code calling some functions. http://pantsbuild.github.io/first_tutorial.html#build-files . It'd be great to have something more readable. For what it's worth, Google's been using a similar format for several years, and folks seem to find their way OK: http://google-engtools.blogspot.com/2011/08/build-in-cloud-h...

The word "goal" should disappear from the command line at some point. Alas, we're not quite there yet.