Is mindfulness the path or the goal?

Some of the reading that I have been doing recently makes me wonder what is the place of mindfulness in the Buddhist path. My previous (current?) view is that mindfulness is central and is in some way the goal of the Buddhist path. As one progresses one gets more and more mindful until at the end you are mindful all the time in a absolutely complete way. Mindfulness becomes almost synonymous with Nirvana (almost). However I'm starting to think that mindfulness is just one tool among many and it may have a greater or lesser role as time goes on. It is just a way of seeing or helping us see more clearly and it is the clear seeing that is important. So which view if any is closer to how things are? Is mindfulness a tool on the path or is its continuing refinement the entire point? Is it the path or the goal?