Plan Loop

Plan Loop

Drives a phased, worklist-based plan to completion across many iterations, using only built-in primitives (/loop, ScheduleWakeup, Monitor). Replaces the ralph-loop plugin pattern with one that fits this repo's conventions: every iteration produces at most one commit, every iteration is restartable from disk, every escalation surfaces to the human instead of being papered over.

When to use

Trigger when the user asks for any of:

• "drive the plan", "run the worklist", "iterate the tasks"
• "ralph this", "ralph-style loop", "autonomous loop"
• "run T01–TN", "execute the deploy plan", "execute the migration plan"
• A multi-phase brief that will take >30 minutes of execution

Skip if:

• The task is one-shot (write a single file, fix a single bug). Use the regular agent flow.
• The work is exploratory ("explore X", "research Y"). Use plain conversation.
• A /loop invocation is already running this skill — don't re-enter; just continue the iteration.

Two paths

Path A — Plan exists at .cursor/plans/<some-path>/

Look for RALPH-WORKLIST.md first. If found, jump to Per-iteration contract below.

Path B — No plan; user just stated a goal

Bootstrap before iterating. See Bootstrapping a new plan.

Bootstrapping a new plan

Create .cursor/plans/<topic>/ with these files. .cursor/plans/ is gitignored in this repo by design — plans are scratchpads, code is the deliverable. The git log + any committed docs are the durable record.

File set

.cursor/plans/<topic>/
├── 00-overview.md            ← goal, in/out of scope, success criteria
├── 01-…md … NN-…md           ← topic-specific plan docs
├── RALPH-LOOP.md             ← rules / contract / skills / escalations
├── RALPH-WORKLIST.md         ← ordered tasks, status per task
└── RALPH-STATE.md            ← per-iteration scratchpad

For a working reference, see .cursor/plans/ai-first/13-server-deployment/ in this repo (if present locally) — it's the canonical example. The deploy work driven by this skill produced 12 atomic commits over 14 iterations with one fix-up; that PR shape is the target.

RALPH-LOOP.md template (drop into the new plan dir)

Author it with these sections, customizing each to the topic:

1. Goal — one paragraph, end-state in plain language.
2. Architecture (single-file state, git is the audit log) — document RALPH-WORKLIST.md (source of truth for "what's next"), RALPH-STATE.md (per-iteration scratchpad, overwritten), git log (immutable audit, every commit prefixed <scope>(T<id>):).
3. Per-iteration contract — exactly the steps in the next section of this skill, copied verbatim. Don't reword; the contract is load-bearing.
4. Hard rules — adapt per project (which paths Claude can edit, gates that must pass, secret-leak guards, no force-push).
5. Escalation triggers — copy from this skill's "Escalation" section.
6. Skills to use (the "superpowers") — a table mapping phase → built-in skill (/codex consult, /codex challenge, /simplify, /investigate, /review, /ship, /guard).
7. Loop pacing — note the cache-aware delays this skill prescribes.

RALPH-WORKLIST.md template

# <Topic> Worklist

> Source of truth for what's next. Loop reads top-down and picks the
> first `status: todo`. **One task = one commit.** Tasks are sized so
> the diff fits within the 5-files-per-iteration cap.

## Status legend
- `todo` / `in_progress` / `blocked` / `done`

## Phase 0 — Pre-flight gate (T00)

### T00 — Pre-flight checks
- **Status**: todo
- **Goal**: Validate the loop's starting state. Verification only;
  any failure is an immediate escalation.
- Checks (project-specific): branch ≠ main/trunk, working tree clean,
  origin in sync, required tools on PATH, language gates green
  (lint/types/tests), plan files present, no untracked secrets.

## Phase A — <topic-specific>

### T01 — <one-line goal>
- **Status**: todo
- **Goal**: <2-3 lines>
- **Files (≤5)**: <list expected paths>
- **Acceptance**: <how to verify the task is done>
- **Skill hint**: <`/codex consult` if non-trivial; `/codex challenge`
  for adversarial review on critical paths; otherwise none>

… more tasks …

## Sequencing summary

T00 → T01 → T02 → … → TN

NN tasks. Estimate clock time by summing per-task expected duration.

RALPH-STATE.md template

Initial:

# State — current iteration

## STATUS: NOT STARTED

The loop has not been kicked off yet. Human must approve
`RALPH-WORKLIST.md` and start the loop:

> /loop drive the plan per .cursor/plans/<topic>/RALPH-LOOP.md — read
> RALPH-WORKLIST.md, pick the first todo, follow the per-iteration
> contract, then ScheduleWakeup the next tick. Stop the loop entirely
> (omit ScheduleWakeup) if any escalation trigger fires or all tasks
> are done.

## Pre-flight checklist (human, before starting)

- [ ] On a feature branch (NOT main/trunk).
- [ ] `git status` clean.
- [ ] `/guard` mode active (if applicable).
- [ ] Reviewed and approved `RALPH-WORKLIST.md` task list.

## Last iteration
(none — loop not started)

This file is overwritten each tick with the iteration's plan, gates, files touched, commit, and "Next" pointer.

Per-iteration contract

Every loop tick, in order:

1. Read RALPH-WORKLIST.md. Pick the first todo. If none, terminate (see Termination below).
2. Per-tick guard: git status --porcelain (allow only harmless untracked dirs, e.g. .claude/worktrees/), confirm branch isn't main/trunk, capture starting SHA.
3. Plan the task in RALPH-STATE.md (≤10 lines). State the acceptance test up front. If the task is non-trivial (has design choices), invoke /codex consult before writing code.
4. Execute: write/edit code. Hard cap: 5 files touched per iteration. If more is needed, split the task instead.
5. Run gates in this order, stop on first failure:
   • lint (project-specific, e.g. ruff check)
   • types (e.g. mypy)
   • tests (e.g. pytest -q)
   • any task-specific verification (e.g. docker build for T06)
6. Self-review: run /simplify on the diff. Apply only obvious wins; bank deeper refactors as new worklist tasks.
7. Commit with message format <scope>(T<id>): <verb> <one-line> and push to the feature branch.
8. Update worklist: mark the task done (or blocked with reason) by editing RALPH-WORKLIST.md in place.
9. Schedule next tick: call ScheduleWakeup with cache-aware delaySeconds (see Pacing below) and the same /loop prompt.
10. Stop iteration. Do not start the next task in the same tick — the next tick re-reads state from disk.

Escalation triggers

Surface to the human and stop. Do not "decide and proceed."

• Genuine architecture choice not pre-decided in the plan files.
• A test fails on trunk/main (not just on the WIP branch) — points to a pre-existing issue.
• A gate command behaves differently than documented.
• Need to introduce a new dependency.
• Discover a security finding (leaked secret, vulnerable dep).
• A contradiction between two plan files.
• A build/test takes >5 minutes — investigate before continuing.

When stopping for escalation:

• Write STATUS: BLOCKED in RALPH-STATE.md with reason + recommended next step.
• Do NOT call ScheduleWakeup.
• Send a PushNotification summarizing the block (one line, < 200 chars).

Skills to use (the "superpowers")

Route to specialists at the right phase. Do not call them inline unless the contract phase calls for them — they cost cache.

Skills the loop must NOT call: /land-and-deploy, /canary, anything that pushes to prod or merges. Image promotion / merge / deploy is human work.

Loop pacing (cache-aware delaySeconds)

The Anthropic prompt cache has a 5-minute TTL. Picking delaySeconds right keeps cache hot AND keeps the loop responsive.

Never use 300–1199 — that's the worst-of-both: pay the cache miss without amortizing it. If tempted to "wait 5 minutes", drop to 270 or commit to 1500+.

Monitor: event-driven wakes (CI, log lines, file changes)

Use Monitor when the next iteration is gated on an external event, not a passage of time. Examples: CI run completing, a PR comment arriving, a deploy log line landing.

prev=""
while true; do
  s=$(gh pr checks <pr-num> -R <owner>/<repo> --json name,bucket 2>/dev/null || true)
  if [[ -n "$s" ]]; then
    cur=$(jq -r '.[] | select(.bucket!="pending") | "\(.name): \(.bucket)"' <<<"$s" | sort)
    comm -13 <(echo "$prev") <(echo "$cur")
    prev=$cur
    if jq -e 'length > 0 and all(.bucket!="pending")' <<<"$s" >/dev/null; then
      echo "ALL_CHECKS_DONE"; break
    fi
  fi
  sleep 30
done

Pair with ScheduleWakeup(delaySeconds=1500, …) as a safety net in case the Monitor stalls. Stop monitors with TaskStop if you exit early; otherwise they self-exit on break.

Termination

When RALPH-WORKLIST.md has zero todo items:

1. Mark the PR ready if it was opened as draft (gh pr ready <num>) — typically done as part of the final task (e.g. T11 in our deploy plan).
2. Send a PushNotification with the outcome: one line, < 200 chars, links to the PR.
3. Omit ScheduleWakeup — the loop terminates naturally when no wake is scheduled.
4. TaskStop any monitors still running.

When the worklist has a blocked item:

1. Write STATUS: BLOCKED to RALPH-STATE.md with the reason + recommended next step.
2. PushNotification the block (so the human sees it even if they're away).
3. Omit ScheduleWakeup. Stop monitors.

Per-project gate detection

Different projects, different gates. Sniff before assuming.

If the project has a custom test harness (CI workflow, Makefile, scripts/check.sh), prefer that — it's the project's contract.

What this skill replaces

• The ralph-loop plugin (auto-fire-prompt-without-ScheduleWakeup) — not needed; /loop + ScheduleWakeup covers the same use case more flexibly and integrates with Monitor for event-driven wakes.
• Ad-hoc "I'll just iterate manually" — gives you the per-iteration contract, escalation discipline, and cache-aware pacing for free.

Quick start cheat sheet

# 1. (If no plan exists) bootstrap one
mkdir -p .cursor/plans/<topic>/
# author 00-overview.md, RALPH-LOOP.md, RALPH-WORKLIST.md, RALPH-STATE.md
# (use templates in this skill)

# 2. Pre-flight (human, once)
git switch -c <topic-loop>           # feature branch
# verify gates green on starting SHA

# 3. Start the loop
/loop drive the plan per .cursor/plans/<topic>/RALPH-LOOP.md — \
  read RALPH-WORKLIST.md, pick the first todo, follow the per-iteration \
  contract, then ScheduleWakeup the next tick. Stop the loop entirely \
  (omit ScheduleWakeup) if any escalation trigger fires or all tasks \
  are done.

# 4. Walk away. Come back to a PR or a STATUS: BLOCKED.