Ralph

/ralph

Orchestrates feature development across multiple user stories. Spawns specialized subagents for exploration, planning, implementation, and review — with human approval gates between phases.

Replaces the old ralph.sh bash loop with an interactive, token-efficient approach that runs inside the user's session.

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS

• --issues N,N — build from specific GitHub issues
• --label X — build from issues with that label
• --prd path/to/prd.json — use an existing PRD
• --auto — auto-approve gates (CI mode, skip approval prompts)
• No args — ask the user what to build

Step 1: Initialize

Parse arguments

Read $ARGUMENTS and determine the input mode.

Generate or load PRD

If no prd.json exists (and --prd not provided):

1. Fetch issues via gh CLI:

   • --issues N,N → gh issue view <N> --json number,title,body,labels,milestone
   • --label X → gh issue list --label "X" --state open --json number,title,body,labels
   • No args → ask the user which issues or what to build

2. Decompose issues into user stories with strategy mapping:

   Story type	Strategy
   Simple feature, <= 3 criteria	tdd-workflow
   Database/schema changes	migration-safety
   Touches multiple modules	cross-module
   Payment/subscription logic	billing-security
   AI/LLM prompt changes	ai-prompt-design
   Multi-step user flow	user-flow

3. Order stories: backend before frontend, migrations before code, core before UI

4. Write prd.json following tools/ralph/prd.json.example schema

5. APPROVAL GATE: Show the PRD to the user (story count, order, strategies). Wait for approval before proceeding. In --auto mode, skip this gate.

If prd.json exists (or --prd provided): read it directly.

Project configuration

• Read .claude-toolkit.json for project config (test/lint commands, MCP servers)
• Scan .claude/agents/ for available domain agents (filenames map to labels)
• Read CLAUDE.md for project conventions

Branch and state

• Create a feature branch if on main: ralph/<slug>
• Initialize progress.txt if not present:

  # Progress Log
  Started: <date>
  ---
  

Step 2: Story Loop

Process each story in priority order where passes == false and stuck != true.

For each story, run five phases:

Phase 1: Understand

Explore the codebase area relevant to this story.

Task(subagent_type="planner"):
  "Explore the codebase to understand: <story title>.
   Focus on: <acceptance criteria summary>.
   Return: affected files, existing patterns, relevant tests, dependencies."

Domain Agent Discovery: If the story's labels match a filename in .claude/agents/ (e.g., label billing matches billing.md), also spawn that domain agent:

Task(subagent_type=<matched-agent>):
  "Provide domain-specific context for: <story title>.
   Story details: <acceptance criteria>."

Contract Truth Verification (blockchain projects only): If the story has a blockchain or solidity label, or the project has a blockchain domain agent, spawn a verification step:

Task(subagent_type=<blockchain-domain-agent>):
  "List what the smart contract interface actually supports.
   Compare against the story requirements: <acceptance criteria>.
   Flag any mismatches — features the contract doesn't support,
   missing functions, or incompatible return types."

This prevents hallucinating features the contract doesn't support. Any mismatches must be resolved before proceeding to Phase 2.

Summarize findings in < 500 words. This summary is passed forward to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Plan

Generate an implementation plan.

Task(subagent_type="planner"):
  "Plan implementation for: <story title>.
   Context from exploration: <Phase 1 summary>.
   Acceptance criteria: <list>.
   Constraints: TDD mandatory, conventional commits, one story only.
   Return: ordered steps, files to change, test strategy, risks."

Present the plan to the user.

APPROVAL GATE: Ask the user to approve, revise, or skip this story.

• Approve → proceed to Phase 3
• Revise → re-run Phase 2 with feedback
• Skip → mark story as skipped, move to next

In --auto mode: auto-approve.

Phase 3: Implement

Execute the approved plan using TDD.

For standard stories:

Task(subagent_type="tdd-guide"):
  "Implement the following plan with strict TDD (test first):
   Plan: <approved plan from Phase 2>.
   Test command: <from .claude-toolkit.json or auto-detected>.
   Lint command: <from .claude-toolkit.json or auto-detected>.
   Acceptance criteria: <list>.
   IMPORTANT: Write failing tests first, then implement, then refactor.
   Commit with conventional format referencing issue #N."

For complex stories (cross-module, migration-safety, or stories that failed once with tdd-guide):

Task(subagent_type="senior-dev"):
  "Implement this plan. The story is complex — consider architecture implications.
   Plan: <approved plan from Phase 2>.
   Test/lint commands: <from config>.
   Acceptance criteria: <list>.
   TDD is mandatory. Commit with conventional format referencing issue #N."

If the agent reports failures after implementation, retry once with the error context. If still failing after 2 total attempts, mark the story as stuck.

Phase 4: Review

Review the changes made in Phase 3.

Task(subagent_type="code-reviewer"):
  "Review the changes for story: <title>.
   Focus on: correctness, error handling, test coverage, style.
   Changed files: <list from Phase 3>."

If the story touches auth, payments, user data, or secrets:

Task(subagent_type="security-reviewer"):
  "Security review for story: <title>.
   Focus on: OWASP top 10, auth bypass, data exposure.
   Changed files: <list from Phase 3>."

Present review findings to the user.

APPROVAL GATE: Ask the user to approve, request fixes, or skip.

• Approve → proceed to Phase 5
• Fix → re-run Phase 3 with review feedback, then re-review
• Skip → mark story as skipped

In --auto mode: auto-approve if no CRITICAL findings. If CRITICAL findings exist, pause and present to user regardless.

Phase 5: Commit & Update State

1. Commit (if not already committed by tdd-guide):

   git add <specific files>
   git commit -m "<type>(<scope>): <description>
   
   Closes #<issue>
   
   Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>"
   

2. Update prd.json: Set passes: true for the completed story, increment iterations.

3. Append to progress.txt:

   ## [Date] - [Story ID]: [Title]
   - Implemented: <summary>
   - Files changed: <list>
   - Tests: <what was added>
   ---
   

4. Save deep-think checkpoint (if MCP available):

   checkpoint(operation="save", name="<story-id>")
   

On stuck stories: Set stuck: true and stuckReason in prd.json. Log the reason in progress.txt. Move to next story.

Step 3: Completion

When all stories are either passes: true or stuck: true:

1. Final QA: Run the full test suite and linter.
2. Print summary table:

   Story    | Status    | Iterations
   ---------|-----------|----------
   US-001   | DONE      | 1
   US-002   | DONE      | 2
   US-003   | STUCK     | 2 (reason)
   

3. Stuck stories: Suggest creating GitHub issues for any stuck stories:

   gh issue create --title "<story title>" --body "<context>" --label "claude-ready"
   

4. Final approval: Ask user if they want to push to remote.

Error Handling

• Max 2 retries per story before marking as stuck
• prd.json corruption: If prd.json becomes invalid JSON, warn and restore from the last known good state
• Agent failures: If a Task agent fails, log the error and retry once. If it fails again, mark story as stuck with the error context.
• Test failures: Never commit with failing tests. Either fix or mark stuck.

State Management

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