Ralphy

An iterative AI task execution framework. Ralphy runs Claude or Codex in a checklist-driven loop with state on disk, cost safeguards, and a long-lived agent that polls Linear, opens PRs, and iterates with reviewers.

📘 Full reference — Linear indicators, lifecycle, PR/CI flow, CLI flags, MCP — lives in GUIDE.md.

Features

Loop

• Checklist-driven — one unchecked task per iteration; state persists on disk so any run can be resumed.
• Engine choice — Claude (haiku / sonnet / opus) or Codex, swappable per task.
• Safeguards — --max-iterations, --max-cost, --max-runtime, --max-failures cap any runaway run.
• OpenSpec layout — proposal.md (steering) + design.md + tasks.md + specs/ per change.

Agent mode (Linear-driven)

• Linear polling — picks up Todo tickets, resumes In Progress, re-runs reviewer-flagged Done.
• Indicators — declarative WORKFLOW.md map for "which labels/statuses to watch and apply" at each lifecycle event.
• Worktrees — every task runs in its own git worktree so concurrent workers can't stomp on each other.
• Confirmation gate — optional human approval step between tasks and implement; revise via @ralphy revise: <why>.
• Self-review phase — once tasks are checked off, an in-process reviewer can append more work for another round.
• Tmux session management — ralphy agent re-execs into a managed tmux session so detaching the terminal doesn't kill the loop.
• Pre-existing error check — pauses pickups when the trunk is red so the agent doesn't chase failures it didn't cause.

PR + CI

• Auto PR open — push branch and gh pr create on clean exit; idempotent (surfaces existing PR if open).
• Auto-merge opt-in — getAutoMerge triggers gh pr merge --auto --squash|merge|rebase right after PR creation.
• Stacked PRs — --stack-prs opens against a blocker's head branch when a blocked_by Linear relation has exactly one open PR.
• PR recovery (prRecovery) — after a worker opens a PR the ticket rests in-review; a background watcher polls each tracked PR and advances the ticket to done once the PR is mergeable (CI green, no conflicts), re-queuing a fix worker when it goes red — merge conflicts when prRecovery.fixConflicts is on, failing CI when prRecovery.fixCi is on — bailing to ralph:error after maxRecoverySessions. With prRecovery.enabled: false the worker marks the ticket done immediately on PR open and nothing is watched. --no-pr-recovery disables it for a run.

Reviewer interaction

• @ralphy mentions — Linear comments and GitHub PR comments trigger a fresh review run with the mention as the prompt.
• Code-review iteration — unresolved review-thread comments queue a digest; Ralph agrees-and-fixes (resolving the thread) or disagrees-and-replies.
• Sticky task comment — tasks.md mirrors into a single Linear comment that updates in place; a one-shot "📋 Plan" comment summarises proposal + design when planning completes.

Observability

• Ink dashboard — engine/model, poll-bucket breakdown, per-worker cards with live phase, command-in-flight, and stdout tail.
• Structured JSON event stream — --json-output for CI; --json-log-file mirrors the same stream to disk.
• Per-worker logs — ~/.ralph/agent-mode.log (global) + .ralph/logs/<change>.log (per-task) + per-change LOG.jsonl.

Extensibility

• MCP server — exposes ralph_list_changes / get_change / create_change / append_steering / stop to Claude-side agents (auto-wired on per-project install).
• WORKFLOW.md template body — Jinja-style prompt rendered per iteration, so project-specific rules / boundaries / labels flow into every task automatically.

How it works

graph LR
    S[Start iteration] --> R[Read Steering] --> T[First unchecked task] --> W[Do the work] --> V[Validate] --> C[Check off] --> S
    T -->|all checked| D[Archive change]

Each iteration reads ## Steering from proposal.md, picks the first unchecked item in tasks.md, does the work, validates, and checks it off. When every item is checked the loop archives the change.

Install

Requires Bun. The Claude engine also needs the Claude CLI.

npm install -g @neriros/ralphy   # or: bunx @neriros/ralphy

Task mode — one-shot loop

ralphy loop task --name fix-auth --prompt "Fix the JWT validation bug" --claude opus --max-iterations 10

# Resume later (state is on disk)
ralphy loop task --name fix-auth

# Inspect
ralphy loop status --name fix-auth

Safeguards: --max-iterations, --max-cost, --max-runtime, --max-failures. Engine defaults to Claude Opus. See GUIDE.md → CLI reference for the full set.

Agent mode — Linear-driven

ralphy agent polls Linear, runs up to N concurrent task loops, and (optionally) opens PRs, watches CI, and iterates with reviewers. Requires LINEAR_API_KEY.

export LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_xxx
ralphy agent --linear-team ENG --linear-assignee me --concurrency 3 --create-pr

Each poll routes every matching issue into one of: fresh (Todo → scaffold + spawn), resume (In Progress → reattach), conflict-fix / ci-fix (PR red on GitHub → prepend fix task), or review / code-review (reviewer comments or @ralphy mention).

Configuration lives in WORKFLOW.md at the project root — YAML frontmatter for settings, followed by the Jinja-style prompt template the worker renders each iteration. A default is written on first run; CLI flags override per invocation.

See GUIDE.md for:

• Lifecycle diagram + per-mode behavior
• linear.indicators schema and the full WORKFLOW.md example
• Confirmation gate (@ralphy revise, opt-in/out labels)
• @ralphy mentions, code-review iteration, self-review phase
• PR + CI integration (auto-merge, stacked PRs, fix-ci loop)
• Pre-existing error check, worktrees, tmux session management, dashboard, logs
• Complete CLI reference (task, agent, list modes)

MCP server

Ralphy ships an MCP server (auto-configured on per-project install) exposing ralph_list_changes, ralph_get_change, ralph_create_change, ralph_append_steering, ralph_stop. See GUIDE.md → MCP server.

Development

bun install
bunx nx run-many -t lint,typecheck,test,build   # all checks
bunx nx run cli:build                            # CLI only

Per-project install (builds + wires .ralph/ and .mcp.json into the repo):

make install            # → ./.ralph
make install ~          # → ~/.ralph
make install /path/to   # → /path/to/.ralph