Ralph Loop

Ralph Loop is a Pi extension that repeats a prompt from a clean session checkpoint. It is useful when you want several independent attempts at the same task without carrying forward each previous attempt's active branch context.

Features

• Adds a /loop <prompt> command.
• Runs up to 10 total iterations per loop.
• Creates a hidden session checkpoint before the first iteration.
• After each agent run, navigates back to that checkpoint with summarize: false, clears the editor, and sends the prompt again.
• Calling /loop while a loop is active requests a graceful stop after the current run finishes.
• Refuses to start, or stops before the next reset/iteration, if Pi has queued messages that would otherwise race the loop.
• Stops automatically on session shutdown.

Install

After publication:

pi install npm:pi-ralph-loop

For local development from this checkout:

pi -e ./extensions/index.ts

Or create .pi/settings.json in this checkout for project-local loading:

{
  "packages": [".."]
}

Usage

/loop Improve the current implementation and run tests

To stop an active loop, run /loop again. The extension will finish the current agent run, clear the Ralph Loop status, and stop without queuing another prompt.

Safety notes

Pi extensions run with your local Pi permissions. Ralph Loop can automatically send the same prompt multiple times, so install it only in projects where repeated agent runs are expected and review the prompt before starting a loop.

Behavior notes

• The 10-iteration cap is intentional to prevent accidental infinite loops.
• Each loop stores a ralph-loop-checkpoint custom session entry. Custom entries do not participate in LLM context, but they give the extension an exact tree navigation target.
• Ralph Loop uses Pi session tree navigation, so previous attempts remain available in session history even though the active context is reset between iterations.
• If checkpoint creation, scheduling, idle waiting, prompt sending, or context reset fails, Ralph Loop clears its status and reports the failure instead of leaving a stale active loop.

Development

npm run verify

npm run verify runs the test, lint, and typecheck suites. The package also runs this verification automatically before npm pack/publish via prepack.