/setup-ralph

name: setup-ralph
description: Set up and configure Geoffrey Huntley's original Ralph Wiggum autonomous coding loop in any directory with proper structure, prompts, and backpressure.

<essential_principles>

What is Ralph?

Ralph is Geoffrey Huntley's autonomous AI coding methodology that uses iterative loops with task selection, execution, and validation. In its purest form, it's a Bash loop:

while :; do cat PROMPT.md | claude ; done

The loop feeds a prompt file to Claude, the agent completes one task, updates the implementation plan, commits changes, then exits. The loop restarts immediately with fresh context.

Core Philosophy

**The Ralph Wiggum Technique is deterministically bad in an undeterministic world.** Ralph solves context accumulation by starting each iteration with fresh context—the core insight behind Geoffrey's approach.

Three Phases, Two Prompts, One Loop

1. **Planning Phase**: Gap analysis (specs vs code) outputs prioritized TODO list—no implementation, no commits 2. **Building Phase**: Picks tasks from plan, implements, runs tests (backpressure), commits 3. **Observation Phase**: You sit on the loop, not in it—engineer the setup and environment that allows Ralph to succeed

Key Principles

**Your Role**: Ralph does all the work, including deciding which planned work to implement next and how to implement it. Your job is to engineer the environment.

**Backpressure**: Create backpressure via tests, typechecks, lints, builds that reject invalid/unacceptable work.

**Observation**: Watch, especially early on. Prompts evolve through observed failure patterns.

**Context Efficiency**: With ~176K usable tokens from 200K window, allocating 40-60% to "smart zone" means tight tasks with one task per loop achieves maximum context utilization.

**File I/O as State**: The plan file persists between isolated loop executions, serving as deterministic shared state—no sophisticated orchestration needed.

**Remote Backup**: The loop automatically creates a private GitHub repo and pushes after each commit. This protects against accidental data loss from autonomous operations. Requires `gh` CLI authenticated. Disable with `RALPH_BACKUP=false`.

**Safety Rules**: PROMPT_build.md includes critical safety rules prohibiting dangerous operations like `rm -rf` on project directories. Tests must run in isolated temp directories. </essential_principles>

<intake> What would you like to do?

1. **Set up a new Ralph loop** - Initialize Ralph structure in a directory 2. **Understand Ralph concepts** - Learn about the technique and how it works 3. **Customize existing loop** - Modify prompts or configuration 4. **Troubleshoot Ralph** - Debug loop issues or improve performance

Wait for response before proceeding. </intake>

<routing> | Response | Workflow | |----------|----------| | 1, "set up", "setup", "new", "initialize", "create" | `workflows/setup-new-loop.md` | | 2, "understand", "learn", "concepts", "explain", "how" | `workflows/understand-ralph.md` | | 3, "customize", "modify", "change", "update", "edit" | `workflows/customize-loop.md` | | 4, "troubleshoot", "debug", "fix", "problem", "issue" | `workflows/troubleshoot-loop.md` | | Other | Clarify intent, then select appropriate workflow |

After reading the workflow, follow it exactly. </routing>

<reference_index>

Domain Knowledge

All in `references/`:

**Core Concepts:** ralph-fundamentals.md - Three phases, two prompts, one loop **Structure:** project-structure.md - Required files and directory layout **Prompts:** prompt-design.md - Planning vs building mode instructions **Backpressure:** validation-strategy.md - Tests, lints, builds as steering **Best Practices:** operational-learnings.md - AGENTS.md guidance and evolution </reference_index>

<workflows_index> | Workflow | Purpose | |----------|---------| | setup-new-loop.md | Initialize Ralph structure in a directory | | understand-ralph.md | Learn Ralph concepts and philosophy | | customize-loop.md | Modify prompts or loop configuration | | troubleshoot-loop.md | Debug loop issues and improve performance | </workflows_index>

<success_criteria> Skill is successful when:

• User understands which workflow they need
• Appropriate workflow loaded based on intent
• All required references loaded by workflow
• User can set up and run Ralph loops independently

</success_criteria>