Ralph Loop

Use this skill to operate Ralph loops from the outside.

Use This Skill For

• Starting or continuing a Ralph run with the right -c and -H inputs
• Inspecting loop state, worktrees, logs, history, and diffs
• Resuming a hook-suspended loop
• Merging or discarding completed worktree loops
• Debugging unexpected loop behavior with current diagnostics files

Workflow

1. Start with ralph loops list or ralph loops list --json to establish the current state.
2. If the user wants execution, run ralph run ... with the right core config and hats source.
3. If the loop is stuck or suspicious, inspect logs, history, and diff before changing state.
4. If the loop is suspended, read .ralph/suspend-state.json and use ralph loops resume <id>.
5. If a loop is queued or in needs-review, inspect the diff first, then use merge, process, retry, or discard as appropriate.
6. Use diagnostics when you need detailed evidence about hats, events, tool calls, parse errors, or performance.

Guardrails

• Prefer the CLI over direct edits to .ralph state files.
• Treat tasks and memories as the canonical runtime systems; do not center scratchpad as the primary state model.
• Inspect diffs before merging.
• Only remove lock or queue artifacts when the underlying process is confirmed dead.
• Manual edits under .ralph/ are last-resort recovery steps and should be called out explicitly when used.

Read These References When Needed

• For command recipes and operator flows: references/commands.md
• For diagnostics files and suspend-state details: references/diagnostics.md