ralph-orchestrator

Ralph Orchestrator

A hat-based orchestration framework that keeps AI agents in a loop until the task is done.

"Me fail English? That's unpossible!" - Ralph Wiggum

Documentation | Getting Started | Presets

Installation

Via npm (Recommended)

npm install -g @ralph-orchestrator/ralph-cli

Via GitHub Releases installer

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  https://github.com/mikeyobrien/ralph-orchestrator/releases/latest/download/ralph-cli-installer.sh | sh

Via Cargo

cargo install ralph-cli

Homebrew is not currently published from this repository's automated release flow. Prefer npm, Cargo, or the GitHub Releases installer.

Quick Start

# 1. Initialize Ralph with your preferred backend
ralph init --backend claude

# 2. Plan your feature (interactive PDD session)
ralph plan "Add user authentication with JWT"
# Creates: specs/user-authentication/requirements.md, design.md, implementation-plan.md

# 3. Implement the feature
ralph run -p "Implement the feature in specs/user-authentication/"

Ralph iterates until it outputs LOOP_COMPLETE or hits the iteration limit.

For simpler tasks, skip planning and run directly:

ralph run -p "Add input validation to the /users endpoint"

Web Dashboard (Alpha)

Alpha: The web dashboard is under active development. Expect rough edges and breaking changes.

Ralph includes a web dashboard for monitoring and managing orchestration loops.

ralph web                              # starts Rust RPC API + frontend + opens browser
ralph web --no-open                    # skip browser auto-open
ralph web --backend-port 4000          # custom RPC API port
ralph web --frontend-port 8080         # custom frontend port
ralph web --legacy-node-api            # opt into deprecated Node tRPC backend

MCP Server Workspace Scope

ralph mcp serve is scoped to a single workspace root per server instance.

ralph mcp serve --workspace-root /path/to/repo

Precedence is:

1. --workspace-root
2. RALPH_API_WORKSPACE_ROOT
3. current working directory

For multi-repo use, run one MCP server instance per repo/workspace. Ralph's current control-plane APIs persist config, tasks, loops, planning sessions, and collections under a single workspace root, so server-per-workspace is the deterministic model.

Requirements:

• Rust toolchain (for ralph-api)
• Node.js >= 18 + npm (for the frontend)

On first run, ralph web auto-detects missing node_modules and runs npm install.

To set up Node.js:

# Option 1: nvm (recommended)
nvm install    # reads .nvmrc

# Option 2: direct install
# https://nodejs.org/

For development:

npm install              # install frontend + legacy backend deps
npm run dev:api          # Rust RPC API (port 3000)
npm run dev:web          # frontend (port 5173)
npm run dev              # frontend only (default)
npm run dev:legacy-server  # deprecated Node backend (optional)
npm run test             # all frontend/backend workspace tests

MCP Server Mode

Ralph can run as an MCP server over stdio for MCP-compatible clients:

ralph mcp serve

Use this mode from an MCP client configuration rather than an interactive terminal workflow.

What is Ralph?

Ralph implements the Ralph Wiggum technique — autonomous task completion through continuous iteration. It supports: