ralphex

Autonomous plan execution with Claude Code

ralphex is a standalone CLI tool that runs in your terminal from the root of a git repository. It orchestrates Claude Code to execute implementation plans autonomously - no IDE plugins or cloud services required, just Claude Code and a single binary.

Claude Code is powerful but interactive - it requires you to watch, approve, and guide each step. For complex features spanning multiple tasks, this means hours of babysitting. Worse, as context fills up during long sessions, the model's quality degrades - it starts making mistakes, forgetting earlier decisions, and producing worse code.

ralphex solves both problems. Each task executes in a fresh Claude Code session with minimal context, keeping the model sharp throughout the entire plan. Write a plan with tasks and validation commands, start ralphex, and walk away. Come back to find your feature implemented, reviewed, and committed - or check the progress log to see what it's doing.

Features

• Zero setup - works out of the box with sensible defaults, no configuration required
• Autonomous task execution - executes plan tasks one at a time with automatic retry
• Interactive plan creation - create plans through dialogue with Claude via --plan flag
• Multi-phase code review - 5 agents → codex → 2 agents review pipeline
• Custom review agents - configurable agents with {{agent:name}} template system and user defined prompts
• Automatic branch creation - creates git branch from plan filename
• Plan completion tracking - moves completed plans to completed/ folder
• Automatic commits - commits after each task and review fix
• Real-time monitoring - streaming output with timestamps, colors, and detailed logs
• Web dashboard - browser-based real-time view with --serve flag
• Docker support - run in isolated container for safer autonomous execution
• Notifications - optional alerts on completion/failure via Telegram, Email, Slack, Webhook, or custom script
• Worktree isolation - run multiple plans in parallel via --worktree flag
• Multiple modes - full execution, tasks-only, review-only, external-only, or plan creation

Quick Start

Make sure ralphex is installed and your project is a git repository. You need a plan file in docs/plans/, for example:

# Plan: My Feature

## Validation Commands
- `go test ./...`

### Task 1: Implement feature
- [ ] Add the new functionality
- [ ] Add tests

Then run:

ralphex docs/plans/my-feature.md

ralphex will create a branch, execute tasks, commit results, run multi-phase reviews, and move the plan to completed/ when done.

How It Works

ralphex executes plans in four phases with automated code reviews, plus an optional finalize step.

Phase 1: Task Execution

1. Reads plan file and finds first incomplete task (### Task N: with - [ ] checkboxes)
2. Sends task to Claude Code for execution
3. Runs validation commands (tests, linters) after each task
4. Marks checkboxes as done [x], commits changes
5. Repeats until all tasks complete or max iterations reached

Steering mid-run: Press Ctrl+\ (SIGQUIT) during a task iteration to pause execution. ralphex cancels the current Claude session and prompts "press Enter to continue, Ctrl+C to abort". While paused, you can edit the plan file — on Enter, the same task re-runs with a fresh session that re-reads the plan. Press Ctrl+C to abort cleanly. Not available on Windows.

Phase 2: First Code Review

Launches 5 review agents in parallel via Claude Code Task tool: