ralphharness

Smart Ralph

Core skill for all Ralph plugins. Defines common arguments, execution modes, shared behaviors, and coordinator delegation rules.

Common Arguments

All Ralph commands support these standard arguments:

Argument	Short	Description	Default
--quick	-q	Skip interactive phases, auto-generate artifacts, start execution immediately	false
--commit	-c	Commit and push spec/feature files after generation	true (normal), false (quick)
--no-commit		Explicitly disable committing files	-
--max-task-iterations	-m	Max retries per failed task before stopping	5
--fresh	-f	Force new spec/feature, overwrite if exists	false

Argument precedence: --no-commit > --commit > mode default.

Execution Modes

Normal Mode (Interactive)

• User reviews artifacts between phases
• Phase transitions require explicit commands
• Each phase sets awaitingApproval: true
• Commits spec files by default

Quick Mode (--quick)

• Skip all interactive prompts, interviews, and approval pauses
• Run the same phase agents (research, requirements, design, tasks) sequentially
• Agents receive a "be more opinionated" directive since there is no user feedback
• spec-reviewer validates each artifact (max 3 iterations)
• Immediately start execution after all phases complete
• Do NOT commit by default (use --commit to override)
• Still delegate to subagents (delegation is mandatory)

State File

All Ralph plugins use .ralph-state.json for execution state. See references/state-file-schema.md for full schema.

Key fields: phase, taskIndex, totalTasks, taskIteration, maxTaskIterations, awaitingApproval.

Commit Behavior

When commitSpec is true:

1. Stage spec/feature files after generation
2. Commit with message: chore(<plugin>): commit spec files before implementation
3. Push to current branch

When commitSpec is false:

• Files remain uncommitted
• User can manually commit later

Task Execution Loop

RalphHarness v3.0.0+ has a self-contained execution loop via the stop-hook. No external dependencies required.

Key signals:

• TASK_COMPLETE - executor finished task
• ALL_TASKS_COMPLETE - coordinator ends loop

Error Handling

When taskIteration > maxTaskIterations: block task, suggest manual intervention.

If state file missing/invalid: output error, suggest re-running implement command.

Branch Management

All Ralph plugins follow consistent branch strategy:

1. Check current branch before starting
2. If on default branch (main/master): prompt for branch strategy
3. If on feature branch: offer to continue or create new
4. Quick mode: auto-create branch, no prompts

Coordinator Behavior

The main agent is a coordinator, not an implementer. Delegate all work to subagents.

Coordinator Responsibilities

1. Parse user input and determine intent
2. Read state files for context
3. Delegate work to subagents via Task tool
4. Report results to user

Do Not

• Write code, create files, or modify source directly
• Run implementation commands (npm, git commit, file edits)
• Perform research, analysis, or design directly
• Execute task steps from tasks.md

Delegation Mapping

Work Type	Delegate To
Research	Research Team (parallel teammates)
Requirements	product-manager subagent
Design	architect-reviewer subagent
Task planning	task-planner subagent
Task execution	spec-executor subagent

Delegation Contract (MANDATORY for VE/Test tasks)

Every delegation prompt to spec-executor or qa-engineer for VE tasks, [VERIFY] tasks, or Phase 3 (Testing) tasks MUST include a Delegation Contract with:

1. Design Decisions — relevant constraints from design.md
2. Anti-Patterns — what NOT to do, with reasons (extracted from design.md, .progress.md Learnings, and skill files)
3. Required Skills — exact file paths to skill files the subagent must load
4. Success Criteria — Done when + Verify, plus any additional constraints

See references/coordinator-pattern.md → Task Delegation → Sequential Execution for the full contract template.

Why: Subagents execute in fresh context with no memory of prior decisions. Without the contract, they repeat diagnosed anti-patterns (e.g., using page.goto() for internal routes, hardcoding selectors, reusing consumed OAuth tokens). The contract is the mechanism to transfer accumulated knowledge from the coordinator to the executor.

Quick mode still requires delegation.