| name | babysit |
| description | Crunch through a todo/backlog list by spawning a fresh sub-agent per item (a babysat "ralph loop"), then verifying each result independently before moving on. Use when the user wants to autonomously work through a checklist/backlog one item at a time, supervising delegated agents rather than doing the work directly. |
Babysit
Drive a backlog to completion by delegating one item per sub-agent and verifying
its work yourself before the next. You are the supervisor, not the implementer.
Loop
For each item, run the sub-agent in the foreground (don't poll a backgrounded
PID — it may finish mid-sleep) and tee its log:
pi --model <model> -p @path/to/backlog.md "Pick the NEXT item from <section>: \
<item>. Follow the established workflow (templates: <recent commits>). \
<concrete scope + gotchas>. Run <project checks>. Update the backlog doc \
(move item to Shipped, terse) + changelog. Commit conventional." \
2>&1 | tee /tmp/ralphN.log | tail -25
Then verify independently before continuing:
git log --oneline -1 && git status -s
<project test cmd> | tail
<lint/typecheck/schema checks>
Repeat until the backlog section is empty.
Rules
- One item per agent. Fresh context each time keeps quality high.
- Steer the prompt. Point at recent commits as templates, name the exact
scope, and pre-warn known gotchas (naming conventions, codegen quirks, the
right verify command). Update these hints as you learn them.
- Verify, don't trust. Re-run tests + the project's
--check scripts, and
exercise the feature yourself (e2e render, round-trip, etc.). Summaries lie.
- Catch process drift. e.g. agents running a bare test runner that skips a
freshness gate — rebuild/recheck yourself.
- Resume on interruption. If a run dies,
pi -c -p "your previous run was interrupted; check git status/diff and finish + commit" continues it.
- Keep the backlog doc as the source of truth — agents read it to pick the
next item, so keep it terse and current (done → Shipped).
When done
Run the full check suite once more, do a final end-to-end dogfood, and report a
terse summary of what shipped + any follow-ups noted in the doc.
