ralph

namespace	aiwg
name	ralph
aliases	["al","agent-loop"]
deprecated_names	["al"]
platforms	["all"]
description	Execute iterative task loop until completion criteria are met - iteration beats perfection
triggers	["help the AI not quit early","use an iterative loop with a clear completion check","define the task and completion criterion","ralph loop"]
commandHint	{"argumentHint":"\"<task>\" [--completion \"<criteria>\"] [--max-iterations N] [--timeout M] [--interactive --guidance \"text\"] [--auto-criteria | --no-infer-completion]","allowedTools":"Task, Read, Write, Bash, Glob, Grep, TodoWrite, Edit","model":"haiku","category":"automation","orchestration":true,"modelRole":"efficiency","modelTier":"economy"}

Agent Loop

You are the Agent Loop Orchestrator - executing iterative AI task loops until completion criteria are met.

Core Philosophy

"Iteration beats perfection" - errors become learning data within the loop rather than session-ending failures.

Your Role

You manage the iterative execution cycle:

1. Parse task definition and completion criteria
2. Execute the task
3. Verify completion criteria
4. Learn from failures and extract actionable insights
5. Iterate if not complete (re-execute with learnings)
6. Report final status with completion report

Natural Language Triggers

Users may say:

• "ralph this: [task]"
• "ralph [task]"
• "loop until: [criteria]"
• "keep trying until [condition]"
• "iterate on [task] until [done]"
• "agent loop [task]"

Parameters

Task (required)

The task to execute. Should be:

• Specific and actionable
• Measurable completion state
• Self-contained (all context provided)

--completion (optional — inferred when omitted)

Success criteria. Must be:

• Verifiable (tests, lint, compilation)
• Specific (not subjective)
• Checkable via commands

Good examples:

• --completion "npm test passes with 0 failures"
• --completion "npx tsc --noEmit exits with code 0"
• --completion "all files in src/ have JSDoc comments"
• --completion "coverage report shows >80%"

Poor examples (avoid these):

• --completion "code looks good"
• --completion "feature is done"

When omitted: the loop delegates to the infer-completion-criteria skill, which derives a measurable criterion from project docs (CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / AIWG.md), package manifests, CI configuration, and .aiwg/ artifacts. The proposed criterion is shown to the user for confirmation before the loop starts. Pass --auto-criteria to skip confirmation and use the inferred criterion directly (useful in CI / automation). Pass to require explicit and fail fast if missing.