| name | ralph-validate |
| description | Static validator for prd.json. Checks structure, required fields, dependency consistency, acceptance criteria coverage, and detects cycles. Run before /ralph-agent or /ralph-loop to catch planning-time issues that would otherwise crash the loop mid-iteration. |
Ralph Validate - PRD Linter
Runs a static pass over prd.json and reports everything wrong in one go. Meant to be invoked before starting the loop, or after hand-editing the PRD.
Usage
/ralph-validate
/ralph-validate path/to/prd.json
Invokes skills/ralph-validate/validate.sh. Exit 0 on success, 1 on any error. Warnings don't fail the run.
What it checks
Structure
prd.json exists and is valid JSON- Top-level fields present:
name, branch, stories
.stories is a non-empty array- Every story has:
id, title, description, priority, acceptance_criteria, passes, type, team, models
- Story ids are unique
Content
type is one of backend / frontend / fullstack / infra / datateam.implement and team.review each have at least one agentmodels.{design,implement,review} values are opus / sonnet / haiku (when present)acceptance_criteria is a non-empty array- Every story's acceptance criteria includes "Typecheck passes"
frontend and fullstack stories also include "Verify in browser"
Dependencies
- Every
depends_on id references an existing story (no dangling refs)
- No self-loops (A depends on A)
- No dependency cycles (A → B → A, or longer)
Warnings (do not fail)
branch doesn't start with feature/, fix/, hotfix/, or chore/
Why run it
The three execution modes (ralph.sh, /ralph-agent, /ralph-loop) all assume prd.json is well-formed. A dangling depends_on or a missing team.implement array would otherwise surface as a cryptic failure on iteration 12 after you've already burned tokens. Validation up front is cheap.
Output shape
Validating prd.json...
Warnings:
⚠ Branch 'main' doesn't start with feature/, fix/, hotfix/, or chore/
Errors:
✗ Story US-003: acceptance_criteria must include 'Typecheck passes'
✗ Story US-007: depends_on 'US-999' references unknown story
✗ Dependency cycle or unreachable nodes: US-004 US-005
✗ Validation failed with 3 error(s)
Requirements
jq on PATH- Bash 3.2+ (macOS default bash works)
