ito-loop

name	ito-loop
description	Run an ito ralph loop for a change, module, or repo-ready sequence, with safe defaults and automatic restart context on early exits.

Skill: ito-loop

Run ito ralph for one change, one module, or the next ready work item, with safe defaults and bounded restarts.

Inputs

Parse /ito-loop arguments into one of these modes:

Input	Mode	Command shape
^[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2}_[a-z0-9-]+$	change	ito ralph ... --change <id>
^[0-9]{3}$	module	ito ralph ... --module <id>
next, continue, natural language for next ready work, or empty	continue-ready	ito ralph ... --continue-ready

Optional flags (free text, best-effort)

• --model <model-id>
• --max-iterations <n>
• --timeout <duration> (e.g. 15m)

Default behavior

• Harness: current harness (opencode, claude, codex, copilot, or pi)
• Max iterations: 5
• Timeout: 15m
• Outer restarts on restartable failures: 2

Procedure

1. Parse input with ito util parse-id $ARGUMENTS:

   parsed=$(ito util parse-id $ARGUMENTS)
   mode=$(echo "$parsed" | jq -r '.mode')
   id=$(echo "$parsed" | jq -r '.id // empty')
   

   • mode will be change, module, or continue-ready.
   • id is set for change and module modes; empty for continue-ready.
   • If the command fails, ask the user to clarify.
   • Never use eval, and always quote variables.

2. Choose the active harness.

3. Build one base ito ralph command. Ralph already manages its own internal loop, so do not wrap it in an unbounded retry loop.

   Command shapes:

   # Mode: change
   ito ralph --no-interactive --harness <harness> --change <change-id> --max-iterations 5 --timeout 15m
   
   # Mode: module
   ito ralph --no-interactive --harness <harness> --module <module-id> --max-iterations 5 --timeout 15m
   
   # Mode: continue-ready
   ito ralph --no-interactive --harness <harness> --continue-ready --max-iterations 5 --timeout 15m
   

   Apply any user-provided overrides on top of the defaults. Check ito ralph --help only if extra flags matter.

4. Run the command once.

   • Exit 0: report success and stop.
   • Restartable non-zero exit: restart at most 2 times.
   • Non-restartable failure: report failure and stop.

5. For each bounded restart, collect context from:

   ito ralph --no-interactive --change <change-id> --status
   ito tasks status <change-id>
   

   Summarize the context into a short restart note containing:

   • You have been restarted ...
   • last iteration / last failure / current task summary
   • one sentence telling Ralph to continue from current state

   Append it before the rerun:

   ito ralph --no-interactive --change <change-id> --add-context "<restart-note>"
   

   Re-run the same base command.

6. After the supervised run sequence finishes:

   • Exit 0: report completion.
   • Non-zero exit after bounded restarts: report failure plus the last useful Ralph status summary.

Guardrails

• Do not wrap Ralph in an unbounded outer loop.
• Only use restart context when ito ralph --status and ito tasks status are meaningful.
• For module or continue-ready runs, do not invent per-change restart behavior unless the failure clearly reduces to one targeted change.