ralph-loop

ralph-loop is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins. It costs 87 tokens per session (761 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

An autonomous development loop that selects one task at a time, implements it, checks the result, and commits the change. Each iteration starts with a fresh context window, and the loop records task status, activity, and optional lessons.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to work through tasks created by the Ralph setup, run a builder and verifier cycle, update task records, and create Git commits.
Why use it?
It breaks a large task list into smaller iterations so each change can be built and checked separately instead of attempting the whole project at once.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to work through tasks created by the Ralph setup, run a builder and verifier cycle, update task records, and create Git commits.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins/ralph-loop
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins --skill ralph-loop
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for ralph-loop

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins/ralph-loop/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins/ralph-loop)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins/ralph-loop"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins/ralph-loop/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for ralph-loop

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins/ralph-loop"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins/ralph-loop.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 87 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 761 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00087 $0.00761
Opus 5.5 $0.00035 $0.00304
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00017 $0.00152
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00076

Measured yesterday against content hash 5e01ebf25d9f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

ralph-loop scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/ralph.sh), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/ralph/skills/ralph-loop/SKILL.md · 95 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 95 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Ralph Loop Execution Protocol

Autonomous development with fresh context per iteration and Hat-lite builder/verifier workflow.

Quick Start

# From project directory (after /create-prd)
./ralph.sh 20          # Run up to 20 iterations
./ralph.sh 5           # Quick test with 5 iterations

How It Works

Each iteration runs in a fresh context window:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ITERATION (Fresh Context)                           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. ORIENT: Read activity.log + tasks.json + memories│
│ 2. BUILD:  Pick ONE task, implement, verify        │
│ 3. VERIFY: Review, update status, commit           │
│ 4. LEARN:  (Optional) Save insights to memories    │
│ 5. DECIDE: All done? → RALPH_COMPLETE              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Hat-Lite System

Role When Responsibility
Builder ~65% of iteration Implement ONE task
Verifier ~35% of iteration Review, update, commit

Key Files

File Purpose
.ralph/current-taskset/tasks.json Task state (source of truth)
.ralph/current-taskset/activity.log Iteration history
.ralph/current-taskset/memories.md Persistent learnings
.ralph/current-taskset Symlink to active task set
PROMPT.md Instructions per iteration
ralph.sh Loop runner script

Task JSON Format

Tasks are stored in .ralph/current-taskset/tasks.json:

{
  "tasks": [
    {
      "id": "setup-001",
      "description": "Initialize project",
      "verificationTier": "build",
      "passes": false,
      "iteration_completed": null
    }
  ]
}

Valid verificationTier values: "build" (default), "visual", "api", "e2e". See WORKFLOW.md for details.

Completion Signal

When all tasks pass, output:

RALPH_COMPLETE: All tasks verified

Commands

Read the full file on GitHub · 95 lines

Files

What ships with it

4 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 95 lines · 87 tokens per session scan A 5e01ebf25d9f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ralph-loop is a skill published in the GitHub repository joaquimscosta/arkhe-claude-plugins (21 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 87 tokens to every session and 761 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-10-16.