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Ralph Loop — Single-Ticket Workflow

Implement JIRA ticket $ARGUMENTS from assignment to merge-ready PR in one continuous loop.

Parse $ARGUMENTS: first token is the ticket key, --manual (if present) sets manual stepping mode.

Initialize

bash .claude/scripts/tick-state.sh init $TICKET --mode $MODE

The Tick Loop

while state != COMPLETE:
    1. READ   — bash .claude/scripts/tick-state.sh read $TICKET
    2. ACT    — execute the handler for the current state
    3. WRITE  — bash .claude/scripts/tick-state.sh advance $TICKET <NEXT_STATE>
    4. SLEEP  — if DORMANT: the poll script blocks (0 tokens consumed)
    5. PAUSE  — if manual mode: ask user [c]ontinue / [s]kip / [i]nspect / [a]bort
    6. LOOP   — go back to step 1

CRITICAL: Do NOT stop between ticks. The only valid exit points are:

• State reaches COMPLETE
• Manual mode and user chooses [a]bort
• triage_attempts >= 3 (ask user for guidance)

State Handlers

ASSIGN

View the JIRA ticket, assign it, transition to ASSIGNED.

bash .claude/scripts/jira-ops.sh view $TICKET
bash .claude/scripts/jira-ops.sh assign $TICKET
bash .claude/scripts/jira-ops.sh transition $TICKET "ASSIGNED"

-> advance to BRANCH

BRANCH

Check backport requirement, create feature branch, load area docs.

bash .claude/scripts/jira-ops.sh check-version $TICKET
git checkout ${PRIMARY_BRANCH:-master} && git pull origin ${PRIMARY_BRANCH:-master}
git checkout -b $TICKET-short-description
bash .claude/scripts/tick-state.sh set $TICKET branch "<branch-name>"

-> advance to IMPLEMENT

IMPLEMENT

Read AGENTS.md plus area docs. Write code, create tests, handle edge cases. -> advance to TEST

TEST

Run quality checks and tests:

bash .claude/scripts/format-and-lint.sh

If tests fail: fix and re-run. Stay in TEST until all pass. -> advance to COMMIT

COMMIT

Stage and commit:

git add <specific files>
git commit -m "<subsystem>: <what changed> ($TICKET)"

If pre-commit hooks fail: fix, re-stage, new commit. Stay in COMMIT until success. -> advance to PR_CREATE