ralph

[RALPH - ITERATION {{ITERATION}}/{{MAX}}]

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1. FIRST ITERATION, before picking a story: run omg ralph verify --write-baseline --session <sessionId> (session id: read OMC_SESSION_ID if set — omg ralph afk exports it — else the one in the Ralph continuation context / active PRD path; use the SAME id for every call in this run). This records the feedback baseline. If the command is unavailable or denied, STOP and report the failure — do not fall back to hand-rolled judgment.
2. EVERY verification gate (story verification, post-deslop re-verification): run omg ralph verify --session <sessionId> and obey the exit code — 0 = pass (baseline-only failures are recorded warnings, never a story failure), 1 = new failures to fix.
3. NEVER hand-roll the feedback diff (running the suite yourself and eyeballing the output is exactly the failure mode this gate exists to prevent). </Precondition_Feedback_Gate>

<Use_When>

• Task requires guaranteed completion with verification (not just "do your best")
• User says "ralph", "don't stop", "must complete", "finish this", or "keep going until done"
• Work may span multiple iterations and needs persistence across retries
• Task benefits from structured PRD-driven execution with reviewer sign-off </Use_When>

<Do_Not_Use_When>

• User wants a full autonomous pipeline from idea to code -- use autopilot instead
• User wants to explore or plan before committing -- use plan skill instead
• User wants a quick one-shot fix -- delegate directly to an executor agent
• User wants manual control over completion -- delegate directly to an executor agent
• User already has an active Claude Code /goal and only wants that native goal loop monitored -- adopt the existing /goal explicitly or use artifact-only Ultragoal notes instead of starting Ralph as a competing persistence loop </Do_Not_Use_When>

<Why_This_Exists> Complex tasks often fail silently: partial implementations get declared "done", tests get skipped, edge cases get forgotten. Ralph prevents this by:

1. Structuring work into discrete user stories with testable acceptance criteria (prd.json)
2. Iterating story-by-story until each one passes
3. Tracking progress and learnings across iterations (progress.txt)
4. Requiring fresh reviewer verification against specific acceptance criteria before completion </Why_This_Exists>

<PRD_Mode> By default, ralph operates in PRD mode. A scaffold prd.json is auto-generated when ralph starts if none exists. Active transient PRD state is session-scoped at .omg/state/sessions/{sessionId}/prd.json when a session ID is available; legacy project-level prd.json / .omg/prd.json files are read as startup migration inputs.

Startup gate: Ralph always initializes and validates prd.json at startup. Legacy --no-prd text is sanitized from the prompt for backward compatibility, but it no longer bypasses PRD creation or validation.

Deslop opt-out: If {{PROMPT}} contains --no-deslop, skip the mandatory post-review deslop pass entirely. Use this only when the cleanup pass is intentionally out of scope for the run.

Reviewer selection: Pass --critic=architect, --critic=critic, or --critic=codex in the Ralph prompt to choose the completion reviewer for that run. architect remains the default.

Stale-state detection & reconciliation (#3669): If a PRD is left unfinished by an abnormal/non-Step 8 exit (crash, force-kill, cancel before /oh-my-copilot:cancel, session end), Ralph surfaces an explicit [STALE PRD WARNING] at startup/resume, in the continuation context, and at session end — with unfinished counts, last-touched age, and stale-pointer signals (PRD branchName merged/gone). Completion is NEVER inferred from PR/branch/merge status alone; git state is a warning signal only. A story is auto-reconciled to passes: true ONLY when the PRD carries configured observable evidence and every check passes: