god-ralph Skill

god-ralph is an autonomous development system that combines two powerful patterns:

1. Ralph Wiggum: Ephemeral, iterative agents that work until completion
2. Beads: Granular, dependency-tracked work items

When to Use god-ralph

Use god-ralph when:

• You have multiple beads ready to work on
• You want autonomous execution without babysitting
• You need parallel development on independent tasks
• You want verification after each completion
• You need persistent progress tracking

Core Concepts

Ephemeral Ralphs

Each Ralph worker:

• Completes exactly ONE bead
• Iterates until acceptance criteria met (or max iterations)
• Dies after completion
• Works in isolated git worktree

Orchestrator

Persistent agent that:

• Finds ready beads via bd ready
• Analyzes parallelism opportunities
• Spawns and monitors Ralphs
• Merges completed work
• Runs verification
• Creates fix-beads on failure

Verification Ralph

After each merge:

• Runs all acceptance criteria
• Checks for integration issues
• Creates high-priority fix-beads on failure

Commands

Command	Purpose
/god-ralph start	Start autonomous execution (dry-run first)
/god-ralph plan	Interactive wizard to create beads
/god-ralph status	Show current progress
/god-ralph stop	Gracefully stop execution
/god-ralph <id>	Run Ralph on specific bead

Bead Specification

For god-ralph to work effectively, beads should include:

title: "Clear, actionable title"
description: "Detailed description"
type: feature|task|bug
priority: 0-4

# In comments until schema supports:
ralph_spec:
  completion_promise: "BEAD COMPLETE"
  max_iterations: 50
  acceptance_criteria:
    - type: test
      command: "npm test"
    - type: lint
      command: "npm run lint"

Workflow Example

# 1. Plan your work
/god-ralph plan
# Wizard asks questions, creates beads

# 2. Review what's ready
bd ready

# 3. Start autonomous execution
/god-ralph start
# Shows dry-run plan, asks for confirmation

# 4. Monitor progress
/god-ralph status

# 5. Stop when needed
/god-ralph stop

Parallelism

god-ralph automatically parallelizes independent beads:

Group 1 (parallel):
  - beads-abc: "Add API endpoint" → worktree/1
  - beads-def: "Add frontend page" → worktree/2

Group 2 (after Group 1):
  - beads-ghi: "Integration tests" → worktree/3

Beads with file overlap run sequentially.

Git Isolation

Each Ralph works in a separate git worktree:

Main repo:     /project/           → main
Worktree 1:    .worktrees/ralph-1/ → ralph/beads-abc
Worktree 2:    .worktrees/ralph-2/ → ralph/beads-def

This allows:

• Parallel file editing
• Independent commits
• Clean merges

Cost Awareness

Typical costs:

• Simple bead (3-5 iterations): $1-2
• Medium bead (10-15 iterations): $3-5
• Complex bead (30+ iterations): $10-15

/god-ralph status shows running cost estimate.

Error Handling

When things go wrong:

1. Ralph fails (max iterations)

   • Bead marked as blocked
   • Diagnostic comment added
   • Orchestrator continues to next bead

2. Merge conflict

   • Merge aborted
   • Fix-bead created (priority 0)
   • Original bead marked blocked

3. Verification fails

   • Fix-bead created with failure details
   • Linked to failed beads
   • Orchestrator continues

Integration with Beads

god-ralph extends the beads ecosystem:

# Create beads normally
bd create --title="..." --type=feature

# Add ralph_spec via comments
bd comments <id> --add "ralph_spec: ..."

# god-ralph uses bd CLI under the hood
bd ready      # Find work
bd update     # Claim work
bd close      # Complete work
bd dep        # Manage dependencies

Best Practices

1. Right-size beads: 5-15 iterations each
2. Clear acceptance criteria: Specific, runnable tests
3. Explicit dependencies: Link related beads
4. Monitor progress: Check /god-ralph status periodically
5. Review fix-beads: Address failures before continuing

References

• BEAD_SPEC.md - Detailed bead format
• WORKFLOWS.md - Common workflows