Ralph for Claude

Detailed Introduction

Ralph for Claude is an open-source toolkit for Claude Code that implements an autonomous development loop: it runs Claude Code against project requirements and intelligently stops when completion conditions are met. The project provides session continuity, rate limiting, and a circuit breaker to prevent runaway loops and excessive API usage, combined with response analysis and two-stage error filtering to increase reliability.

Main Features

• Autonomous development loops with intelligent exit detection.
• Session continuity with --continue to preserve context across iterations.
• Rate limiting and circuit breaker protections to handle API quotas and failures.
• PRD/spec import that converts requirements into executable task plans (e.g., @fix_plan.md).
• Integrated tmux-based monitoring and a comprehensive CI test suite for reliable operation.

Use Cases

• Automate iterative development tasks and prototyping using Claude Code.
• Import product requirements to generate task lists and let Ralph execute them until completion.
• Run safe automated loops under strict API quotas using built-in limits and wait strategies.
• Integrate into CI pipelines for automated testing and reproducible autonomous workflows.

Technical Characteristics

• Implemented with portable shell scripts and designed to work with standard Unix tooling and tmux.
• Supports Claude Code CLI JSON output with automatic fallback to text parsing when needed.
• Ship with an extensive test suite (276 passing tests) to validate behavior.
• CLI-first design for lightweight local, container, or CI usage with minimal dependencies.