I recently came across Chris Parsons' "Your Agent Orchestrator is Too Clever" which talks about Ralph loops, initially proposed by Geoffrey Huntley.\n\n while :; do cat PROMPT.md | claude-code ; done\n \n Tried it on a real project. Realized that single line, even though concise, doesn't handle real-world complexity - multiple repos, git history, build failures. So I built some tooling around it.\n\n Didn't check if something already exists. Just built what I needed. Figured others might have the same needs.\n\n - YAML config: repo paths, git settings, permissions. No hardcoding.\n - Task routing: B* tasks go to backend, F* to frontend. AI works in the right directory.\n - Auto-commits per task group: commits when moving from F1 to F2, not after every subtask.\n - Verification: runs build/typecheck after each task. Fails? Loop stops or retries.\n - Hooks: lint after task, test after group, notify on complete.\n - Retry on failure: AI sometimes fails first try.\n - Context files: pass coding standards to every iteration.\n\n Core is still a bash loop. State in files. Each iteration: read state, do one task, update state, stop. Repeat.\n\n Example project included. Would welcome any feedback.\n\n https://github.com/cvemprala/ralph-addons I recently came across Chris Parsons' "Your Agent Orchestrator is Too Clever" which talks about Ralph loops, initially proposed by Geoffrey Huntley.\n\n while :; do cat PROMPT.md | claude-code ; done\n \n Tried it on a real project. Realized that single line, even though concise, doesn't handle real-world complexity - multiple repos, git history, build failures. So I built some tooling around it.\n\n Didn't check if something already exists. Just built what I needed. Figured others might have the same needs.\n\n - YAML config: repo paths, git settings, permissions. No hardcoding.\n - Task routing: B* tasks go to backend, F* to frontend. AI works in the right directory.\n - Auto-commits per task group: commits when moving from F1 to F2, not after every subtask.\n - Verification: runs build/typecheck after each task. Fails? Loop stops or retries.\n - Hooks: lint after task, test after group, notify on complete.\n - Retry on failure: AI sometimes fails first try.\n - Context files: pass coding standards to every iteration.\n\n Core is still a bash loop. State in files. Each iteration: read state, do one task, update state, stop. Repeat.\n\n Example project included. Would welcome any feedback.\n\n https://github.com/cvemprala/ralph-addonshttps://ghuntley.com/ralph/"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I resigned from Anthropic today"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://twitter.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843#m"}},"_tags":["comment","author_andai","story_49619227"],"author":"andai","comment_text":"ASI is just Claude in a while loop:
https://ghuntley.com/ralph/","created_at":"2026-09-09T06:15:26Z","created_at_i":1788934526,"objectID":"49621878","parent_id":49621445,"story_id":49619227,"story_title":"I resigned from Anthropic today","story_url":"https://twitter.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843#m","updated_at":"2026-09-09T06:29:06Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"andai"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["ghuntley","ralph"],"value":"AGI \u2248 Artificial Stupidity \u00d7 Infinite Persistence
Ralph is all you need!
https://ghuntley.com/ralph/"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I gave Qwen 3.8 27B a reverse-engineering job and it finished in 30 minutes"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.xda-developers.com/qwen-3-8-27b-reverse-engineering-job-frontier-model/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_andai","story_49407507"],"author":"andai","comment_text":"AGI \u2248 Artificial Stupidity \u00d7 Infinite Persistence
Ralph is all you need!
https://ghuntley.com/ralph/","created_at":"2026-08-24T01:13:09Z","created_at_i":1787533989,"objectID":"49414213","parent_id":49413716,"story_id":49407507,"story_title":"I gave Qwen 3.8 27B a reverse-engineering job and it finished in 30 minutes","story_url":"https://www.xda-developers.com/qwen-3-8-27b-reverse-engineering-job-frontier-model/","updated_at":"2026-08-29T02:53:30Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"andai"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["ghuntley","ralph"],"value":"Also out-speeding them, and that was before high speed inference.
Out-ralphing them, you might say!
AGI \u2248 artificial stupidity \u00d7 infinite persistence"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"AI isn\u2019t outthinking mathematicians, it\u2019s out-remembering them"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://davidepiffer.com/p/ai-isnt-outthinking-mathematicians"}},"_tags":["comment","author_andai","story_49312845"],"author":"andai","comment_text":"Also out-speeding them, and that was before high speed inference.
Out-ralphing them, you might say!
AGI \u2248 artificial stupidity \u00d7 infinite persistence","created_at":"2026-08-15T19:29:07Z","created_at_i":1786822147,"objectID":"49313507","parent_id":49312956,"story_id":49312845,"story_title":"AI isn\u2019t outthinking mathematicians, it\u2019s out-remembering them","story_url":"https://davidepiffer.com/p/ai-isnt-outthinking-mathematicians","updated_at":"2026-08-18T15:32:37Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"lbriner"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["ghuntley","ralph"],"value":"You can use the Ralph Wiggum technique: https://ghuntley.com/ralph/"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: Echo \u2013 Fable-level results at 1/3 the cost using open-weight models"}},"_tags":["comment","author_lbriner","story_49026810"],"author":"lbriner","comment_text":"You can use the Ralph Wiggum technique: https://ghuntley.com/ralph/","created_at":"2026-07-24T08:29:23Z","created_at_i":1784881763,"objectID":"49032758","parent_id":49029078,"story_id":49026810,"story_title":"Show HN: Echo \u2013 Fable-level results at 1/3 the cost using open-weight models","updated_at":"2026-07-24T12:39:51Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"andai"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["ghuntley","ralph"],"value":"Prior art: https://ghuntley.com/ralph/"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: Forge \u2013 Guardrails take an 8B model from 53% to 99% on agentic tasks"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://github.com/antoinezambelli/forge"}},"_tags":["comment","author_andai","story_48192383"],"author":"andai","comment_text":"Prior art: https://ghuntley.com/ralph/","created_at":"2026-05-20T10:49:38Z","created_at_i":1779274178,"objectID":"48205715","parent_id":48200359,"story_id":48192383,"story_title":"Show HN: Forge \u2013 Guardrails take an 8B model from 53% to 99% on agentic tasks","story_url":"https://github.com/antoinezambelli/forge","updated_at":"2026-05-21T09:51:20Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"TheDong"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["ghuntley","ralph"],"value":"That's just a ralph loop: https://ghuntley.com/ralph/
I can do that now with claude code and a "while true" bash loop.
Or with the built-in "/schedule" in claude code to set an agent to run say once every few minutes."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw"}},"_tags":["comment","author_TheDong","story_47633396"],"author":"TheDong","comment_text":"That's just a ralph loop: https://ghuntley.com/ralph/
I can do that now with claude code and a "while true" bash loop.
Or with the built-in "/schedule" in claude code to set an agent to run say once every few minutes.","created_at":"2026-04-04T01:24:00Z","created_at_i":1775265840,"objectID":"47634600","parent_id":47634506,"story_id":47633396,"story_title":"Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw","updated_at":"2026-04-04T01:39:12Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"ThrowawayR2"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["ghuntley","ralph"],"value":"Previously posted 6 times in the last six months, including twice by this user.
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer" (ghuntley.com)\n2 points by ghuntley 4 months ago | 1 comment
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n4 points by 0x000042 5 months ago
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n2 points by nojito 5 months ago
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n2 points by arrowsmith 6 months ago
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n18 points by tosh 6 months ago | 5 comments
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n2 points by ghuntley 6 months ago | 5 comments"},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["ralph"],"value":"Ralph Wiggum as a \"Software Engineer\""},"story_url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["ghuntley","ralph"],"value":"https://ghuntley.com/ralph/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_ThrowawayR2","story_46466538"],"author":"ThrowawayR2","comment_text":"Previously posted 6 times in the last six months, including twice by this user.
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer" (ghuntley.com)\n2 points by ghuntley 4 months ago | 1 comment
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n4 points by 0x000042 5 months ago
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n2 points by nojito 5 months ago
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n2 points by arrowsmith 6 months ago
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n18 points by tosh 6 months ago | 5 comments
Ralph Wiggum as a "Software Engineer"(https://ghuntley.com/ralph/)\n2 points by ghuntley 6 months ago | 5 comments","created_at":"2026-01-02T16:57:29Z","created_at_i":1767373049,"objectID":"46466750","parent_id":46466538,"story_id":46466538,"story_title":"Ralph Wiggum as a \"Software Engineer\"","story_url":"https://ghuntley.com/ralph/","updated_at":"2026-03-05T23:18:00Z"}],"hitsPerPage":8,"nbHits":60,"nbPages":8,"page":0,"params":"query=ghuntley+ralph&hitsPerPage=8&advancedSyntax=true&analyticsTags=backend","processingTimeMS":10,"processingTimingsMS":{"_request":{"roundTrip":17},"afterFetch":{"merge":{"mergeLoop":{"prepareNextHit":2,"total":2},"total":2},"total":2},"fetch":{"query":6,"total":7},"total":10},"query":"ghuntley ralph","serverTimeMS":10}