ralph-starter

The most complete Ralph Wiggum implementation.
Connect your tools. Run AI coding loops. Ship faster.

The easiest way to run Ralph Wiggum autonomous coding loops — pull specs from GitHub, Linear, Notion, Figma, and more, then let AI build it.

Integrations • Quick Start • Features • Docs

Most AI coding tools work in isolation. You describe a task, AI builds it, done.

ralph-starter brings the Ralph Wiggum technique to production. It connects to your existing workflow — pulling specs from GitHub issues, Linear tickets, Notion docs, or any URL — then runs autonomous Ralph Wiggum loops until the task is complete. One command to go from spec to shipped code.

# Build from a GitHub issue
ralph-starter run --from github --project myorg/myrepo --label "ready"

# Build from a Linear ticket
ralph-starter run --from linear --project "Mobile App" --label "sprint-1"

# Build from a Notion spec
ralph-starter run --from notion --project "https://notion.so/Product-Spec-abc123"

# Or just describe what you want
ralph-starter run "build a todo app with React" --commit

Integrations

ralph-starter integrates with your favorite tools out of the box:

Integration	Auth Method	What It Fetches
GitHub	gh CLI (recommended) or API token	Issues, PRs, files
Linear	linear CLI or API key	Issues by team/project
Notion	None (public) or API token (private)	Pages, databases
Figma	API token	Design specs, tokens, assets & content extraction
URLs	None	Any public markdown/HTML
Files	None	Local markdown, PDF

# Check available integrations
ralph-starter integrations list

# Test connectivity
ralph-starter integrations test github
ralph-starter integrations test linear

# Preview data before running
ralph-starter integrations fetch github owner/repo

Want more integrations? PRs welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md to get started.

Table of Contents

• Integrations
• Quick Start
• Features
• Commands
• Configuration
• Contributing

Key Features

Feature	Description
Integrations	Pull specs from GitHub, Linear, Notion, Figma, URLs, files
Multi-Agent Support	Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, and more
Interactive Wizard	Guided project creation with AI-refined specifications
16+ Workflow Presets	Pre-configured modes: feature, tdd, debug, review, and more
Circuit Breaker	Auto-stops stuck loops after repeated failures
Cost Tracking	Estimates token usage and cost per iteration
Git Automation	Auto-commit, push, and PR creation
Backpressure Validation	Run tests/lint/build after each iteration
MCP Server	Use from Claude Desktop or any MCP client

Quick Example

# Simple task
ralph-starter run "build a todo app" --commit --validate

# With preset
ralph-starter run --preset tdd-red-green "add user authentication"

# With safety controls
ralph-starter run --rate-limit 50 --circuit-breaker-failures 3 "build X"

# Interactive wizard
ralph-starter

What is Ralph Wiggum?

The Ralph Wiggum technique is an autonomous AI coding pattern where you run a coding agent (like Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor) in a loop — feeding errors back into the agent until the task is complete. Originally described by Geoffrey Huntley, the Ralph Wiggum loop has become one of the most popular approaches for autonomous AI development.

ralph-starter is the production-grade Ralph Wiggum implementation — it adds integrations, safety controls (circuit breakers, rate limiting, cost tracking), git automation, validation backpressure, and multi-agent support on top of the core Ralph Wiggum loop pattern. Instead of a bare bash script, you get a full orchestration engine.

Why ralph-starter over a raw Ralph Wiggum script?

• Spec-driven: Pull tasks from GitHub, Linear, Notion, Figma — not just manual prompts
• Safe: Circuit breakers stop stuck loops, rate limiters control costs
• Multi-agent: Works with 8+ coding agents, not just one
• Observable: Cost tracking, progress logs, iteration history
• Automated: Auto-commit, push, and PR creation built in

Installation

npm install -g ralph-starter
# or
npx ralph-starter

After installing, run the setup wizard and verify your environment:

ralph-starter setup    # Configure API keys and preferences
ralph-starter check    # Verify system requirements and connectivity

Quick Start

For Everyone (Non-Developers Welcome!)

Just run ralph-starter with no arguments to launch the interactive wizard:

ralph-starter

The wizard will:

• Ask if you have a project idea (or help you brainstorm one)
• Refine your idea with AI
• Let you customize the tech stack
• Build your project automatically

Don't Know What to Build?

ralph-starter ideas

This launches Idea Mode - a brainstorming session to help you discover project ideas:

• Brainstorm with AI - Get creative suggestions
• See trending ideas - Based on 2025-2026 tech trends
• Based on my skills - Personalized to technologies you know
• Solve a problem - Help fix something that frustrates you

For Developers

# Run a single task
ralph-starter run "build a todo app with React"

# With git automation
ralph-starter run "add user authentication" --commit --pr

# With validation (backpressure)
ralph-starter run "refactor auth" --commit --validate

# Fetch specs from external sources
ralph-starter run --from https://example.com/spec.md
ralph-starter run --from github --project myorg/myrepo --label "ready"
ralph-starter run --from linear --project "Mobile App"

# Fetch a specific GitHub issue
ralph-starter run --from github --project owner/repo --issue 123

# Specify output directory (skips "where to run?" prompt)
ralph-starter run --from github --project owner/repo --issue 42 --output-dir ~/projects/new-app

Working with Existing Projects

ralph-starter automatically detects existing projects when you run the wizard:

Ralph Playbook Project (has AGENTS.md, IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md, etc.):

cd my-ralph-project
ralph-starter

The wizard will detect the Ralph Playbook files and let you:

• Continue working (run the build loop)
• Regenerate the implementation plan
• Add new specs

Language Project (has package.json, pyproject.toml, Cargo.toml, go.mod):

cd my-existing-app
ralph-starter

The wizard will detect the project type and let you:

• Add features to the existing project
• Create a new project in a subfolder

Features

Interactive Wizard

Launch with ralph-starter (no args) for a guided experience:

• Describe your idea in plain English
• AI refines and suggests features
• Choose your tech stack
• Auto-runs init → plan → build

Idea Mode

For users who don't know what to build yet:

ralph-starter ideas

MCP Server

Use ralph-starter from Claude Desktop or any MCP client:

ralph-starter mcp

Add to Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ralph-starter": {
      "command": "ralph-starter",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available MCP Tools:

• ralph_init - Initialize Ralph Playbook
• ralph_plan - Create implementation plan
• ralph_run - Execute coding loop
• ralph_status - Check progress
• ralph_validate - Run tests/lint/build

Multi-Agent Support

Works with your favorite coding agents:

• Claude Code (recommended)
• Cursor
• OpenCode
• OpenAI Codex
• GitHub Copilot
• Gemini CLI
• Amp
• Openclaw

LLM Providers

ralph-starter supports multiple LLM providers for internal features:

Provider	Environment Variable	Description
Anthropic	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Claude models (default)
OpenAI	OPENAI_API_KEY	GPT-4 and GPT-4o
OpenRouter	OPENROUTER_API_KEY	100+ models with one API

These keys are for ralph-starter's internal LLM calls. Coding agents handle their own authentication.

Git Automation

ralph-starter run "your task" --commit      # Auto-commit after tasks
ralph-starter run "your task" --push        # Push to remote
ralph-starter run "your task" --pr          # Create PR when done

Backpressure Validation

ralph-starter run "your task" --validate    # Run tests/lint/build after each iteration

The --validate flag runs test, lint, and build commands (from AGENTS.md or package.json) after each iteration. If validation fails, the agent gets feedback to fix the issues.

Workflow Presets

Pre-configured settings for common development scenarios:

# List all 16+ presets
ralph-starter presets

# Use a preset
ralph-starter run --preset feature "build login"
ralph-starter run --preset tdd-red-green "add tests"
ralph-starter run --preset debug "fix the bug"
ralph-starter run --preset refactor "clean up auth module"
ralph-starter run --preset pr-review "review changes"

Available Presets:

Category	Presets
Development	feature, feature-minimal, tdd-red-green, spec-driven, refactor
Debugging	debug, incident-response, code-archaeology
Review	review, pr-review, adversarial-review
Documentation	docs, documentation-first
Specialized	api-design, migration-safety, performance-optimization, scientific-method, research, gap-analysis

Circuit Breaker

Automatically stops loops that are stuck:

# Stop after 3 consecutive failures (default)
ralph-starter run "build X" --validate

# Custom thresholds
ralph-starter run "build X" --circuit-breaker-failures 2 --circuit-breaker-errors 3

The circuit breaker monitors:

• Consecutive failures: Stops after N validation failures in a row
• Same error count: Stops if the same error repeats N times

Progress Tracking

Writes iteration logs to activity.md:

# Enabled by default
ralph-starter run "build X"

# Disable if not needed
ralph-starter run "build X" --no-track-progress

Each iteration records:

• Timestamp and duration
• Status (completed, failed, blocked)
• Validation results
• Commit info

File-Based Completion

The loop automatically checks for completion signals:

• RALPH_COMPLETE file in project root
• .ralph-done marker file
• All tasks marked [x] in IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md

Rate Limiting

Control API call frequency to manage costs:

# Limit to 50 calls per hour
ralph-starter run --rate-limit 50 "build X"

When rate limits are reached, ralph-starter displays detailed stats:

⚠ Claude rate limit reached

Rate Limit Stats:
  • Session usage: 100% (50K / 50K tokens)
  • Requests made: 127 this hour
  • Time until reset: ~47 minutes (resets at 04:30 UTC)

Session Progress:
  • Tasks completed: 3/5
  • Current task: "Add swarm mode CLI flags"
  • Branch: auto/github-54
  • Iterations completed: 12

To resume when limit resets:
  ralph-starter run

Tip: Check your limits at https://claude.ai/settings

This helps you:

• Know exactly when you can resume
• Track progress on your current session
• Understand your usage patterns

Cost Tracking

Track estimated token usage and costs during loops:

# Cost tracking is enabled by default
ralph-starter run "build X"

# Disable cost tracking
ralph-starter run "build X" --no-track-cost

Cost tracking provides:

• Per-iteration cost displayed during the loop
• Running total of tokens and cost
• Cost summary at the end of the loop
• Cost logged in activity.md for each iteration
• Projected cost for remaining iterations (after 3+ iterations)

Supported models for cost estimation:

• Claude 3 Opus ($15/$75 per 1M tokens)
• Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($3/$15 per 1M tokens)
• Claude 3.5 Haiku ($0.25/$1.25 per 1M tokens)
• GPT-4 ($30/$60 per 1M tokens)
• GPT-4 Turbo ($10/$30 per 1M tokens)

Ralph Playbook Workflow

ralph-starter follows the Ralph Playbook methodology:

# 1. Initialize Ralph Playbook files
ralph-starter init

# 2. Write specs in specs/ folder

# 3. Create implementation plan
ralph-starter plan

# 4. Execute the plan
ralph-starter run --commit --validate

This creates:

• AGENTS.md - Agent instructions and validation commands
• PROMPT_plan.md - Planning prompt template
• PROMPT_build.md - Building prompt template
• IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md - Prioritized task list
• specs/ - Specification files

Commands

Command	Description
ralph-starter	Launch interactive wizard
ralph-starter run [task]	Run an autonomous coding loop
ralph-starter fix [task]	Fix build errors, lint issues, or design problems
ralph-starter auto	Batch-process issues from GitHub/Linear
ralph-starter task <action>	Manage tasks across GitHub and Linear (list, create, update, close, comment)
ralph-starter integrations <action>	Manage integrations (list, help, test, fetch)
ralph-starter plan	Create implementation plan from specs
ralph-starter init	Initialize Ralph Playbook in a project
ralph-starter setup	Configure environment and API keys interactively
ralph-starter check	Verify system requirements and connectivity
ralph-starter ideas	Brainstorm project ideas
ralph-starter presets	List available workflow presets
ralph-starter mcp	Start as MCP server
ralph-starter config <action>	Manage credentials
ralph-starter source <action>	Manage input sources (legacy)
ralph-starter skill add <repo>	Install agent skills

Options for run

Core Options

Flag	Description
--auto	Skip permission prompts (default: true)
--no-auto	Require manual permission approval
--commit	Auto-commit after tasks
--push	Push commits to remote
--pr	Create pull request
--validate	Run tests/lint/build (backpressure)
--agent <name>	Specify agent to use
--max-iterations <n>	Max loop iterations (default: 50)

Debug Mode

Use RALPH_DEBUG=1 to see detailed output during execution:

# See detailed agent output, timing, and prompts
RALPH_DEBUG=1 ralph-starter run "build a todo app"

# Debug with GitHub issue
RALPH_DEBUG=1 ralph-starter run --from github --issue 42

Debug mode shows:

• Exact commands being run
• Agent output in real-time
• Timing information
• Error details

Workflow Presets

Flag	Description
--preset <name>	Use a workflow preset (feature, tdd-red-green, debug, etc.)

# List all available presets
ralph-starter presets

# Use a preset
ralph-starter run --preset feature "build login page"
ralph-starter run --preset tdd-red-green "add user validation"
ralph-starter run --preset debug "fix the auth bug"

Exit Detection

Flag	Description
--completion-promise <string>	Custom string to detect task completion
--require-exit-signal	Require explicit EXIT_SIGNAL: true for completion

# Stop when agent outputs "FEATURE_DONE"
ralph-starter run --completion-promise "FEATURE_DONE" "build X"

# Require explicit exit signal
ralph-starter run --require-exit-signal "build Y"

Safety Controls

Flag	Description
--rate-limit <n>	Max API calls per hour (default: unlimited)
--circuit-breaker-failures <n>	Max consecutive failures before stopping (default: 3)
--circuit-breaker-errors <n>	Max same error occurrences before stopping (default: 5)
--track-progress	Write progress to activity.md (default: true)
--no-track-progress	Disable progress tracking
--track-cost	Track token usage and estimated cost (default: true)
--no-track-cost	Disable cost tracking

# Limit to 50 API calls per hour
ralph-starter run --rate-limit 50 "build X"

# Stop after 2 consecutive failures
ralph-starter run --circuit-breaker-failures 2 "build Y"

Source Options

Flag	Description
--from <source>	Fetch spec from source
--project <name>	Project filter for sources
--label <name>	Label filter for sources
--status <status>	Status filter for sources
--limit <n>	Max items from source
--issue <n>	Specific issue number (GitHub)
--output-dir <path>	Directory to run task in (skips prompt)
--prd <file>	Read tasks from markdown

Options for fix

Flag	Description
--scan	Force full project scan (build + lint + typecheck + tests)
--agent <name>	Specify agent to use (default: auto-detect)
--commit	Auto-commit the fix
--max-iterations <n>	Max fix iterations (default: 3)
--output-dir <path>	Project directory (default: cwd)

# Fix build/lint errors automatically
ralph-starter fix

# Fix a specific design/visual issue
ralph-starter fix "fix the paddings and make the colors brighter"

# Full scan with auto-commit
ralph-starter fix --scan --commit

For design-related tasks (CSS, colors, spacing, etc.), the fix command automatically:

• Detects and applies installed design skills
• Instructs the agent to visually verify changes via browser screenshots

Config Commands

# Set credentials
ralph-starter config set linear.apiKey <key>
ralph-starter config set notion.token <token>
ralph-starter config set github.token <token>

# View config
ralph-starter config list
ralph-starter config get linear.apiKey

# Remove
ralph-starter config delete linear.apiKey

Example: Build a SaaS Dashboard

mkdir my-saas && cd my-saas
git init

ralph-starter run "Create a SaaS dashboard with:
- User authentication (email/password)
- Stripe subscription billing
- Dashboard with usage metrics
- Dark mode support" --commit --pr --validate

# Watch the magic happen...
# Loop 1: Setting up Next.js project...
# Validation passed
# Committed: chore: initialize Next.js with TypeScript
# Loop 2: Adding authentication...
# ✓ Validation passed
# ✓ Committed: feat(auth): add NextAuth with email provider
# ...
# ✓ Created PR #1: "Build SaaS dashboard"

Testing ralph-starter

Quick Test (No API Keys)

You can test ralph-starter with public URLs - no API keys required:

# Test with a public GitHub gist or raw markdown
ralph-starter run --from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/multivmlabs/ralph-starter/main/README.md

# Test with GitHub issues (requires gh CLI login)
gh auth login
ralph-starter run --from github --project multivmlabs/ralph-starter --label "enhancement"

Testing the Wizard

# Launch the interactive wizard
ralph-starter

# Or test idea mode
ralph-starter ideas

Testing with Your Own Specs

# Create a simple spec file
echo "Build a simple counter app with React" > my-spec.md

# Run with local file
ralph-starter run --from ./my-spec.md

Verifying Source Connectivity

Before using an integration, verify it's working:

# Check what integrations are available
ralph-starter integrations list

# Test each integration
ralph-starter integrations test github
ralph-starter integrations test linear
ralph-starter integrations test notion

# Preview items (dry run)
ralph-starter integrations fetch linear "My Project" --limit 3

API Key Configuration

Option 1: Environment Variables (Recommended for Developers)

Set environment variables in your shell profile or .env file:

# Add to ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or .env file
export LINEAR_API_KEY=lin_api_xxxxx
export NOTION_API_KEY=secret_xxxxx
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxxx

Environment variables take precedence over the config file.

Option 2: Config Command

Use the CLI to store credentials:

ralph-starter config set linear.apiKey lin_api_xxxxx
ralph-starter config set notion.token secret_xxxxx
ralph-starter config set github.token ghp_xxxxx

Credentials are stored in ~/.ralph-starter/sources.json.

Environment Variable Reference

Source	Environment Variable	Config Key
Linear	LINEAR_API_KEY	linear.apiKey
Notion	NOTION_API_KEY	notion.token
GitHub	GITHUB_TOKEN	github.token
Figma	FIGMA_TOKEN	figma.token

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• At least one coding agent installed (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.)
• Git (for automation features)
• GitHub CLI gh (for PR creation and GitHub source)

Documentation

Full documentation available at: https://ralphstarter.ai

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

• Feature requests & ideas: ralph-ideas
• Project templates: ralph-templates

For creating custom integrations, agents, or using the programmatic API, see the Developer Extension Guide.

Badge

Using ralph-starter? Add the badge to your README:

[![built with ralph-starter](https://ralphstarter.ai/img/[e-mail])](https://github.com/multivmlabs/ralph-starter)

More styles available at ralphstarter.ai/badge.

License

MIT