🐛 Bug Fix: Silent Exit Issue
- Ralph was silently exiting when PROMPT.md not found (no error shown)
- Added comprehensive error handling with helpful guidance
- Now clearly explains when directory is not a Ralph project
🎯 Enhanced User Experience:
- Detects partial Ralph projects vs completely wrong directories
- Provides specific actionable solutions:
1. ralph-setup my-project (create new)
2. ralph-import requirements.md (import existing)
3. Navigate to existing Ralph project
4. Create PROMPT.md manually
- Updated help text with "IMPORTANT" note about project directories
- Added example workflow in help documentation
🔧 Technical Improvements:
- Better error detection logic
- Informative messages instead of silent failures
- Maintains proper exit codes for scripting
- Clear guidance for different scenarios
This resolves the confusing behavior where ralph would start logging
but then silently exit without explanation when run outside a Ralph project.
Major architectural change to make Ralph available as global commands:
🌟 New Global Installation System:
- Add install.sh script for global installation to ~/.local/bin
- Creates ralph, ralph-monitor, ralph-setup global commands
- Installs templates and scripts to ~/.ralph/ directory
- Automatic dependency checking and PATH configuration
🚀 Enhanced User Experience:
- ralph-setup my-project (run from anywhere, no directory constraints)
- ralph --monitor (start from any project directory)
- ralph-monitor (global monitoring command)
- No more ../ralph_loop.sh relative path requirements
🔧 Improved Architecture:
- Global template system in ~/.ralph/templates/
- Smart path detection (global commands vs local scripts)
- Maintains backward compatibility during transition
- Clean separation of installation vs project files
📚 Updated Documentation:
- All examples now use global commands (ralph vs ../ralph_loop.sh)
- Clear installation instructions with ./install.sh
- Global command reference in CLAUDE.md
- Streamlined Quick Start workflow
This makes Ralph much more professional and user-friendly by eliminating
directory structure requirements and providing standard Unix command experience.
- Add --monitor flag to ralph_loop.sh for integrated tmux monitoring
- Automatically creates split-pane session with Ralph loop and monitor
- Include tmux availability check with installation instructions
- Update documentation to recommend tmux workflow
- Add tmux session management commands and controls
- Preserve all existing functionality for users without tmux
New workflow:
../ralph_loop.sh --monitor # Creates split session automatically
Traditional workflow still supported:
../ralph_loop.sh # Terminal 1
../ralph_monitor.sh # Terminal 2
System requirements updated to include tmux (recommended).
- Fix nested EOF heredoc conflicts in update_status() and show_help() functions
- Use unique delimiters (STATUSEOF, HELPEOF) to avoid conflicts
- Complete Ralph for Claude Code implementation with all components:
- ralph_loop.sh: Main autonomous development loop with rate limiting
- ralph_monitor.sh: Live monitoring dashboard
- setup.sh: Project initialization script
- templates/: Template files for new projects
- .gitignore: Comprehensive ignore rules
All scripts are now executable and syntax-validated.
Features:
- Intelligent exit detection (knows when project is done)
- Test limiting (enforces 20% rule to prevent busy work)
- Rate limiting with graceful API usage management
- Live monitoring dashboard with real-time progress
- Auto-generated documentation every 10 iterations
- Specification-driven development approach
Based on Geoffrey Huntley's Ralph technique, adapted for Claude Code.
