refactor: validate CLI options before file I/O for fail-fast behavior

Move _validate_run_options to the top of _build_run_config so cheap
input checks run before reading and parsing RALPH.md. Also fix import
ordering in engine.py to follow PEP 8 alphabetical convention.

Co-authored-by: Ralphify <noreply@ralphify.co>

Author: 2 people

src/ralphify/cli.py

@@ -400,6 +400,9 @@ def _build_run_config(
     extra_args: list[str] | None = None,
 ) -> RunConfig:
     """Read RALPH.md from the given path, validate, and build a RunConfig."""
+    # Validate CLI options first — cheap checks before file I/O.
+    _validate_run_options(max_iterations, delay, timeout)
+
     ralph_dir, ralph_file = _resolve_ralph_paths(ralph_path)
 
     ralph_text = ralph_file.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
@@ -413,7 +416,6 @@ def _build_run_config(
         ralph_args = _parse_user_args(extra_args, declared_names)
 
     credit = _validate_credit(fm.get(FIELD_CREDIT))
-    _validate_run_options(max_iterations, delay, timeout)
 
     return RunConfig(
         agent=agent,

src/ralphify/engine.py

@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@
     RunState,
     RunStatus,
 )
-from ralphify._runner import run_command
 from ralphify._resolver import resolve_all, resolve_args
+from ralphify._runner import run_command
 
 
 _PAUSE_POLL_INTERVAL = 0.25  # seconds between pause/resume checks