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Quick Start: Your First Ralph Project

This tutorial walks you through enabling Ralph on an existing project and running your first autonomous development loop. By the end, you'll have Ralph building a simple CLI todo app.

Prerequisites

  • Ralph installed globally (./install.sh from the ralph-claude-code repo)
  • Claude Code CLI installed (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code)
  • A project directory (we'll create one)

Step 1: Create Your Project

Let's create a simple Node.js project:

mkdir todo-cli
cd todo-cli
npm init -y
git init

Step 2: Enable Ralph

Run the interactive wizard:

ralph-enable

The wizard will:

  1. Detect your project type (Node.js/TypeScript)
  2. Ask about task sources (you can skip for now)
  3. Create the .ralph/ directory with starter files

You'll see output like:

Ralph Enable Wizard
==================

Phase 1: Environment Detection
------------------------------
Detected project type: javascript
Detected package manager: npm
Git repository: yes

Phase 2: Task Source Selection
------------------------------
No task sources selected. You can add tasks manually.

Phase 3: Configuration
------------------------------
Creating .ralph/ directory structure...

Phase 4: File Generation
------------------------------
Created: .ralph/PROMPT.md
Created: .ralph/fix_plan.md
Created: .ralph/AGENT.md
Created: .ralphrc

Ralph is now enabled for this project.

Step 3: Customize Your Requirements

After ralph-enable, you have starter files that need customization. Open .ralph/PROMPT.md and replace the placeholder content:

# Ralph Development Instructions

## Context
You are Ralph, an autonomous AI development agent building a CLI todo application in Node.js.

## Current Objectives
1. Create a command-line todo app with add, list, complete, and delete commands
2. Store todos in a JSON file (~/.todos.json)
3. Use commander.js for argument parsing
4. Include helpful --help output
5. Write unit tests with Jest

## Key Principles
- Keep the code simple and readable
- Use async/await for file operations
- Provide clear error messages
- Follow Node.js best practices

Step 4: Define Your Tasks

Edit .ralph/fix_plan.md to list specific tasks:

# Fix Plan - Todo CLI

## Priority 1: Core Structure
- [ ] Set up package.json with dependencies (commander, jest)
- [ ] Create src/index.js entry point with commander setup
- [ ] Create src/storage.js for JSON file operations

## Priority 2: Commands
- [ ] Implement `todo add "task description"` command
- [ ] Implement `todo list` command with status indicators
- [ ] Implement `todo complete <id>` command
- [ ] Implement `todo delete <id>` command

## Priority 3: Polish
- [ ] Add --help documentation for all commands
- [ ] Handle edge cases (empty list, invalid IDs)
- [ ] Write unit tests for storage module

Step 5: Start Ralph

Now let Ralph build your project:

ralph --monitor

This opens a tmux session with:

  • Left pane: Ralph loop output (what Claude is doing)
  • Right pane: Live monitoring dashboard

What You'll See

Ralph will:

  1. Read your PROMPT.md and fix_plan.md
  2. Start implementing tasks in priority order
  3. Create files, run tests, update fix_plan.md
  4. Continue until all tasks are complete

Monitoring Tips

  • Ctrl+B, then D - Detach from tmux (Ralph keeps running)
  • tmux attach -t todo-cli - Reattach to watch progress
  • ralph --status - Check current loop status

Step 6: Review the Results

When Ralph finishes (or you want to check progress), look at:

# See what files were created
ls -la src/

# Check the updated fix_plan.md
cat .ralph/fix_plan.md

# Run the tests Ralph wrote
npm test

# Try your new CLI
node src/index.js add "Buy groceries"
node src/index.js list

What Just Happened?

Ralph followed this cycle:

  1. Read - Loaded PROMPT.md for context and fix_plan.md for tasks
  2. Implement - Wrote code for the highest priority unchecked task
  3. Test - Ran any tests and fixed failures
  4. Update - Marked completed tasks in fix_plan.md
  5. Repeat - Continued until EXIT_SIGNAL was set

Next Steps

Common Questions

Ralph stopped early - why?

Check .ralph/logs/ for the latest log. Common reasons:

  • Rate limit reached (waits for reset)
  • Circuit breaker opened (detected stuck loop)
  • All tasks marked complete

Ralph keeps running tests without implementing anything

Your fix_plan.md might be too vague. Make tasks specific and actionable:

  • Bad: "Improve the code"
  • Good: "Add error handling for missing ~/.todos.json file"

How do I add more features later?

Just add new tasks to .ralph/fix_plan.md and run ralph --monitor again. Ralph will pick up where it left off.