Ralph Operations

Manage, monitor, and diagnose Ralph orchestration loops.

Loop Management

Quick Reference

Task	Command
List active loops	ralph loops
List all (including merged)	ralph loops --all
View loop changes	ralph loops diff <id>
View loop logs	ralph loops logs <id>
Follow logs live	ralph loops logs <id> -f
Stop running loop	ralph loops stop <id>
Merge completed loop	ralph loops merge <id>
Retry failed merge	ralph loops retry <id>
Abandon loop	ralph loops discard <id>
Clean stale processes	ralph loops prune

Loop ID format: Partial matching works - a3f2 matches loop-20250124-143052-a3f2

Loop Status

Status	Color	Meaning
running	green	Loop is actively executing
queued	blue	Completed, waiting for merge
merging	yellow	Merge in progress
needs-review	red	Merge failed, requires intervention
merged	dim	Successfully merged (with --all)
discarded	dim	Abandoned (with --all)

Starting & Stopping

Loops start automatically via ralph run:

• Primary loop: Runs in main workspace, holds .ralph/loop.lock
• Worktree loop: Created when primary is running, isolated in .worktrees/<loop-id>/

ralph loops                       # Any loops running?
cat .ralph/loop.lock 2>/dev/null  # Primary loop details
ralph loops stop <id>             # Graceful stop
ralph loops stop <id> --force     # Immediate stop
ralph loops discard <id>          # Abandon + clean worktree

Inspecting Loops

ralph loops diff <id>             # What changed
ralph loops logs <id> -f          # Live event log
ralph loops history <id>          # State changes
ralph loops attach <id>           # Shell into worktree

Worktree context files (.worktrees/<loop-id>/):

File	Contents
.ralph/events.jsonl	Event stream: hats, iterations, tool calls
.ralph/agent/summary.md	Current session summary
.ralph/agent/handoff.md	Handoff context for next iteration
.ralph/agent/scratchpad.md	Working notes
.ralph/agent/tasks.jsonl	Runtime task state

Primary loop uses the same files at .ralph/agent/ in repo root.

Merge Queue

Flow: Queued → Merging → Merged or → NeedsReview → Merging (retry) or → Discarded

ralph loops merge <id>            # Queue for merge
ralph loops process               # Process pending merges now
ralph loops retry <id>            # Retry failed merge

Reading state:

jq -r '.prompt' .ralph/loop.lock 2>/dev/null
tail -20 .ralph/merge-queue.jsonl | jq .

---

Diagnostics

Enabling

RALPH_DIAGNOSTICS=1 ralph run -p "your prompt"

Zero overhead when disabled. Output: .ralph/diagnostics/<YYYY-MM-DDTHH-MM-SS>/

Session Discovery

LATEST=$(ls -t .ralph/diagnostics/ | head -1)
SESSION=".ralph/diagnostics/$LATEST"

File Reference

File	Contains	Key Fields
agent-output.jsonl	Agent text, tool calls, results	type, iteration, hat
orchestration.jsonl	Hat selection, events, backpressure	event.type, iteration, hat
performance.jsonl	Timing, latency, token counts	metric.type, iteration, hat
errors.jsonl	Parse errors, validation failures	error_type, message, context
trace.jsonl	All tracing logs with metadata	level, target, message

Diagnostic Workflow

1. Errors first:

wc -l "$SESSION/errors.jsonl"
jq '.' "$SESSION/errors.jsonl"
jq -s 'group_by(.error_type) | map({type: .[0].error_type, count: length})' "$SESSION/errors.jsonl"

2. Orchestration flow:

jq '{iter: .iteration, hat: .hat, event: .event.type}' "$SESSION/orchestration.jsonl"
jq 'select(.event.type == "hat_selected") | {iter: .iteration, hat: .event.hat, reason: .event.reason}' "$SESSION/orchestration.jsonl"
jq 'select(.event.type == "backpressure_triggered") | {iter: .iteration, reason: .event.reason}' "$SESSION/orchestration.jsonl"

3. Agent activity:

jq 'select(.type == "tool_call") | {iter: .iteration, tool: .name}' "$SESSION/agent-output.jsonl"
jq -s '[.[] | select(.type == "tool_call")] | group_by(.iteration) | map({iter: .[0].iteration, tools: [.[].name]})' "$SESSION/agent-output.jsonl"

4. Performance:

jq 'select(.metric.type == "iteration_duration") | {iter: .iteration, ms: .metric.duration_ms}' "$SESSION/performance.jsonl"
jq -s '[.[] | select(.metric.type == "token_count")] | {total_in: (map(.metric.input) | add), total_out: (map(.metric.output) | add)}' "$SESSION/performance.jsonl"

5. Trace logs:

jq 'select(.level == "ERROR" or .level == "WARN")' "$SESSION/trace.jsonl"

Quick Health Check

SESSION=".ralph/diagnostics/$(ls -t .ralph/diagnostics/ | head -1)"
echo "=== Session: $SESSION ==="
echo -e "\n--- Errors ---"
wc -l < "$SESSION/errors.jsonl" 2>/dev/null || echo "0"
echo -e "\n--- Iterations ---"
jq -s 'map(select(.event.type == "iteration_started")) | length' "$SESSION/orchestration.jsonl"
echo -e "\n--- Hats Used ---"
jq -s '[.[] | select(.event.type == "hat_selected") | .event.hat] | unique' "$SESSION/orchestration.jsonl"
echo -e "\n--- Backpressure Count ---"
jq -s 'map(select(.event.type == "backpressure_triggered")) | length' "$SESSION/orchestration.jsonl"
echo -e "\n--- Termination ---"
jq 'select(.event.type == "loop_terminated")' "$SESSION/orchestration.jsonl"

---

Troubleshooting

Stale Processes

ralph loops shows loops that aren't running → ralph loops prune

Orphan Worktrees

.worktrees/ has directories not in ralph loops → ralph loops prune or git worktree remove .worktrees/<id> --force

Merge Conflicts

Loop stuck in needs-review:

1. ralph loops diff <id> — see conflicting changes
2. ralph loops attach <id> — resolve manually, commit, retry
3. ralph loops discard <id> — abandon if not worth fixing

Lock Stuck

"Loop already running" but nothing is → rm .ralph/loop.lock (safe if process is dead)

Agent Stuck in Loop

jq -s '[.[] | select(.type == "tool_call")] | group_by(.name) | map({tool: .[0].name, count: length}) | sort_by(-.count)' "$SESSION/agent-output.jsonl"

Red flag: Many iterations with few events = agent not making progress.

Merge Stuck in "merging"

Process died mid-merge. Unblock:

echo '{"ts":"'$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.000000Z)'","loop_id":"<loop-id>","event":{"type":"needs_review","reason":"Merge process died"}}' >> .ralph/merge-queue.jsonl
ralph loops discard <loop-id>

Worktree Corruption

git worktree repair
ralph loops prune

Cleanup

ralph clean --diagnostics              # Delete all sessions
ralph clean --diagnostics --dry-run    # Preview deletions