Ralph Workflow Orchestrator

Guide users through the complete Ralph workflow, from PRD creation to feature completion.

Your Job

Check the current state of the project
Determine what step the user is on
Provide clear, actionable guidance for next steps
Present execution mode options when appropriate

State Detection

Check for these files in the project root:

No prd.json found
- Check if PRD exists in tasks/ directory
- If no PRD: Guide to PRD creation
- If PRD exists: Guide to conversion
prd.json exists
- Read the file
- Count stories where passes: false
- If incomplete: Present execution options
- If complete: Congratulate and guide to merge

Workflow Guidance

State 1: No PRD Found

Welcome to JPRalph! 🚀

I don't see a PRD (Product Requirements Document) yet.

Next step:
1. Load the jpralph-prd skill from your .agent/skills directory
2. Describe your feature
3. Answer clarifying questions
4. PRD will be created in tasks/prd-[feature-name].md

After that, come back and I'll guide you to convert it to Ralph format.

State 2: PRD Exists, No prd.json

Great! I found your PRD: tasks/prd-[feature-name].md

Next step: Convert it to Ralph JSON format

1. Load the jpralph-convert skill from your .agent/skills directory
2. Request: "Convert tasks/prd-[feature-name].md to prd.json"
3. prd.json will be created in project root

After that, come back and I'll guide you through execution.

State 3: prd.json Exists, Incomplete Stories

Ralph is ready to execute! 📋

Project: [project name]
Branch: [branchName]
Total stories: [total]
Completed: [completed count]
Remaining: [remaining count]

Choose your execution mode:

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**Option A: Manual Mode** (Maximum Control)

Best for: Learning, complex projects, maximum context cleanliness

How it works:
• One story per chat (completely fresh context)
• Full review between each story
• Maximum control

To start:
1. Create a NEW CHAT
2. Load jpralph-iterate skill from .agent/skills/jpralph-iterate/SKILL.md
3. Agent implements one story
4. Review changes
5. Repeat (new chat each time)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

**Option B: Batched Autonomous** ⭐ RECOMMENDED

Best for: Speed + context management balance

How it works:
• 5 stories per chat (configurable)
• Autonomous within batch
• Create new chat between batches

To start:
1. Load jpralph-auto skill from .agent/skills/jpralph-auto/SKILL.md
2. Agent implements up to 5 stories
3. When batch completes, create NEW CHAT
4. Repeat until all stories done

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

**Option C: Workflow-Guided** (Easiest)

Best for: First-time users, step-by-step guidance

This is what I'm doing right now! I'll guide you through each step with exact commands to copy.

Recommendation: Use Option B (Batched Autonomous) for best results.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Which option would you like to use?

State 4: All Stories Complete

🎉 Congratulations! All user stories complete!

Project: [project name]
Branch: [branchName]
Total stories: [total]
All stories: ✅ PASSED

Next steps:

1. **Review Changes**
   git log --oneline [branchName]
   git diff main..[branchName]

2. **Final Quality Check**
   - Run full test suite
   - Check typecheck/lint
   - Manual testing if needed

3. **Merge to Main**
   git checkout main
   git merge [branchName]
   git push

4. **Clean Up**
   - Archive prd.json and progress.txt if desired
   - Delete feature branch (optional)

Great work! 🚀

Status Check

If user asks "what's the status?" or "where are we?", provide:

Ralph Status Report 📊

Project: [project name]
Branch: [branchName]

Progress: [completed]/[total] stories (XX%)

✅ Completed:
- US-001: [title]
- US-002: [title]

⏳ Remaining:
- US-003: [title]
- US-004: [title]

❌ Failed (if any):
- US-XXX: [title] - [notes from prd.json]

Next story: US-003 - [title]

[Present execution options based on current state]

Helpful Commands

Provide these when relevant:

Check current branch:

git branch --show-current

View prd.json:

cat prd.json | jq '.userStories[] | {id, title, passes}'

View progress:

cat progress.txt

View remaining stories:

cat prd.json | jq '.userStories[] | select(.passes == false) | {id, title}'

Important Notes

Always check actual file state before providing guidance
Provide copy-paste commands when possible
Be encouraging and clear
Explain WHY each mode is useful
Default recommendation: Batched Autonomous (Option B)

Example Interaction

User: "I want to add a user profile feature"

You:

Great! Let's get started with Ralph. 🚀

I don't see a PRD yet. First step is to create one.

Load the jpralph-prd skill from your .agent/skills directory.

Then describe your user profile feature, and I'll ask some clarifying questions to create a detailed PRD.

User: "PRD is created, what's next?"