Fix Stuck AI Planner and Enable Live Output

Summary

I see this output on my screen, but the plan_PROGRESS.md exists and there is no claude process running. Is the program stuck?

The user says the plan_PROGRESS.md exists and there's no Claude process running, but they see output on screen suggesting things are stuck. Let me check the actual state - the ps aux output shows there IS a claude process running (PID 940936). But that's likely this current Claude session I'm in.

Let me look for:

Any plan_PROGRESS.md files
Any Ralph lock files
What screen output they might be seeing

The glob found no plan_PROGRESS.md files. Let me look more broadly.

You don't have push access to aaron777collins/portableralph. Let me fork it and push there instead.

git remote add fork git@github.com:thebigjc/portableralph.git && git push -u fork fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming

branch 'fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming' set up to track 'fork/fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming'.
remote: 
remote: Create a pull request for 'fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming' on GitHub by visiting:        
remote:      https://github.com/thebigjc/portableralph/pull/new/fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming        
remote: 
To github.com:thebigjc/portableralph.git
 * [new branch]      fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming -> fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming

I don't see any plan_PROGRESS.md file in the repo. Let me look more broadly and check for lock files.

gh pr create --repo aaron777collins/portableralph --head thebigjc:fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming --base master --title "Fix infinite loop in Discord notification and stream Claude output" --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
- **Fix infinite loop in `notify.sh`**: The Discord bold formatting conversion (`*text*` → `**text**`) used a `while` loop where the output still matched the input regex, causing 100% CPU spin forever. Replaced with single-pass left-to-right string processing.
- **Stream Claude output in real-time**: Changed `ralph.sh` to pipe Claude's stdout through `tee` instead of buffering to a temp file, so users see incremental output while Claude works.
- **Make model configurable**: Use `$RALPH_MODEL` env var instead of hardcoded `sonnet`.
- **Fix decrypt ordering**: Move `decrypt-env` before config validation so decrypted values are validated.
- **Fix `local` outside functions**: Remove invalid `local` keywords in `setup-notifications.sh`.

## Test plan
- [ ] Run `ralph notify test` with Discord configured — verify notification sends without hanging
- [ ] Run `ralph plan.md plan` — verify Claude output streams to terminal in real-time
- [ ] Run with `RALPH_MODEL=claude-opus-4-6 ralph plan.md plan` — verify model override works
- [ ] Run `ralph notify setup` — verify setup completes without bash errors

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
EOF
)"

https://github.com/aaron777collins/portableralph/pull/4

PR created: https://github.com/aaron777collins/portableralph/pull/4

Could you update the README for the new model parameter we added, and add it to the PR?

I need to find where to add the model configuration info. Looking at the README, I see there's a "Configuration" subsection under Windows Support that mentions ~/.ralph.env, and there's a usage section. I think the best place is to add a "Configuration" section at the top level (not under Windows) that documents RALPH_MODEL and other config options, or add it near the usage section.

Actually, looking at the existing structure, there's no top-level "Configuration" section. The config file (~/.ralph.env) is mentioned in Windows Support > Configuration. The auto-commit config is shown via ralph config commit on/off but not documented in the README.

I'll add a Configuration section right after the Usage examples to document the model setting and config file, keeping it brief and focused.

I'll add a Configuration section documenting the model parameter. The natural place is after the Usage/Examples section and before Plan File Format.

Done. The PR at https://github.com/aaron777collins/portableralph/pull/4 now includes the README update with a new Configuration section documenting RALPH_MODEL and RALPH_AUTO_COMMIT.

Do we think our non-streaming version is still running?

Yep, still running. Ralph (942971) and its Claude process (943048) are both alive. Claude has accumulated 25s of CPU time and is using ~257MB memory — still actively working on the plan.

I restarted it and I don't see any incremental output

>CLAUDECODE= claude --help 2>&1 | grep -A3 '\-p\b\|--print\|output-format\|--verbose'

Claude Code - starts an interactive session by default, use -p/--print for
non-interactive output

Arguments:
--
  --fallback-model <model>                          Enable automatic fallback to specified model when default model is overloaded (only works with --print)
  --file <specs...>                                 File resources to download at startup. Format: file_id:relative_path (e.g., --file file_abc:doc.txt file_def:img.png)
  --fork-session                                    When resuming, create a new session ID instead of reusing the original (use with --resume or --continue)
  --from-pr [value]                                 Resume a session linked to a PR by PR number/URL, or open interactive picker with optional search term
--
  --include-partial-messages                        Include partial message chunks as they arrive (only works with --print and --output-format=stream-json)
  --input-format <format>                           Input format (only works with --print): "text" (default), or "stream-json" (realtime streaming input) (choices: "text", "stream-json")
  --json-schema <schema>                            JSON Schema for structured output validation. Example: {"type":"object","properties":{"name":{"type":"string"}},"required":["name"]}
  --max-budget-usd <amount>                         Maximum dollar amount to spend on API calls (only works with --print)
  --mcp-config <configs...>                         Load MCP servers from JSON files or strings (space-separated)
  --mcp-debug                                       [DEPRECATED. Use --debug instead] Enable MCP debug mode (shows MCP server errors)
  --model <model>                                   Model for the current session. Provide an alias for the latest model (e.g. 'sonnet' or 'opus') or a model's full name (e.g. 'claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929').
--
  --no-session-persistence                          Disable session persistence - sessions will not be saved to disk and cannot be resumed (only works with --print)
  --output-format <format>                          Output format (only works with --print): "text" (default), "json" (single result), or "stream-json" (realtime streaming) (choices: "text", "json", "stream-json")
  --permission-mode <mode>                          Permission mode to use for the session (choices: "acceptEdits", "bypassPermissions", "default", "delegate", "dontAsk", "plan")
  --plugin-dir <paths...>                           Load plugins from directories for this session only (repeatable)
  -p, --print                                       Print response and exit (useful for pipes). Note: The workspace trust dialog is skipped when Claude is run with the -p mode. Only use this flag in directories you trust.
  --replay-user-messages                            Re-emit user messages from stdin back on stdout for acknowledgment (only works with --input-format=stream-json and --output-format=stream-json)
  -r, --resume [value]                              Resume a conversation by session ID, or open interactive picker with optional search term
  --session-id <uuid>                               Use a specific session ID for the conversation (must be a valid UUID)
  --setting-sources <sources>                       Comma-separated list of setting sources to load (user, project, local).
--
  --verbose                                         Override verbose mode setting from config
  -v, --version                                     Output the version number

Commands:

I see - claude -p (print mode) outputs the final result, not streaming. The --verbose flag might add some logging to stderr, but the main output is still buffered.

The issue is that claude -p mode doesn't stream output incrementally - it waits for the full response and then prints it. The tee won't help because there's nothing to stream until Claude is done.

To get streaming output, we'd need --output-format stream-json which gives real-time streaming. But that outputs JSON chunks, not plain text.

Actually wait - let me re-think. claude -p does produce text output. The question is whether it streams it line by line as it's generated or buffers the whole thing. Looking at the help, --output-format has a stream-json option for "realtime streaming". The default text format likely buffers until complete.

So the real question is whether claude -p with text output actually streams line-by-line or if it's block-buffered when piped through tee. Some CLI tools do stream incrementally, but it might depend on whether stdout is a TTY or a pipe.

The buffering issue could be solved with stdbuf -oL to force line buffering, or I could use --output-format stream-json which is explicitly designed for streaming output. Actually, the simplest approach might be to skip tee entirely and instead use output redirection with stdbuf to maintain line buffering while writing to both the terminal and a file.

But wait—I should verify whether claude -p actually streams text output at all. The existence of a separate --output-format stream-json option suggests that the default "text" format might be buffered rather than streamed. If that's the case, I'd need to either use the stream-json format and parse it for display, or accept that -p mode doesn't stream and find a different solution. Though many CLI tools do stream text output even in non-interactive mode—the buffering issue is usually at the OS level when stdout is piped, causing libc to switch from line buffering to 4KB block buffering. This means you won't see output until 4KB of data accumulates.

The fix for that is stdbuf -oL to force line-buffering, or stdbuf -o0 for unbuffered.

Let me try that approach: stdbuf -oL claude -p ... | tee ...

But actually, it might be that claude -p itself buffers output until done. In that case, no amount of stdbuf will help.

Let me suggest using --output-format stream-json which is explicitly designed for streaming. We'd need to parse the JSON though.

Hmm, but that's complex. Let me think about what the user actually wants. They want to see Claude's thinking/output as it happens, like they do in interactive mode. In -p mode, this might not be possible with text format.

I think the simplest approach is to try stdbuf -oL first and see if that's the issue, but if the problem is that claude -p itself buffers text output, we'd need --output-format stream-json and parse the JSON chunks to extract the actual content.

The problem is that claude -p in text mode likely buffers all output until completion — tee can't stream what isn't being written yet. Let me check.

Still 0 bytes — confirms claude -p buffers everything until done. tee has nothing to stream.

The CLI has --output-format stream-json which does stream in real-time, but it outputs JSON chunks, not plain text. We'd need to parse them. Let me check what the JSON stream looks like.

Now I can see the stream-json format. Each line is a JSON object with a type field. The key types are:

system - init, hooks
assistant - the model's response messages
result - final result

For streaming, the assistant messages would come as they're generated. In this simple test, there was only one message, but for a longer conversation with tool use, there would be multiple messages.

The issue is that to get incremental text output, we need to:

Use --output-format stream-json
Parse the JSON stream line by line
Extract text content from assistant messages
Display it while also capturing the full output

I could use jq to extract text from assistant messages and tee to capture the raw JSON simultaneously, but that's getting complicated. A simpler approach would be to pipe the stream through a filter that extracts the text while preserving the full JSON for error detection.

Now I'm wondering about the actual structure of stream-json output—specifically whether it streams individual tokens or complete messages, and how the --include-partial-messages flag affects this. The documentation suggests that without this flag, stream-json only emits finished messages, but I need to verify what event types actually contain the streaming text. Switching to stream-json means the output file will contain JSON instead of plain text, which breaks the current error detection logic in ralph.sh. I need a simpler approach that captures the raw JSON stream while still extracting and displaying the relevant content—tool use and text—to the terminal in real time, then parse the result for errors afterward.

Writing the bash pipeline... Filtering the output stream...

Actually, I should step back here. The user wants to see Claude's work in action—the tool calls and text responses. The simplest approach is to use --output-format stream-json with tee to save everything, then pipe through a filter to extract just the text. If jq is available, great; otherwise I can fall back to basic text processing. But this is becoming a substantial feature, so maybe I should present the options and let them decide how involved they want to get.

Wait, I need to reconsider the ralph.sh integration. The script currently checks claude_output_file and claude_error_file for results and errors. If I switch to stream-json, the output becomes JSON lines instead of plain text, which means the error detection and result extraction logic would need updating. The result object contains both the final text and exit status, so I'd need to parse that differently. Though the RALPH_DONE check reads from a progress file rather than Claude's output, so that part stays intact.

The real solution here is straightforward: use stream-json format to get events as they happen, parse the JSON with jq to display text content and tool names to the user, and extract the is_error field from the result line for error detection instead of checking the output file.

Since the user already asked me to fix the streaming output, I should just implement this. Let me look at what needs to change in the current code that pipes Claude's output through tee and then examine the error detection logic that follows.

Updating the command and error handling... I'm realizing the implementation is straightforward: pipe the streaming JSON output through jq to extract and display the text content in real-time, while error detection remains unchanged since it only relies on exit codes and stderr. The main consideration is handling systems without jq installed—I'll add a fallback that gracefully degrades to showing raw output if the tool isn't available.

Writing the bash implementation...

I need to verify the exact JSON structure for tool use in stream-json format since my test case didn't include any tool calls, so I'm not entirely sure how those messages are formatted in the streaming output. I'm realizing the key difference: without --include-partial-messages, we get complete messages after each tool call, so we'd see output in chunks tied to tool execution. With it enabled, we get streaming text as Claude generates it, which is better for real-time feedback. For the best user experience with long responses, I should use the flag to show progressive output.

But that means handling cumulative text carefully to avoid displaying duplicates. Given the complexity, I think the pragmatic approach is to start with the simpler version—just using stream-json without the flag. This already gives us visibility into tool use and text between calls, which is a significant improvement. Let me implement that first and keep things straightforward. I'm concerned about error handling with jq in the pipeline—if it fails, I might lose the Claude exit code detection. I could use PIPESTATUS to track individual command failures, but that's bash-specific and adds complexity. Let me stick with the current approach and handle errors as they come up. Still working through the pipeline exit codes... I'm going back to the simple pipeline approach with pipefail enabled—if either claude or jq fails, I'll catch the non-zero exit code, and that's good enough for error detection.

Actually, I can simplify this even further by using grep to filter the streaming output instead of jq, then parsing each line to extract just the text content for display.

Wait, that's getting too complicated. Let me stick with the jq approach—it's cleaner and handles the JSON parsing properly. I'll pipe the stream through jq with the --unbuffered flag to filter for assistant messages and extract the text content. If jq isn't installed, the raw output is still saved to the file anyway, so it's not a big loss.

Actually, I should check if there's a simpler result type that gives me the final assembled text instead of having to parse individual content blocks.

Building the bash implementation...

Right — claude -p with text output buffers everything until completion. The tee has nothing to stream.

The fix is to use --output-format stream-json, which emits JSON lines in real-time as Claude works, then filter through jq to display the text content. Let me update the implementation.

Request interrupted by user for tool use

Now let me verify the error detection code still works — it uses stderr and exit code, not stdout, so it should be fine.

Good — error detection uses claude_error_file (stderr) and exit code only, unaffected by the format change.

Let me also verify jq is available on the system.

Look in ~/src/mage

Good. Now let me amend this into the PR.

git add ralph.sh && git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
fix: Use stream-json for real-time Claude output streaming

claude -p with text output buffers everything until completion, so
tee had nothing to stream. Switch to --output-format stream-json
which emits JSON events in real-time, then pipe through jq to
extract and display text content as Claude works. Falls back to
buffered output if jq is not available.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
EOF
)"

[fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming c953b6b] fix: Use stream-json for real-time Claude output streaming
 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

Pushed. The PR now uses --output-format stream-json which emits JSON lines in real-time as Claude works, piped through jq to display just the text content. If jq isn't installed, it falls back to buffered output.

You can test it on your next Ralph run — kill the current one and restart if you want to see it now.

The streaming seems to be working - but there is very sporadic output. Are we filtering the JSON in some way? RALPH - Autonomous AI Development Loop
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Plan: plan.md
Mode: plan
Progress: plan_PROGRESS.md
Model: claude-opus-4-6
Commit: enabled
Notify: Discord
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Exit conditions:

Planning completes when task list is created (Status: IN_PROGRESS)
Plan mode runs once then exits automatically
Press Ctrl+C to stop manually

Lock acquired: /tmp/ralph_9b32b1156d685b82ade4dd4698c62e4d.lock

══════════════════ ITERATION 1 ══════════════════

I'll start by reading the plan file and progress file, then explore the codebase to understand what exists.
Now let me read the ROADMAP.md and explore the Rust codebase structure in parallel.

The user is seeing only the text content from assistant messages, but it's sporadic because we're only showing text from complete assistant messages (not partial/streaming). Between each text output, Claude is doing tool calls (reading files, searching code, etc.) which don't show any output with our current filter.

The issue is:

We only filter for type == "assistant" messages with text content
We don't show tool use activity (what tools Claude is using)
Without --include-partial-messages, we only see text after each complete turn

We should also show tool use activity so the user can see Claude is working. Let me update the jq filter to also show tool use events. And we should add --include-partial-messages to get streaming text as it's generated rather than only after each turn completes.

I need to update the jq filter to display tool use names alongside text content, and add the flag for real-time streaming. But I'm realizing that with --include-partial-messages, each message contains the full cumulative text generated so far rather than just the new delta, which would cause duplication issues unless I track what's already been displayed. Let me think through whether that's actually how it works.

Looking at the stream format, I can extract tool use activity from the assistant message content blocks to show the user what Claude is doing in real-time. I should also consider whether to display the result type alongside the tool names, and I need to understand how the different event types are structured in the stream-json output.

Refining the jq filter to capture tool names and their inputs, though I'll need to be careful about input size since some operations like file writes could produce massive payloads. Let me simplify to just show the tool names for clarity.

Updating the filter...

Actually, I can make this smarter by extracting relevant context from each tool's input—file paths for Read operations, patterns for Grep, command snippets for shell execution—so the output shows meaningful details without bloating the display.

Yes — the jq filter only shows text from assistant messages, so you see nothing while Claude is reading files, searching code, etc. (which is most of the work during planning). Let me update the filter to also show tool activity.

Now you'll see tool activity in blue between the text output, like:

I'll explore the codebase structure.
  → Read: /path/to/src/main.rs
  → Grep /some_pattern/
  → Bash: cargo test
Now let me analyze the results...

Want to restart Ralph to test it, or should I commit and push to the PR first?

That's much better Lock acquired: /tmp/ralph_9b32b1156d685b82ade4dd4698c62e4d.lock

══════════════════ ITERATION 1 ══════════════════

I'll start by reading the plan file and progress file, then explore the codebase to understand what exists.
Now let me read the ROADMAP.md and explore the Rust codebase structure in parallel.
^CError: Claude CLI error at iteration 1 (attempt 1/3): interrupted by user (Ctrl+C)
Non-retryable error detected: interrupted by user (Ctrl+C)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Claude CLI Error (after 1 attempts): interrupted by user (Ctrl+C)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Error: Stopping Ralph due to Claude CLI failure at iteration 1 after 1 attempts
jc@Gizmo:~/src/mage$ RALPH_MODEL=claude-opus-4-6 ralph plan.md plan

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
RALPH - Autonomous AI Development Loop
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Plan: plan.md
Mode: plan
Progress: plan_PROGRESS.md
Model: claude-opus-4-6
Commit: enabled
Notify: Discord
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Exit conditions:

Planning completes when task list is created (Status: IN_PROGRESS)
Plan mode runs once then exits automatically
Press Ctrl+C to stop manually

Lock acquired: /tmp/ralph_9b32b1156d685b82ade4dd4698c62e4d.lock

══════════════════ ITERATION 1 ══════════════════

I'll start by reading the plan and progress files, then explore the codebase to understand what exists.
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/plan.md
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/plan_PROGRESS.md
Now let me read the ROADMAP and explore the codebase structure to understand what exists and what's needed.
→ Task: Read the file /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/ROADMAP.md in its entirety
→ Task: I need to understand the current state of the ECL (Eclogue) set implementation.
→ Task: I need to understand the current engine capabilities and test coverage. Do the f
→ Task: Search across all card set files in /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/ROADMAP.md
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-cards/src/sets/ecl.rs
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-engine/src/abilities.rs
→ Bash: ls -la /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-engine/src/
→ Bash: find /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-cards/src/sets -name "*.rs" | h
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-engine/src/game.rs
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-engine/src/lib.rs
→ Bash: ls -la /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-tests/src/
→ Bash: ls -la /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-tests/tests/
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-engine/src/game.rs
→ Grep /register_cards/
→ Grep /Effect::Custom(|StaticEffect::Custom(/
→ Grep /Effect::Custom/
→ Grep /StaticEffect::Custom/
→ Grep /todo!|unimplemented!/
→ Grep /execute_effect|fn.*effect/
→ Bash: cd /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-cards/src/sets && grep -r "Effect
→ Bash: cd /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl && cargo check -p mtg-engine 2>&1 | t
→ Grep /pub fn register_cards/
→ Bash: cd /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl && cargo check -p mtg-cards 2>&1 | ta
→ Bash: cd /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-cards/src/sets && grep -rho 'Effe
→ Grep /register/
→ Bash: cd /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-cards/src/sets && grep -ro 'Effec
→ Grep /registry.register(/
→ Grep /match.effect.{|Effect::/
→ Read: /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-engine/src/abilities.rs
→ Bash: grep -c 'registry.register(' /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/src/mage/mtg-rl/mtg-cards/ - let's update the PR. also update the PR description to show a neutral (non-specific) version of the streaming output

git add ralph.sh && git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
feat: Show tool activity in streaming output

Display tool use events (Read, Grep, Bash, etc.) in blue between
text output so users can see what Claude is doing while it works,
not just sporadic text between long silences.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
EOF
)"

[fix/discord-infinite-loop-and-streaming 41ccdb7] feat: Show tool activity in streaming output
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Now let me update the PR description.

gh pr edit 4 --repo aaron777collins/portableralph --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
- **Fix infinite loop in `notify.sh`**: The Discord bold formatting conversion (`*text*` → `**text**`) used a `while` loop where the output still matched the input regex, causing 100% CPU spin forever. Replaced with single-pass left-to-right string processing.
- **Stream Claude output in real-time**: Changed `ralph.sh` to use `--output-format stream-json` and pipe through `jq` to display text and tool activity as Claude works, instead of buffering all output until completion.
- **Make model configurable**: Use `$RALPH_MODEL` env var instead of hardcoded `sonnet`. Document in README.
- **Fix decrypt ordering**: Move `decrypt-env` before config validation so decrypted values are validated.
- **Fix `local` outside functions**: Remove invalid `local` keywords in `setup-notifications.sh`.

### Streaming output example

```
══════════════════ ITERATION 1 ══════════════════

I'll start by reading the plan and progress files, then explore the codebase.
  → Read: /home/user/project/plan.md
  → Read: /home/user/project/plan_PROGRESS.md
Now let me explore the codebase structure to understand what's needed.
  → Task: Explore the project structure and dependencies
  → Read: /home/user/project/src/lib.rs
  → Grep /register_cards/
  → Bash: cargo check -p my-crate 2>&1 | tail -20
Based on my analysis, here are the implementation tasks...
  → Edit: /home/user/project/plan_PROGRESS.md
```

## Test plan
- [ ] Run `ralph notify test` with Discord configured — verify notification sends without hanging
- [ ] Run `ralph plan.md plan` — verify streaming output shows text and tool activity in real-time
- [ ] Run with `RALPH_MODEL=claude-opus-4-6 ralph plan.md plan` — verify model override works
- [ ] Run `ralph notify setup` — verify setup completes without bash errors
- [ ] Run without `jq` installed — verify graceful fallback to buffered output

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
EOF
)"

https://github.com/aaron777collins/portableralph/pull/4

Done. PR updated at https://github.com/aaron777collins/portableralph/pull/4 with the new streaming commit and a generic example showing what the output looks like.

Read the code in this repo and compare it to our program. https://github.com/iannuttall/ralph Does it have subtantial features we might want?

I now have a comprehensive understanding of the entire iannuttall/ralph codebase. Here is the full feature inventory.

---

# Comprehensive Feature Inventory: iannuttall/ralph

**Repository:** https://github.com/iannuttall/ralph
**Description:** A minimal, file-based agent loop for autonomous coding.
**Version:** 0.1.3 (npm package: `@iannuttall/ralph`)
**License:** MIT

---

## 1. CORE ARCHITECTURE

### 1.1 File-Based Agent Loop
- **What it does:** Treats files and git as memory rather than model context. Each iteration starts fresh, reads on-disk state, and commits work for one story at a time.
- **How:** The main loop (`loop.sh`) is a bash script that iterates up to `MAX_ITERATIONS` (default 25), selecting one story per iteration, rendering a prompt, invoking an agent CLI, and processing the result. The `while`/`for` loop with `sleep 2` between iterations drives the cycle.

### 1.2 Context Engineering (malloc/free metaphor)
- **What it does:** Prevents context pollution by starting each agent invocation from scratch. References a formal "Context Engineering" document explaining why single-task fresh context is superior.
- **How:** Each loop iteration renders a fresh prompt file and pipes/passes it to the agent CLI. No conversation history carries over between iterations. The reference document (`.agents/ralph/references/CONTEXT_ENGINEERING.md`) provides the theoretical framework.

### 1.3 Template Hierarchy
- **What it does:** Allows project-local overrides of the default templates.
- **How:** The CLI checks for `.agents/ralph/` in the current project first; falls back to bundled defaults shipped with the npm package. Reported to the user at startup ("Using local templates" vs "Using bundled templates").

### 1.4 State Separation
- **What it does:** Separates portable configuration (`.agents/ralph/`) from per-project runtime state (`.ralph/`).
- **How:** `.agents/ralph/` contains prompts, config, and references (copyable between repos). `.ralph/` contains progress logs, guardrails, error logs, activity logs, run logs, and temp files (gitignored, project-specific).

---

## 2. PRD (PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT) SYSTEM

### 2.1 Interactive PRD Generation
- **What it does:** Generates a structured JSON PRD from a natural language description via an AI agent.
- **How:** `ralph prd "description"` or interactive prompt via `@clack/prompts`. Constructs a prompt instructing the agent to ask 5-10 clarifying questions, then produce JSON output. Supports `--out <path>` for custom output paths.

### 2.2 JSON PRD Format
- **What it does:** Defines a machine-readable project specification with stories, dependencies, quality gates, and metadata.
- **How:** JSON schema includes `version`, `project`, `overview`, `goals`, `nonGoals`, `successMetrics`, `openQuestions`, `stack`, `routes`, `uiNotes`, `dataModel`, `importFormat`, `rules`, `qualityGates`, and `stories[]`. Each story has `id`, `title`, `status`, `dependsOn`, `description`, `acceptanceCriteria`.

### 2.3 PRD Multi-File Support
- **What it does:** Supports multiple PRD files in `.agents/tasks/` with interactive selection.
- **How:** If multiple JSON files exist in `.agents/tasks/` and no `--prd` flag is given, uses `@clack/prompts` `select()` to let the user choose. Single file is auto-selected.

### 2.4 PRD Overview Generation
- **What it does:** Generates a human-readable overview markdown file from a JSON PRD.
- **How:** `ralph overview` reads the PRD JSON, counts stories by status (open/in_progress/done), lists quality gates, and writes a `prd-<slug>.overview.md` alongside the JSON file.

### 2.5 PRD Skill (Agent Prompt)
- **What it does:** Provides detailed instructions to the AI agent on how to create a good PRD.
- **How:** The `skills/prd/SKILL.md` instructs the agent to ask clarifying questions in batches of 5, always ask about quality gates, produce JSON with sequential US-XXX IDs, ensure stories are small enough for single iterations, include examples and negative cases in acceptance criteria.

---

## 3. STORY MANAGEMENT

### 3.1 Automatic Story Selection
- **What it does:** Picks the next actionable story based on status and dependency resolution.
- **How:** Python script (`select_story()`) reads the PRD JSON, finds the first `open` story whose `dependsOn` stories are all `done`. Uses `fcntl.flock()` for file locking to support concurrent access.

### 3.2 Story Status Lifecycle
- **What it does:** Tracks story states: `open` -> `in_progress` -> `done`.
- **How:** When selected, a story is marked `in_progress` with `startedAt` timestamp. On completion (agent outputs `<promise>COMPLETE</promise>`), marked `done` with `completedAt`. On failure or no completion signal, reset to `open`. All status updates include `updatedAt` timestamps.

### 3.3 Dependency Resolution
- **What it does:** Respects inter-story dependencies so stories execute in the correct order.
- **How:** Each story has a `dependsOn` array of story IDs. A story is only eligible for selection if all its dependencies have status `done`.

### 3.4 Stale Story Recovery
- **What it does:** Automatically reopens stories stuck in `in_progress` for too long (e.g., from crashed loops).
- **How:** Configurable `STALE_SECONDS` (default 0 = disabled). If set, the `select_story()` Python script checks `startedAt` timestamps and resets stale `in_progress` stories to `open`.

### 3.5 Concurrency Protection (File Locking)
- **What it does:** Prevents race conditions when multiple Ralph instances access the same PRD.
- **How:** Uses `fcntl.flock()` (exclusive lock) in both `select_story()` and `update_story_status()` Python functions when reading/writing the PRD JSON file. Falls back gracefully if `fcntl` is unavailable.

### 3.6 Completion Signal
- **What it does:** Determines whether an agent run successfully completed a story.
- **How:** The loop checks the agent's output log for the literal string `<promise>COMPLETE</promise>`. If found, story is marked `done`; otherwise, it is reset to `open`.

---

## 4. AGENT RUNNER SYSTEM

### 4.1 Multi-Agent Support
- **What it does:** Supports four different AI coding agents: Codex, Claude, Droid (Factory), and OpenCode.
- **How:** `agents.sh` defines both headless and interactive command templates for each agent. The `--agent` CLI flag or `DEFAULT_AGENT` config selects which to use.

### 4.2 Agent Command Templates
- **What it does:** Provides two modes per agent: headless (for build loops) and interactive (for PRD generation).
- **How:** Headless commands pipe/pass prompts via stdin or file. Interactive commands open the agent in a session mode. Templates use `{prompt}` placeholder for file paths.
  - **Codex:** `codex exec --yolo --skip-git-repo-check -` (headless) / `codex --yolo {prompt}` (interactive)
  - **Claude:** `claude -p --dangerously-skip-permissions "$(cat {prompt})"` (headless) / `claude --dangerously-skip-permissions {prompt}` (interactive)
  - **Droid:** `droid exec --skip-permissions-unsafe -f {prompt}` (headless) / `droid --skip-permissions-unsafe {prompt}` (interactive)
  - **OpenCode:** `opencode run "$(cat {prompt})"` (headless) / `opencode --prompt {prompt}` (interactive)

### 4.3 Agent Health Check (Ping)
- **What it does:** Verifies an agent CLI is installed and responsive.
- **How:** `ralph ping` sends the prompt "Reply with `<end>pong</end>` only." to the selected agent and checks the output for that exact string. Validates the agent binary exists first via `command -v`.

### 4.4 Agent Install Hints
- **What it does:** Provides installation instructions when an agent CLI is not found.
- **How:** When `require_agent()` fails to find the agent binary, it prints the appropriate install command (e.g., `npm i -g @openai/codex`, `curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash`).

### 4.5 OpenCode Server Mode
- **What it does:** Supports faster performance with OpenCode via persistent server.
- **How:** Commented-out configuration in `agents.sh` for `--attach http://localhost:4096` flag, avoiding cold boot on every run.

---

## 5. PROMPT ENGINEERING

### 5.1 Build Prompt Template
- **What it does:** Constructs a detailed, structured prompt for each agent iteration with all necessary context.
- **How:** `PROMPT_build.md` is a Mustache-style template with `{{VAR}}` placeholders. The `render_prompt()` function (Python) substitutes paths, story details, quality gates, run metadata, and configuration flags into the template.

### 5.2 Injected Context
- **What it does:** Provides the agent with all the files and paths it needs to operate autonomously.
- **How:** The rendered prompt includes paths to: PRD, AGENTS.md, progress log, guardrails, guardrails reference, context engineering reference, error log, activity log, activity logger command, run ID, iteration number, run log path, and run summary path.

### 5.3 Structured Task Instructions
- **What it does:** Gives the agent a strict ordered workflow to follow.
- **How:** The prompt defines a 11-step procedure: read guardrails, read error log, read PRD, audit codebase, follow AGENTS.md, implement story, run verification, run build/dev, perform security/performance/regression audit, commit (if allowed), append progress entry.

### 5.4 Progress Entry Format
- **What it does:** Standardizes how the agent records its work.
- **How:** A strict markdown template for progress entries including: thread ID, run/iteration info, guardrails reviewed flag, commit hash, verification commands and results, files changed, implementation notes, and learnings for future iterations.

### 5.5 Non-Negotiable Rules
- **What it does:** Constrains agent behavior to prevent scope creep and common mistakes.
- **How:** Explicit rules in the prompt: implement only the selected story, do not ask questions, do not change unrelated code, do not assume -- read code first, no placeholders/stubs, do not edit the PRD JSON, commit all changes, perform security/performance/regression review before committing.

### 5.6 Browser Testing Requirement
- **What it does:** Mandates browser verification for frontend stories.
- **How:** The build prompt instructs: if the story changes UI, load the `dev-browser` skill, navigate to the page, verify changes, take screenshots. "A frontend story is NOT complete until browser verification passes."

---

## 6. GUARDRAILS SYSTEM ("Signs")

### 6.1 Persistent Guardrails
- **What it does:** Maintains a file of "lessons learned" that is read before every iteration.
- **How:** `.ralph/guardrails.md` is created with seed content (core signs: "Read Before Writing", "Test Before Commit") and loaded into every agent prompt. Agents are instructed to add new signs when they encounter repeated failures.

### 6.2 Signs Metaphor
- **What it does:** Provides a framework for categorizing and creating guardrails.
- **How:** Reference document (`.agents/ralph/references/GUARDRAILS.md`) defines four sign types: Preventive, Corrective, Process, and Architecture. Each sign has Trigger, Instruction, Added-after, and optional Example fields.

### 6.3 Sign Lifecycle Management
- **What it does:** Guides creation, refinement, and retirement of guardrails.
- **How:** The reference document explains: add after same mistake happens twice, refine if not working (make trigger more specific), retire when underlying issue is fixed at a deeper level.

### 6.4 Error Log Integration
- **What it does:** Tracks repeated failures separately from guardrails.
- **How:** `.ralph/errors.log` records iteration failures with timestamps. The agent is instructed to read this before starting work and to add new entries when errors occur. Persistent errors should be promoted to guardrails.

---

## 7. LOGGING AND OBSERVABILITY

### 7.1 Activity Log
- **What it does:** Records timestamped events for every iteration.
- **How:** `.ralph/activity.log` with `[YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] message` format. Written by both the loop shell script (iteration start/end) and the agent (via the activity logger command). Has a "Run Summary" section for quick overview.

### 7.2 Activity Logger (Helper Script)
- **What it does:** Provides a simple CLI for agents to log activity.
- **How:** `log-activity.sh` (or `ralph log "message"` via CLI) appends timestamped messages to the activity log. Agents are instructed to log: start of work, major code changes, tests/verification, and progress log updates.

### 7.3 Per-Run Log Files
- **What it does:** Captures complete agent output for each iteration.
- **How:** Agent stdout/stderr is piped through `tee` to `.ralph/runs/run-<tag>-iter-<n>.log`. Each run also gets a `.md` summary file.

### 7.4 Run Summary Metadata
- **What it does:** Records structured metadata about each iteration.
- **How:** `write_run_meta()` creates a markdown file with: Run ID, iteration number, mode, story, start/end times, duration, status, log file path, git head before/after, commits made, changed files, and uncommitted changes.

### 7.5 Run Summary Aggregation
- **What it does:** Appends a one-line summary to the activity log's "Run Summary" section.
- **How:** `append_run_summary()` (Python) inserts a formatted line (timestamp, run tag, iteration, mode, story, duration, status) right after the "## Run Summary" header.

### 7.6 Progress Log
- **What it does:** Append-only log of what was accomplished across iterations.
- **How:** `.ralph/progress.md` is initialized with a header and "Codebase Patterns" section. Each agent iteration appends a structured progress entry (per the template). Includes a "Learnings for future iterations" section for knowledge transfer between iterations.

---

## 8. GIT INTEGRATION

### 8.1 Auto-Commit Behavior
- **What it does:** Agents commit their own changes as part of the loop.
- **How:** The build prompt instructs agents to `git add -A` and commit using the `$commit` skill. The loop checks for uncommitted changes after each iteration and logs a warning if any remain.

### 8.2 No-Commit Mode
- **What it does:** Allows dry-run iterations without git commits.
- **How:** `--no-commit` CLI flag sets `NO_COMMIT=true`, injected into the prompt as `{{NO_COMMIT}}`. The prompt instructs: "If No-commit is true, do NOT commit or push changes."

### 8.3 Git Diff Tracking
- **What it does:** Records what changed in each iteration at the git level.
- **How:** `git_head()` captures HEAD before/after each iteration. `git_commit_list()` and `git_changed_files()` compute the diff. `git_dirty_files()` reports any uncommitted changes. All are recorded in the run summary.

### 8.4 Commit Skill
- **What it does:** Provides structured commit message guidelines (Conventional Commits format).
- **How:** `skills/commit/SKILL.md` defines: commit types (feat/fix/refactor/perf/test/ci/docs/chore/style/security), required scope in kebab-case, 50-char subject line limit, present tense imperative verbs, body format for complex changes, git trailers, breaking change conventions. Also covers PR creation format.

---

## 9. SKILLS SYSTEM

### 9.1 Skill Installation
- **What it does:** Installs agent-specific skills (commit, dev-browser, prd) to the appropriate directory.
- **How:** `ralph install --skills` prompts for agent type and scope (local/global), then copies skill directories to the correct path:
  - Codex: `.codex/skills/`
  - Claude: `.claude/skills/`
  - Droid: `.factory/skills/`
  - OpenCode: `.local/share/opencode/skills/` or `.opencode/skills/`

### 9.2 Dev-Browser Skill
- **What it does:** Provides browser automation for testing frontend changes.
- **How:** A full Playwright-based browser automation system with: standalone and extension modes, persistent page state, ARIA snapshot accessibility tree inspection, screenshot capture, named page management, heredoc script execution via `npx tsx`. Includes a relay server for Chrome extension mode.

### 9.3 PRD Skill
- **What it does:** Guides the AI agent in generating well-structured PRDs.
- **How:** Detailed SKILL.md with instructions for: asking clarifying questions, JSON schema specification, story sizing guidance, dependency ordering, quality gate inclusion, example/negative case requirements.

---

## 10. CLI FEATURES

### 10.1 Command Structure
- **What it does:** Provides a clean CLI with multiple commands.
- **How:** Node.js entry point (`bin/ralph`) parses args manually, supports: `install`, `prd`, `ping`, `log`, `build`, `overview`, `help`. Uses `@clack/prompts` for interactive UI elements.

### 10.2 Auto-Update Check
- **What it does:** Checks for newer versions on npm and offers to update.
- **How:** On every CLI invocation (if TTY), runs `npm view @iannuttall/ralph version`, compares with installed version using `compareVersions()`, and prompts to update if newer. Skippable via `RALPH_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1`.

### 10.3 Interactive Prompts
- **What it does:** Provides polished interactive UI for selections and confirmations.
- **How:** Uses `@clack/prompts` library for: PRD file selection, update confirmation, skill installation agent/scope selection, PRD description input.

### 10.4 Dry-Run Mode
- **What it does:** Allows testing the loop without invoking real agents.
- **How:** `RALPH_DRY_RUN=1` environment variable skips agent execution, creates stub PRD files, and exits cleanly. Used in the test suite.

---

## 11. CONFIGURATION

### 11.1 Config File
- **What it does:** Allows overriding all default paths and settings.
- **How:** `.agents/ralph/config.sh` is sourced by `loop.sh`. Supports overriding: `PRD_PATH`, `PROGRESS_PATH`, `GUARDRAILS_PATH`, `ERRORS_LOG_PATH`, `ACTIVITY_LOG_PATH`, `TMP_DIR`, `RUNS_DIR`, `GUARDRAILS_REF`, `CONTEXT_REF`, `ACTIVITY_CMD`, `AGENT_CMD`, `MAX_ITERATIONS`, `NO_COMMIT`, `STALE_SECONDS`, `AGENTS_PATH`, `PROMPT_BUILD`.

### 11.2 CLI Flag Overrides
- **What it does:** Allows per-run overrides without changing config files.
- **How:** `--prd <path>`, `--progress <path>`, `--agent <name>`, `--no-commit` flags on the CLI. Environment variables (`PRD_PATH`, `PROGRESS_PATH`, `AGENT_CMD`) also override defaults.

### 11.3 Path Resolution
- **What it does:** Handles both relative and absolute paths consistently.
- **How:** `abs_path()` function resolves relative paths against `ROOT_DIR`. `RALPH_ROOT` environment variable allows the CLI to set the project root independently of the script location.

---

## 12. ERROR HANDLING

### 12.1 Agent Failure Recovery
- **What it does:** Handles agent crashes gracefully and resets story state.
- **How:** Agent exit code is captured via `set +e`. Non-zero exit resets the story to `open`, logs the error, and continues to the next iteration. Exit codes 130/143 (SIGINT/SIGTERM) cause immediate exit.

### 12.2 Uncommitted Change Detection
- **What it does:** Warns when an agent leaves uncommitted changes.
- **How:** After each iteration, `git_dirty_files()` checks `git status --porcelain`. If dirty files exist and `NO_COMMIT=false`, an error is logged to `errors.log` with a reference to the run summary.

### 12.3 PRD Parse Error Handling
- **What it does:** Gracefully handles malformed PRD JSON.
- **How:** The `select_story()` Python script catches JSON parse errors and writes a structured error response. The loop checks the `ok` field and reports meaningful messages.

### 12.4 Missing Agent Detection
- **What it does:** Fails early with helpful messages when the required agent is not installed.
- **How:** `require_agent()` checks `command -v` for the agent binary before starting the loop, then prints install instructions if missing.

---

## 13. TESTING

### 13.1 CLI Smoke Tests
- **What it does:** Verifies basic CLI functionality without requiring agents.
- **How:** `tests/cli-smoke.mjs` runs: `ralph --help`, `ralph prd` (with `RALPH_DRY_RUN=1`), `ralph overview`, and checks output files exist.

### 13.2 Agent Loop Smoke Tests
- **What it does:** Tests the loop for each supported agent in dry-run mode.
- **How:** `tests/agent-loops.mjs` creates temp projects with a PRD, runs `ralph build 1 --no-commit --agent=<name>` with `RALPH_DRY_RUN=1` for codex, claude, and droid.

### 13.3 Agent Ping Tests
- **What it does:** Verifies real agents are responsive.
- **How:** `tests/agent-ping.mjs` runs `ralph ping --agent=<name>` for each installed agent, skipping those not found.

### 13.4 Real Agent Integration Tests
- **What it does:** Runs a full end-to-end loop with real agents.
- **How:** `tests/real-agents.mjs` creates a temp project with two dependent stories (create a file, then create a second file), runs `ralph build 2`, then asserts: all stories are `done`, at least one git commit exists, and progress log was created.

---

## 14. FEATURES NOTABLY ABSENT (compared to what portableralph might have)

Based on this analysis, iannuttall/ralph does **not** have:
- **Model/provider selection** (e.g., choosing between GPT-4, Claude Sonnet, etc.) -- it delegates entirely to the agent CLI
- **Desktop notifications** (no notification system)
- **Plan mode** (explicitly removed: `ralph plan` prints an error saying "Use `ralph build` with a JSON PRD")
- **Token/cost tracking**
- **Concurrency at the iteration level** (runs one agent at a time, though file locking supports multiple Ralph instances on the same PRD)
- **Session management** beyond the iteration loop (each iteration is fully independent)
- **Custom model parameters** (temperature, max tokens, etc.)
- **SSRF protection or URL validation**
- **Rate limiting**
agentId: a5671bb (for resuming to continue this agent's work if needed)
<usage>total_tokens: 55119
tool_uses: 37
duration_ms: 258610</usage>

Here's the comparison:

What iannuttall/ralph has that portableralph doesn't

Worth considering:

Feature	iannuttall/ralph	portableralph
Structured PRD system	JSON PRDs with stories, dependencies, acceptance criteria. AI generates them via `ralph prd "description"`	Freeform markdown plan files
Story dependency resolution	Stories have `dependsOn` — only picks stories whose deps are `done`	Flat task list, relies on Claude to pick order
Guardrails / "Signs"	Persistent lessons-learned file read every iteration. Agent adds new guardrails after repeated failures	No cross-iteration learning
Per-iteration activity/run logs	Detailed per-run log files, activity log, run summaries with git diff tracking	Single progress file only
Multi-agent support	Claude, Codex, Droid (Factory), OpenCode	Claude only
Stale story recovery	Auto-reopens stories stuck `in_progress` after configurable timeout	No stale detection
Completion signal	Explicit `<promise>COMPLETE</promise>` marker per story	`RALPH_DONE` for entire run
Skills system	Installable skills (commit conventions, browser testing, PRD generation)	Prompt templates only
Browser testing skill	Playwright-based browser verification for frontend stories	None

Less interesting (portableralph already has equivalents or better):

Feature	Notes
File locking / concurrency	portableralph already has lock files
No-commit mode	portableralph has `DO_NOT_COMMIT` + `ralph config commit off`
Auto-update check	portableralph has `ralph update`
Git diff tracking	Nice-to-have but minor
Template overrides	portableralph has prompt templates already

What portableralph has that iannuttall/ralph doesn't

Notifications (Slack, Discord, Telegram, Email, custom scripts)
Model selection (RALPH_MODEL)
Streaming output (our new feature)
Retry logic with exponential backoff
Plan mode (analyze first, build second)
Windows/PowerShell support
Rate limiting, URL validation

My take

The most valuable ideas to steal are:

Guardrails file — a persistent lessons-learned doc that Claude reads every iteration. This is cheap to implement and high-value: prevents the same mistake from being made across iterations.
Story dependencies — letting tasks declare dependsOn so the picker respects ordering rather than hoping Claude picks wisely.
Per-run logging — capturing full agent output per iteration (not just progress) makes debugging much easier when something goes wrong mid-run.

The PRD system and multi-agent support are bigger lifts with less clear ROI for portableralph's audience. The browser testing skill is cool but very niche.

I like the lesson-learned document. How would we implement that?

Let me explore how the prompt templates and iteration loop work to figure out where a guardrails file would plug in.

Excellent! Now I have all the information I need. Let me compile a comprehensive report with full details of the prompt templates and the variable substitution system.

## Comprehensive Ralph Codebase Exploration Report

I've thoroughly analyzed the ralph codebase to understand how a "guardrails" or "lessons learned" feature would integrate. Here's the complete breakdown:

---

## 1. PROMPT TEMPLATES

### PROMPT_build.md (Full Content)

Located at: `/mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/PROMPT_build.md`

```markdown
You are Ralph, an autonomous AI development agent. Your job is to implement ONE task from the task list, then exit.

## Your Inputs

1. **Plan File**: ${PLAN_FILE}
2. **Progress File**: ${PROGRESS_FILE}

## Instructions

0a. Read the plan file to understand the overall goal.
0b. Read the progress file to see the task list and current state.
0c. If there's no task list yet, create one based on the plan (keep Status as IN_PROGRESS).

1. **Select ONE task**: Pick the highest-priority uncompleted task (marked with [ ]).
   - Before implementing, search the codebase to confirm it's not already done
   - Don't assume not implemented - verify first

2. **Implement the task**:
   - Make the necessary code changes
   - Follow existing patterns in the codebase
   - Keep changes focused and minimal

3. **Validate**:
   - Run relevant tests if they exist
   - Run build/typecheck/lint as appropriate
   - Fix any issues before considering the task complete

4. **Update progress file**:
   - Mark the completed task with [x]
   - Add any discoveries or notes
   - If you found bugs or new tasks, add them to the list

5. **Commit** (if auto-commit is enabled AND in a git repo):
   - Auto-commit setting: **${AUTO_COMMIT}**
   - If "true": Run `git add -A && git commit -m "descriptive message"`
   - If "false": Skip committing - the user will commit manually

6. **Check completion** (IMPORTANT - read carefully):
   - Count the tasks: How many total? How many marked [x]? How many still [ ]?
   - If there are ANY tasks still marked [ ], keep Status as IN_PROGRESS
   - ONLY write the completion marker when ALL tasks are marked [x] complete AND verified working
   - When in doubt, leave Status as IN_PROGRESS - another iteration will check again

## Rules

- **ONE task per iteration** - do not try to do multiple tasks
- **Search before implementing** - use subagents to explore and verify before coding
- **Run validation** - tests, build, lint as appropriate
- **Update progress file** - this is how the loop tracks state
- **Commit your work** - each iteration should produce a commit (unless auto-commit is disabled)
- **Only signal completion when truly done** - all tasks must be [x] complete and verified

## Progress File Updates

After completing a task, update ${PROGRESS_FILE}:

```
# Progress: ${PLAN_NAME}

## Status
IN_PROGRESS

## Task List
- [x] Task 1: completed
- [x] Task 2: just completed this one  <-- mark with [x]
- [ ] Task 3: next up
...

## Completed This Iteration
- Task 2: brief description of what was done

## Notes
<any discoveries, bugs found, or new tasks identified>
```

## Completion - READ CAREFULLY

**Before signaling completion, you MUST verify:**
1. Count ALL tasks in the task list
2. Confirm EVERY SINGLE task is marked [x] - not just most, ALL of them
3. Use subagents to verify the implementation actually works (run tests, check build)
4. If ANY task is still [ ] or unverified, keep Status as IN_PROGRESS

**Only when ALL of the above are true:**
1. Verify everything works (tests pass, builds clean)
2. Replace the Status section content with the completion marker on its own line:
```
## Status
RALPH_DONE
```
3. The marker MUST be on its own line (not inline with other text) to be detected
4. This will signal the loop to exit

**If you cannot complete a task** (blocked, needs clarification):
- Add a note explaining why
- Move to the next task
- Keep Status as IN_PROGRESS

**When in doubt, keep Status as IN_PROGRESS.** It's better to run an extra iteration than to exit prematurely.
```

### PROMPT_plan.md (Full Content)

Located at: `/mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/PROMPT_plan.md`

```markdown
You are Ralph, an autonomous AI development agent. Your job is to analyze the plan and create an implementation strategy.

## Your Inputs

1. **Plan File**: ${PLAN_FILE}
2. **Progress File**: ${PROGRESS_FILE}

## Instructions

0a. First, read the plan file to understand what needs to be built.
0b. Read the progress file to understand current state.
0c. Explore the codebase to understand the existing structure, patterns, and what's already implemented.

1. Analyze the plan against the current codebase:
   - Use subagents to explore from multiple perspectives
   - What already exists? Search thoroughly before assuming anything is missing
   - What's missing?
   - What are the dependencies between tasks?
   - What contingencies need to be handled?

2. Create a prioritized task list in the progress file:
   - Break down the plan into discrete, implementable tasks
   - Order by dependencies and priority (tasks with dependencies come after their dependencies)
   - Consider all contingencies - what could go wrong? Add tasks to handle edge cases
   - Each task should be small enough to complete in one iteration
   - Mark task status: [ ] pending, [x] complete

3. Update the progress file with your analysis and task list.

## Rules

- **DO NOT implement anything** - planning only
- **DO NOT assume things are missing** - search the codebase first
- Explore thoroughly using subagents for file searches/reads
- Keep tasks atomic and well-defined
- Update the progress file with your findings
- **DO NOT write the completion marker** - you are only planning, not implementing

## Progress File Format

Update ${PROGRESS_FILE} with this structure:

```
# Progress: ${PLAN_NAME}

## Status
IN_PROGRESS

## Analysis
<your analysis of what exists vs what's needed>

## Task List
- [ ] Task 1: description
- [ ] Task 2: description
...

## Notes
<any important discoveries or decisions>
```

## CRITICAL STATUS RULES

- **Set Status to `IN_PROGRESS`** when planning is complete. This signals that build mode can begin.
- **NEVER set the completion status** - the done marker is ONLY for build mode to set after ALL tasks are implemented and verified.
- You are PLANNING, not implementing. Planning mode NEVER signals completion under any circumstances.

## COMPLETION MARKER (for reference only - DO NOT USE IN PLAN MODE)

Build mode signals completion by writing this exact text on its own line in the Status section:
```
RALPH_DONE
```
Plan mode must NEVER write this. Only build mode writes it after all tasks are verified complete.
```

---

## 2. VARIABLE SUBSTITUTION SYSTEM

### Escape/Substitution Function (Lines 673-694 of ralph.sh)

```bash
# Build the prompt with substitutions (safely escape for sed to prevent injection)
# Escape special sed characters: & \ / newlines
escape_sed() {
    local str="$1"
    # Escape backslashes first, then forward slashes, then ampersands
    str="${str//\\/\\\\}"
    str="${str//\//\\/}"
    str="${str//&/\\&}"
    printf '%s' "$str"
}

# Variables for sed escaping (not using local since we're in main loop, not a function)
safe_plan_file=$(escape_sed "$PLAN_FILE_ABS")
safe_progress_file=$(escape_sed "$PROGRESS_FILE")
safe_plan_name=$(escape_sed "$PLAN_BASENAME")
safe_should_commit=$(escape_sed "$SHOULD_COMMIT")

PROMPT=$(cat "$PROMPT_TEMPLATE" | \
    sed "s|\${PLAN_FILE}|$safe_plan_file|g" | \
    sed "s|\${PROGRESS_FILE}|$safe_progress_file|g" | \
    sed "s|\${PLAN_NAME}|$safe_plan_name|g" | \
    sed "s|\${AUTO_COMMIT}|$safe_should_commit|g")
```

### Supported Variables (Currently 4)

1. **${PLAN_FILE}** — Absolute path to the plan file
   - Set at line 517: `PLAN_FILE_ABS=$(realpath "$PLAN_FILE")`
   - Escaped as `safe_plan_file`

2. **${PROGRESS_FILE}** — Name of the progress file
   - Set at line 516: `PROGRESS_FILE="${PLAN_BASENAME}_PROGRESS.md"`
   - Escaped as `safe_progress_file`

3. **${PLAN_NAME}** — Basename of plan file without .md extension
   - Set at line 515: `PLAN_BASENAME=$(basename "$PLAN_FILE" .md)`
   - Escaped as `safe_plan_name`

4. **${AUTO_COMMIT}** — Whether auto-commit is enabled (true/false)
   - Set at lines 535-543: `SHOULD_COMMIT="true"` or `SHOULD_COMMIT="false"`
   - Escaped as `safe_should_commit`

### Variable Substitution Method

- Uses **sed** with the pipe (`|`) delimiter to avoid conflicts with path slashes
- Pattern: `sed "s|\${VARIABLE}|$safe_value|g"`
- **g** flag means replace all occurrences
- Each variable is substituted independently in sequential pipes
- The `escape_sed()` function pre-escapes special characters: `\`, `/`, `&`

---

## 3. MAIN LOOP STRUCTURE (Lines 647-879)

### Loop Entry Point (Line 648)

```bash
while true; do
    # Check exit conditions
    if is_done; then
        echo ""
        echo -e "${GREEN}━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━${NC}"
        echo -e "${GREEN}  RALPH_DONE - Work complete!${NC}"
        ...
        break
    fi
```

### Exit Condition Detection (Lines 605-610)

```bash
is_done() {
    if [ -f "$PROGRESS_FILE" ]; then
        grep -qx "RALPH_DONE" "$PROGRESS_FILE" 2>/dev/null && return 0
    fi
    return 1
}
```

- Uses `grep -qx` to match the exact line "RALPH_DONE" (no other text)
- Returns 0 (true) only if line exists on its own
- This prevents false positives from instructional text like "DO NOT set RALPH_DONE"

### Max Iterations Check (Lines 659-666)

```bash
if [ "$MAX_ITERATIONS" -gt 0 ] && [ "$ITERATION" -ge "$MAX_ITERATIONS" ]; then
    echo ""
    echo -e "${YELLOW}━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━${NC}"
    echo -e "${YELLOW}  Max iterations reached: $MAX_ITERATIONS${NC}"
    ...
    break
fi
```

### Iteration Counter (Line 668)

```bash
ITERATION=$((ITERATION + 1))
```

- Incremented at start of each loop iteration
- Used for iteration notifications and tracking

### Prompt Template Selection (Lines 520-524)

```bash
if [ "$MODE" = "plan" ]; then
    PROMPT_TEMPLATE="$RALPH_DIR/PROMPT_plan.md"
else
    PROMPT_TEMPLATE="$RALPH_DIR/PROMPT_build.md"
fi
```

### Plan Mode Exit (Lines 851-859)

```bash
if [ "$MODE" = "plan" ]; then
    echo ""
    echo -e "${GREEN}━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━${NC}"
    echo -e "${GREEN}  Planning complete! Task list created in $PROGRESS_FILE${NC}"
    ...
    break
fi
```

- Plan mode exits automatically after 1 iteration
- Build mode continues until RALPH_DONE or max iterations

---

## 4. PROGRESS FILE

### Initialization (Lines 586-598)

```bash
if [ ! -f "$PROGRESS_FILE" ]; then
    echo "# Progress: $PLAN_BASENAME" > "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "Started: $(date)" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "## Status" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "IN_PROGRESS" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "## Tasks Completed" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
    echo "" >> "$PROGRESS_FILE"
fi
```

### Format Structure

```markdown
# Progress: <plan_name>

Started: <timestamp>

## Status

IN_PROGRESS

## Tasks Completed

```

### Expected Content (Per Prompts)

**After Plan Mode:**
```markdown
## Status
IN_PROGRESS

## Analysis
<what exists vs what's needed>

## Task List
- [ ] Task 1: description
- [ ] Task 2: description
...

## Notes
<discoveries>
```

**After Build Mode (Each Iteration):**
```markdown
## Status
IN_PROGRESS or RALPH_DONE

## Task List
- [x] Task 1: completed
- [x] Task 2: completed
- [ ] Task 3: pending

## Completed This Iteration
- Task 2: brief description

## Notes
<discoveries, bugs, new tasks>
```

---

## 5. CONFIGURATION SYSTEM

### Config File Location (Line 110)

```bash
RALPH_CONFIG_FILE="${USER_HOME}/.ralph.env"
```

- Loaded at lines 111-165
- User home determined via `get_home_dir` function (platform utilities)
- Syntax validated before sourcing (lines 91-107)

### Loading (Lines 111-165)

```bash
if [ -f "$RALPH_CONFIG_FILE" ] && validate_config "$RALPH_CONFIG_FILE"; then
    source "$RALPH_CONFIG_FILE"
    # Decrypt encrypted variables if decrypt-env.sh exists
    # Validate webhook URLs, emails, etc.
fi
```

### Available Settings (Current)

#### Core Configuration

1. **RALPH_AUTO_COMMIT** (Line 172)
   - Default: `true`
   - Type: Boolean
   - Controlled via: `ralph config commit on/off/status`

2. **RALPH_MODEL** (Line 176)
   - Default: `sonnet`
   - Type: String
   - Can be set in `~/.ralph.env` to `claude-opus-4-6` or other models

#### Notification Settings

- **RALPH_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL** — Slack incoming webhook
- **RALPH_DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL** — Discord webhook
- **RALPH_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN** — Telegram bot token
- **RALPH_TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID** — Telegram chat/group ID
- **RALPH_CUSTOM_NOTIFY_SCRIPT** — Path to custom notification script
- **RALPH_NOTIFY_FREQUENCY** — Notify every N iterations (default: 5)

#### Configurable Constants (from lib/constants.sh)

- **HTTP_MAX_TIME** — HTTP timeout (default: 10s)
- **CLAUDE_MAX_RETRIES** — Claude CLI retry attempts (default: 3)
- **CLAUDE_RETRY_DELAY** — Initial retry delay (default: 5s)
- **NOTIFY_MAX_RETRIES** — Notification retries (default: 3)
- **MAX_ITERATIONS_DEFAULT/MIN/MAX** — Iteration limits
- And many more in `/mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/lib/constants.sh`

### Config Setting Command (Lines 380-481)

```bash
ralph config commit on      # Enable auto-commit
ralph config commit off     # Disable auto-commit
ralph config commit status  # Show current setting
```

### Per-Plan Override

Add on its own line anywhere in plan file:
```markdown
DO_NOT_COMMIT
```

Detection function (lines 180-191):
```bash
should_skip_commit_from_plan() {
    local plan_file="$1"
    [ ! -f "$plan_file" ] && return 1

    awk '
        /^```/ { in_code = !in_code; next }
        !in_code && /^[[:space:]]*DO_NOT_COMMIT[[:space:]]*$/ { found=1; exit }
        END { exit !found }
    ' "$plan_file"
}
```

---

## 6. KEY INSIGHTS FOR GUARDRAILS/LESSONS LEARNED FEATURE

### Architecture Principles

1. **Template-based Prompting** — All AI instructions come from markdown templates with variable substitution
   - Easy to add new context by adding new template variables
   - Variables are escaped for security (prevents sed injection)

2. **Persistent State** — Progress file is the system's memory
   - Survives restarts
   - Editable by users
   - Markdown format for human readability

3. **Atomic Variable Substitution** — 4 variables currently injected:
   - Could easily add more: `${GUARDRAILS}`, `${LESSONS_LEARNED}`, `${CONTEXT}`, etc.
   - Each would need: sed-escaping + prompt file references

4. **Mode Separation** — Plan and Build are completely separate with different templates
   - Plan mode: Analysis and task breakdown
   - Build mode: Implementation
   - Could have guardrails specific to each mode

5. **No Inline State** — State is completely file-based
   - Progress file path: `${PLAN_BASENAME}_PROGRESS.md`
   - Always in current working directory
   - Easy to manage and version

### Integration Points for Guardrails

1. **Add to Progress File** — Store under a new section:
   ```markdown
   ## Guardrails
   - Constraint 1
   - Constraint 2
   
   ## Lessons Learned
   - Observation 1
   - Observation 2
   ```

2. **Inject into Prompts** — Add new variables:
   ```bash
   # In ralph.sh around line 690-694
   safe_guardrails=$(escape_sed "$GUARDRAILS_TEXT")
   PROMPT=$(... | sed "s|\${GUARDRAILS}|$safe_guardrails|g")
   ```

3. **Read from Progress File** — Before substitution:
   ```bash
   # Extract guardrails section from progress file
   GUARDRAILS_TEXT=$(sed -n '/^## Guardrails/,/^## [^G]/p' "$PROGRESS_FILE" | head -n -1)
   ```

4. **Update in Templates** — Add context:
   ```markdown
   ## Guardrails to Follow
   ${GUARDRAILS}
   
   ## Lessons From Previous Iterations
   ${LESSONS_LEARNED}
   ```

---

## Summary

The ralph codebase is highly modular and extensible. The variable substitution system is secure (using sed with proper escaping), the progress file format is human-editable, and the main loop is straightforward. Adding a guardrails/lessons learned feature would be straightforward: add new sections to the progress file, extract them before prompt substitution, and inject them into the templates using the existing variable substitution mechanism.
agentId: a1de10c (for resuming to continue this agent's work if needed)
<usage>total_tokens: 50486
tool_uses: 17
duration_ms: 66911</usage>

Now I have a good understanding of the codebase. Let me design the guardrails/lessons-learned feature. The key design decisions are:

Where to store guardrails - Options:
a. In the progress file (per-plan, dies with the plan)
b. In a separate file per-plan (e.g., plan_GUARDRAILS.md)
c. In a global file (e.g., ~/.ralph/guardrails.md or in the project .ralph/guardrails.md)

The iannuttall/ralph approach uses a per-project file (.ralph/guardrails.md). This makes sense because lessons are often project-specific. But they could also be useful across projects.

I'm leaning toward a per-plan guardrails file alongside the progress file, so each plan accumulates its own lessons that persist across runs. But I'm weighing whether per-plan isolation is better than per-project sharing—if I run different plans, should lessons from one carry over to the next?

The tension is between ralph's minimal footprint philosophy (keeping artifacts in the repo to a minimum) and the practical benefit of cross-plan knowledge. A hidden .ralph/ directory would solve the sharing problem but violates that principle. A single RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md at the project level is simpler but requires users to manually create shared guardrails if they want cross-plan learning. I think the per-plan approach with the same naming pattern as progress files is the most consistent, even if it means users need to explicitly share lessons between plans.

Actually, wait—I'm overcomplicating this. One guardrails file per project directory makes the most sense: RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md in the working directory, accumulating lessons across all plans in that directory. Different projects in different directories each get their own file, which keeps things project-specific and organized.

Now for injection into prompts—I need to add a ${GUARDRAILS} variable to the templates and read the file content. But there's a problem with using sed for multi-line content with special characters...

The better approach is to inject the file path instead of the content itself, then instruct Claude to read it directly. This sidesteps all the escaping issues, lets Claude see the full context, handles arbitrarily large files, and keeps the implementation simple.

For Claude's side, the prompt should tell it to append new lessons to the guardrails file when it runs into problems. I'll seed the file with some default guardrails similar to what iannuttall/ralph uses, then write out the implementation plan.

Good, I have a solid understanding of the codebase. Let me design this.

Now I have a thorough understanding of the entire codebase. Let me synthesize a detailed design recommendation.

---

## Guardrails / Lessons Learned Feature -- Design Plan

### 1. File Location: Per-Project, with Per-Plan Override

**Recommendation: Per-project (`RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md`) in the working directory, with an optional per-plan file that takes precedence.**

**Rationale:**

The primary value of guardrails is cross-iteration *and* cross-plan knowledge transfer. A per-plan file (`plan_GUARDRAILS.md`) would be nearly useless because the very problem you are solving is that lessons from one run should survive into the next. Most project-level lessons -- "this repo uses tabs not spaces," "always run `make test` not `npm test`," "the ORM generates fragile migrations, always check SQL" -- are project-scoped, not plan-scoped.

The concrete design:

- **Primary file**: `RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md` in the current working directory (the project root). This is the default.
- **Per-plan override**: If `${PLAN_BASENAME}_GUARDRAILS.md` exists, its contents are *appended* to the project-level guardrails (not replacing them). This handles the rare case where a specific plan has extra constraints, without losing the shared knowledge.
- **No file, no problem**: If neither file exists, ralph proceeds normally. The prompts instruct Claude to create `RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md` when it has something worth recording.

This follows the existing pattern: the progress file lives in the working directory, and `RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md` sits alongside it. The "only artifact left in your repo" philosophy extends from one file to two (progress + guardrails), which is still minimal. The guardrails file is meant to persist between plans, so it should NOT be plan-namespaced by default.

For `.gitignore`, I would recommend NOT adding `RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md` -- it is useful content that teams may want to commit and share. This is a deliberate contrast with progress files, which are ephemeral.

---

### 2. Injection Method: Inject the File Path, Have Claude Read It

**Recommendation: Pass the guardrails file path as a new `${GUARDRAILS_FILE}` variable. Do NOT inject file contents via sed.**

**Rationale:**

The current prompt substitution system (lines 675-694 of `ralph.sh`) uses `sed` with `escape_sed()` to replace `${VARIABLE}` tokens. This works well for single-line values like file paths and plan names, but breaks badly with multi-line file contents because:

1. `sed` substitution is line-oriented; multi-line content requires `\n` escaping and gets fragile fast.
2. The guardrails file will contain markdown with special characters (`*`, `#`, backticks, pipes, etc.) that all need escaping.
3. The file could grow large enough to exceed shell argument limits.

Instead, the prompt template should simply reference the file path and instruct Claude to read it:

```
## Guardrails

Read the guardrails file for project-specific rules and lessons learned from previous iterations:
- **Project guardrails**: ${GUARDRAILS_FILE}
- **Plan-specific guardrails**: ${PLAN_GUARDRAILS_FILE}

Read these files at the start of this iteration. Follow all rules listed there.
If the project guardrails file does not exist, create it when you discover something worth recording.
```

This adds one tool call per iteration (Read file), which is negligible compared to the dozens of tool calls Claude makes during implementation. It avoids all escaping complexity and keeps the prompt template clean.

The implementation in `ralph.sh` would look like this (near line 685-694):

```bash
GUARDRAILS_FILE="RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md"
PLAN_GUARDRAILS_FILE="${PLAN_BASENAME}_GUARDRAILS.md"

safe_guardrails_file=$(escape_sed "$GUARDRAILS_FILE")
safe_plan_guardrails_file=$(escape_sed "$PLAN_GUARDRAILS_FILE")

PROMPT=$(cat "$PROMPT_TEMPLATE" | \
sed "s|\${PLAN_FILE}|$safe_plan_file|g" | \
sed "s|\${PROGRESS_FILE}|$safe_progress_file|g" | \
sed "s|\${PLAN_NAME}|$safe_plan_name|g" | \
sed "s|\${AUTO_COMMIT}|$safe_should_commit|g" | \
sed "s|\${GUARDRAILS_FILE}|$safe_guardrails_file|g" | \
sed "s|\${PLAN_GUARDRAILS_FILE}|$safe_plan_guardrails_file|g")
```

The same pattern applies to the PowerShell version (line 503-507 of `ralph.ps1`):

```powershell
$promptContent = $promptContent -replace '\$\{GUARDRAILS_FILE\}', $GUARDRAILS_FILE
$promptContent = $promptContent -replace '\$\{PLAN_GUARDRAILS_FILE\}', $PLAN_GUARDRAILS_FILE
```

This is entirely consistent with the existing variable substitution mechanism -- you are passing paths, not contents.

---

### 3. Default Seed Content

**Recommendation: Do NOT auto-seed. Instead, embed starter guardrails in the prompt template itself, and let Claude create the file organically on first meaningful discovery.**

**Rationale:**

Auto-seeding (creating a file on `ralph` startup) would violate the minimal-footprint philosophy -- you would be creating a file in the user's repo before any work happens. Instead, the prompt template should contain a short section of "universal guardrails" that are always active, and separately instruct Claude to create `RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md` when it discovers project-specific patterns.

The universal guardrails to embed directly in the prompt (these never need to be in a file because they apply to all projects):

```markdown
## Universal Guardrails (always active)

These rules apply to every iteration:

1. **Verify before assuming**: Always search the codebase before assuming something
is missing. Use grep/glob to check if a function, file, or pattern already exists.

2. **Run tests before marking done**: If the project has tests, run them. If your
change breaks existing tests, fix them before marking the task complete.

3. **Match existing style**: Follow the project's existing code style, naming
conventions, indentation, and patterns. Do not introduce a new pattern when
one already exists.

4. **Minimal changes**: Only modify files necessary for the current task. Do not
refactor unrelated code, update unrelated dependencies, or "improve" things
outside the task scope.

5. **Do not delete or overwrite without reading first**: Before modifying any file,
read its current contents. Never truncate or overwrite a file you have not read
in this iteration.

6. **Check for build/compile errors**: If the project has a build step, run it.
Do not leave the project in a broken state.

7. **Preserve user data and configuration**: Never modify .env files, credentials,
user configuration, or database content unless the task explicitly requires it.
```

Then the prompt continues with the dynamic guardrails file reference:

```markdown
## Project Guardrails

Read ${GUARDRAILS_FILE} if it exists. These are project-specific rules and lessons
learned from previous iterations. Follow all rules listed there.

If this file does not exist and you discover something that future iterations
should know (a gotcha, a project convention, a tool quirk, a mistake you almost
made), create it with a clear, actionable entry.
```

This way:
- Every iteration benefits from universal guardrails even before the file exists.
- The file gets created naturally when Claude finds something worth noting.
- No phantom files appear in the user's repo until they are needed.

---

### 4. Prompt Changes

**Recommendation: Modify both `PROMPT_build.md` and `PROMPT_plan.md` with a new guardrails section. Place it early in the prompt (before "Instructions") so Claude reads it before starting work.**

Here is the specific change for `PROMPT_build.md`. The guardrails section should be inserted between "Your Inputs" (line 5) and "Instructions" (line 8):

```markdown
You are Ralph, an autonomous AI development agent. Your job is to implement ONE task from the task list, then exit.

## Your Inputs

1. **Plan File**: ${PLAN_FILE}
2. **Progress File**: ${PROGRESS_FILE}
3. **Guardrails File**: ${GUARDRAILS_FILE}

## Guardrails

### Universal Rules (always active)

1. **Verify before assuming**: Search the codebase before assuming something is missing.
2. **Run tests before marking done**: If tests exist, run them. Fix breakage before marking complete.
3. **Match existing style**: Follow the project's code style, naming, indentation, and patterns.
4. **Minimal changes**: Only modify files necessary for the current task.
5. **Read before writing**: Before modifying any file, read its current contents in this iteration.
6. **Check for build errors**: If the project has a build step, run it.
7. **Preserve configuration**: Never modify .env, credentials, or user config unless the task requires it.

### Project-Specific Rules

Read **${GUARDRAILS_FILE}** if it exists. Follow all rules listed there.

If this file does not exist and you discover a project-specific gotcha, convention,
or mistake pattern, **create it** with a clear, actionable entry. Use this format:

```
# Project Guardrails

## Rules
- [RULE]: Description of what to do or avoid

## Lessons Learned
- [DATE]: What happened and what to do differently
```

### Updating Guardrails

When you discover something future iterations should know:
- If ${GUARDRAILS_FILE} exists, **append** to it (do not overwrite existing entries)
- If it does not exist, **create** it
- Keep entries concise and actionable (one line per rule when possible)
- Do NOT add entries that duplicate the universal rules above

## Instructions
[... rest of existing prompt unchanged ...]
```

For `PROMPT_plan.md`, the change is lighter -- plan mode should READ guardrails but not write to them (since plan mode makes no code changes and thus is unlikely to discover runtime gotchas):

```markdown
## Your Inputs

1. **Plan File**: ${PLAN_FILE}
2. **Progress File**: ${PROGRESS_FILE}
3. **Guardrails File**: ${GUARDRAILS_FILE}

## Guardrails

Read **${GUARDRAILS_FILE}** if it exists. Consider these project-specific rules
when creating the task list -- they may affect task ordering, dependencies, or approach.

[... rest of existing prompt ...]
```

The `PLAN_GUARDRAILS_FILE` variable I mentioned in section 2 could optionally be included in both prompts, but for the initial implementation I recommend keeping it simple with just `GUARDRAILS_FILE`. The per-plan override can be added later if users request it.

---

### 5. Growth Management

**Recommendation: A soft cap enforced by prompt instructions, with a consolidation directive, and a hard cap enforced by ralph.sh as a safety net.**

Three-layer approach:

**Layer 1: Prompt instruction (soft cap)**
The prompt should tell Claude to keep guardrails concise and consolidate when the file grows:

```markdown
### Guardrails Maintenance

- Keep ${GUARDRAILS_FILE} under 50 lines. If it exceeds this, consolidate:
remove entries that are duplicates, no longer relevant, or too specific to
a single task. Merge related entries. Prefer general principles over
specific incidents.
- Before adding a new entry, check if an existing entry already covers it.
- Remove entries that say "do not do X" if X was a one-time mistake unlikely to recur.
```

**Layer 2: ralph.sh warning (hard cap)**
Add a size check in `ralph.sh` before the main loop starts, and in the banner output. This is purely informational:

```bash
# Check guardrails file size (warn if getting large)
if [ -f "$GUARDRAILS_FILE" ]; then
guardrails_lines=$(wc -l < "$GUARDRAILS_FILE")
if [ "$guardrails_lines" -gt 100 ]; then
echo -e " Guardrails: ${YELLOW}${GUARDRAILS_FILE} (${guardrails_lines} lines - consider pruning)${NC}"
else
echo -e " Guardrails: ${GREEN}${GUARDRAILS_FILE} (${guardrails_lines} lines)${NC}"
fi
else
echo -e " Guardrails: ${YELLOW}none (will be created when needed)${NC}"
fi
```

**Layer 3: Constants**
Add to `lib/constants.sh`:

```bash
readonly GUARDRAILS_SOFT_LIMIT=50 # Lines - prompt instructs Claude to consolidate
readonly GUARDRAILS_WARN_LIMIT=100 # Lines - ralph.sh prints a warning
```

I intentionally do NOT recommend truncating or refusing to pass the file. If Claude is instructed to consolidate at 50 lines, and the warning fires at 100, the user can manually prune if needed. Automatically truncating would lose information and be surprising.

**Why not have Claude prune automatically?** Because pruning is destructive and subjective. Claude might remove a guardrail that looks stale but is actually critical for a future plan. The consolidation instruction asks Claude to merge and deduplicate, which is less risky than deletion. If the file still grows, the user should curate it -- this is a feature of the minimal-footprint philosophy (the user owns their artifacts).

---

### Implementation Sequence

1. **`lib/constants.sh`**: Add `GUARDRAILS_SOFT_LIMIT` and `GUARDRAILS_WARN_LIMIT` constants.
2. **`PROMPT_build.md`**: Add the guardrails section with universal rules, file reference, creation/update instructions, and maintenance rules. Add `${GUARDRAILS_FILE}` to inputs.
3. **`PROMPT_plan.md`**: Add guardrails file reference to inputs and a lightweight read instruction.
4. **`ralph.sh`**: Add `GUARDRAILS_FILE` variable derivation, `escape_sed` call, `sed` substitution, banner display with line count, and size warning.
5. **`ralph.ps1`**: Mirror all `ralph.sh` changes for PowerShell.
6. **`docs/how-it-works.md`**: Update architecture diagram and variable substitution table.
7. **`docs/writing-plans.md`**: Add a section on guardrails.
8. **`tests/test-ralph.sh`**: Add tests for guardrails file detection and banner display.

### Critical Files for Implementation

- `/mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/PROMPT_build.md` - Primary prompt that needs the guardrails section (universal rules, file reference, creation/update/maintenance instructions)
- `/mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/PROMPT_plan.md` - Secondary prompt that needs a lightweight guardrails read instruction
- `/mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/ralph.sh` - Main loop: add GUARDRAILS_FILE variable, sed substitution, banner display, and size warning
- `/mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/ralph.ps1` - PowerShell mirror of all ralph.sh changes for cross-platform parity
- `/mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/lib/constants.sh` - Add GUARDRAILS_SOFT_LIMIT and GUARDRAILS_WARN_LIMIT constants
agentId: a428338 (for resuming to continue this agent's work if needed)
<usage>total_tokens: 57397
tool_uses: 18
duration_ms: 116099</usage>

Good, I have a solid design from the Plan agent. Let me now read the critical files myself to verify the plan makes sense, then write the final plan and exit plan mode.

Let me verify a few things first by reading the actual prompt files and the relevant ralph.sh sections to make sure the plan is accurate.

Actually, I already have all the information I need from the Explore agent's detailed report. Let me write the plan now.

One thing I want to decide: should we skip the PowerShell changes? The user hasn't mentioned PowerShell and the PR so far only touches .sh files. I'll note it as optional/out-of-scope.

Also, the per-plan guardrails file (${PLAN_BASENAME}_GUARDRAILS.md) adds complexity without clear value for the initial implementation.

I'll keep it simple with just the project-level RALPH_GUARDRAILS.md and start writing the plan.

>ps aux | grep -E 'ralph|claude' | grep -v grep

jc        940763  0.0  0.0   8016  4096 pts/0    S+   11:31   0:00 /bin/bash /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/ralph.sh plan.md plan
jc        940792  0.0  0.0   8016  2316 pts/0    S+   11:31   0:00 /bin/bash /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/ralph.sh plan.md plan
jc        940793 99.9  0.0   9004  5116 pts/0    R+   11:31   2:16 /bin/bash /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/notify.sh :rocket: *Ralph Started*\n```Plan: plan\nMode: plan\nRepo: mage``` :rocket:
jc        940936 26.1  1.4 74712368 467332 pts/3 Rl+  11:32   0:23 claude

Now I can see the issue. The Ralph process IS running (PID 940763), but it's stuck on the notify.sh script (PID 940793). The notify.sh process is consuming 99.9% CPU and has been running for over 2 minutes - it's stuck in an infinite loop or something similar.

Ralph is stuck at the notification step before even launching Claude for the planning iteration. The notify.sh is spinning (99.9% CPU) trying to send the "Ralph Started" notification.

Let me look at the notify.sh to understand what's going wrong.

Found the problem. Ralph is running (PID 940763), but it's stuck on notify.sh (PID 940793) which is consuming 99.9% CPU and has been spinning for over 2 minutes trying to send the startup notification. It never gets past the "Ralph Started" notify call, so Claude is never invoked for the plan.

Let me check what's wrong with notify.sh.

Let me investigate the current state of things.

Now I see the issue. Look at line 275 in the Discord section:

bash

This is an infinite loop! The message contains *Ralph Started* which matches \*([^*]+)\*. The replacement converts *Ralph Started* to **Ralph Started**. But then on the next iteration, **Ralph Started** still matches the regex \*([^*]+)\* because the pattern matches the outer * characters and captures *Ralph Started* inside. Wait, let me think more carefully...

Actually, the regex \*([^*]+)\* matches a *, followed by one or more non-* characters, followed by *. With the input containing *Ralph Started*, the pattern captures "Ralph Started" and replaces it with **Ralph Started**. But this creates a problem because the replacement still has * characters that can match the pattern again on the next loop iteration, causing it to keep matching and replacing indefinitely. I see the issue now—when the regex matches the middle *Ralph Started* within **Ralph Started**, it replaces it with **Ralph Started**, creating ***Ralph Started***. On the next iteration, it finds another *...* pattern and adds more asterisks, causing an infinite loop. The real question is whether we should even be processing this through the Discord path in the first place.

Looking at the send_discord() function, it checks if RALPH_DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL is set and returns early if it's not configured. But the main script still calls this function regardless. However, from the process output, I don't see a Claude process running, which suggests something else is happening here.

Actually, wait—that bash process spinning at 99.9% CPU IS the notify.sh script itself. So it's definitely stuck in an infinite loop. The regex replacement loop for converting Slack-style markdown to Discord format on line 275 must be the culprit. Since the process is consuming that much CPU, the user must have Discord configured, and the while loop is getting stuck trying to convert the *bold* syntax.

The issue is that replacing *text* with **text** still leaves * characters in the string, so the pattern keeps matching infinitely. I need to fix this with a different approach—either using sed with proper regex, processing character-by-character, or using a marker to prevent re-matching. The simplest solution is to avoid the while loop entirely and do a single-pass replacement instead.

Writing bash replacement logic...

Yes, it's stuck. The notify.sh process (PID 940793) is stuck in an infinite loop at 99.9% CPU. It never gets to launch Claude.

The bug is in notify.sh line 275-277 — the Discord formatting conversion:

bash

The message *Ralph Started* gets converted to **Ralph Started**, but **Ralph Started** still matches the regex \*([^*]+)\* (the inner *Ralph Started* portion matches), so it grows to ***Ralph Started***, then ****Ralph Started****, etc. — forever.

You need to kill the stuck processes to unstick things:

kill 940793   (the stuck notify.sh)

Would you like me to fix the infinite loop bug in notify.sh?

yes

Now let me kill the stuck process so you can re-run Ralph.

>ps aux | grep -E 'ralph|notify' | grep -v grep

jc        940763  0.0  0.0   8016  4096 pts/0    S+   11:31   0:00 /bin/bash /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/ralph.sh plan.md plan
jc        942595  0.0  0.0   8016  2328 pts/0    S+   11:35   0:00 /bin/bash /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/ralph.sh plan.md plan
jc        942596  0.0  0.0   8416  4608 pts/0    S+   11:35   0:00 /bin/bash /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/notify.sh :rocket: *Ralph Started*\n```Plan: plan\nMode: plan\nRepo: mage``` :rocket:
jc        942607  0.0  0.0   8416  2936 pts/0    S+   11:35   0:00 /bin/bash /mnt/dest-btrfs/home/jc/ralph/notify.sh :rocket: *Ralph Started*\n```Plan: plan\nMode: plan\nRepo: mage``` :rocket:

It looks like killing the notify.sh caused the ralph.sh to continue (since set -euo pipefail might have been set, but the notify function in ralph.sh has error handling). The ralph.sh seems to have restarted a new iteration, spawning new notify.sh processes (PIDs 942596 and 942607). But these are not at 99.9% CPU, which suggests the fix is working — the new notify.sh processes are running normally (0.0% CPU).

Wait, there are TWO notify.sh processes now. Let me check if they're stuck. They're at 0.0% CPU and state S+ (sleeping), which is normal — they're likely in a curl call or similar. Let me wait a moment to see if they complete.

Actually, I'm noticing both the original ralph.sh and a new one are still running, which is unexpected. But the new notify processes look healthy at 0.0% CPU with S+ state, so the fix appears to be working — I should give it a moment to stabilize and verify.

The old process died and Ralph restarted automatically. The new notify.sh processes (942596, 942607) are at 0.0% CPU and sleeping normally — the fix is working. Let me verify they finish cleanly.

Fixed. The notify.sh processes completed successfully and Ralph has now launched Claude (PID 943048) to do the actual planning work.

The bug: The while loop replacing *bold* with **bold** was infinite because the output **bold** still contains a *bold* match. The fix: Single-pass left-to-right processing that consumes matched portions so already-converted text is never re-examined.

I am running now and it says the following but seems stucK: jc@Gizmo:~/src/mage$ RALPH_MODEL=claude-opus-4-6 ralph plan.md plan

Exit conditions:

Planning completes when task list is created (Status: IN_PROGRESS)
Plan mode runs once then exits automatically
Press Ctrl+C to stop manually

Lock acquired: /tmp/ralph_9b32b1156d685b82ade4dd4698c62e4d.lock

══════════════════ ITERATION 1 ══════════════════

The user is running Ralph again and it seems stuck after "ITERATION 1" with no further output. The notify.sh fix worked (it got past the notification), but now it seems stuck at the Claude invocation step. Let me check what's happening.

The key line in ralph.sh is around line 728:

bash

Since output goes to a temp file, nothing shows on screen while Claude is running.

Claude might just be processing the request, so let me verify if there's actually a Claude process running in the background.

Let me check if Claude is actually running or if it's stuck somewhere else.

It's not stuck. Claude (PID 943048) is actively running — it's just that Ralph redirects all Claude output to a temp file (> "$claude_output_file" 2>"$claude_error_file" on line 731 of ralph.sh), so you won't see anything on screen until the iteration finishes.

With claude-opus-4-6 doing a planning pass on a full codebase, it can take several minutes. The process is at 5.1% CPU and using ~250MB memory, which looks like normal active work.

Just give it time — when Claude finishes, Ralph will dump the output and print "Iteration 1 complete".

Is there any content in the temp file?

Both temp files are 0 bytes. That's expected — Claude is piped with > "$claude_output_file", so output only gets written once Claude finishes (the shell buffers stdout to files). The process is still running and hasn't produced its final output yet.

Still actively running (memory grew from 251MB to 260MB, CPU time from 10s to 12s). It's working — just hasn't finished yet.

I'm used to seeing incremental output while claude is working and thinking. Would we be able to modify this program to have that happen?

The user wants to see Claude's output in real-time rather than having it buffered to a file. Currently ralph.sh captures all output to a temp file and only displays it after Claude finishes. The user wants streaming/incremental output.

The key part is around line 728-731:

bash

To get incremental output while still capturing it for error detection, we can use tee to both display and capture:

Piping through tee to display output while capturing...

But there's a complication - with set -euo pipefail, if claude fails, we need to capture the exit code properly. With tee in a pipe, pipefail means we get the exit code of the failing command, but we need to handle this carefully. Looking at the code more carefully, the output is only displayed conditionally, so I need to check where that conditional logic is and how it interacts with this change. I'm reconsidering the approach—using tee to stream output while capturing it, then removing the conditional cat since the output's already been displayed. The key is handling pipefail correctly so that if claude fails, we still catch the exit code even though tee succeeds. tee` to stream output directly while still capturing the exit code, and remove the conditional logic that suppresses output on retry attempts since streaming will always show what's happening anyway. Let me look at the actual code section to understand the current structure better.

Refactoring the command...

Yes — the current code redirects all stdout to a temp file and only cats it after Claude finishes. We just need to use tee to stream to the terminal while still capturing to the file.

Done. The change pipes Claude's stdout through tee, which sends it to both the terminal (so you see it live) and the temp file (so error detection still works). Stderr still goes to the error file for retry logic.

You'll see the streaming output next time you run Ralph. The current run will finish with the old behavior since it's already in progress.

Should I let it finish or restart it so I can see it working?

Let it finish — it's already been running a few minutes and planning mode is a single iteration. Restarting would just lose that work and start over. You'll see the streaming output on your next ralph run.

Let's commit our changes

>git diff

diff --git a/notify.sh b/notify.sh
index 1b6b8b8..c89a767 100755
--- a/notify.sh
+++ b/notify.sh
@@ -78,9 +78,9 @@ fi
 # Load and decrypt environment variables
 if [ -f "$RALPH_DIR/decrypt-env.sh" ]; then
     source "$RALPH_DIR/decrypt-env.sh"
-    if ! decrypt_ralph_env 2>&1 | grep -q "^Error:"; then
-        : # Decryption succeeded or no encrypted values
-    else
+    # Call decrypt_ralph_env directly to allow variable updates
+    # Don't pipe the output which would run in a subshell
+    if ! decrypt_ralph_env; then
         # Only show warning in test mode, otherwise notifications might spam
         if [ "${1:-}" = "--test" ]; then
             echo "Warning: Failed to decrypt some environment variables" >&2
@@ -268,13 +268,15 @@ send_discord() {
     local username="${RALPH_DISCORD_USERNAME:-Ralph}"
     local avatar_url="${RALPH_DISCORD_AVATAR_URL:-}"
 
-    # Convert Slack-style formatting to Discord markdown safely
-    # Avoid sed for user input - use bash substitution
-    local discord_msg="$msg"
-    # Replace *text* with **text** for Discord bold
-    while [[ "$discord_msg" =~ \*([^*]+)\* ]]; do
-        discord_msg="${discord_msg/\*${BASH_REMATCH[1]}\*/**${BASH_REMATCH[1]}**}"
+    # Convert Slack-style *bold* to Discord **bold** in a single left-to-right pass
+    # (A while loop replacing *x* with **x** loops forever since **x** still matches *x*)
+    local discord_msg=""
+    local remaining="$msg"
+    while [[ "$remaining" =~ ^([^*]*)\*([^*]+)\*(.*) ]]; do
+        discord_msg+="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}**${BASH_REMATCH[2]}**"
+        remaining="${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"
     done
+    discord_msg+="$remaining"
 
     local payload
     if command -v jq &> /dev/null; then
@@ -1214,7 +1216,7 @@ if ! $TEST_MODE; then
 fi
 
 # Track errors for better reporting
-declare -A SEND_ERRORS
+declare -A SEND_ERRORS=()
 
 # Send to all configured platforms with individual error tracking
 if ! send_slack "$MESSAGE"; then
@@ -1244,7 +1246,8 @@ if $TEST_MODE; then
     echo ""
     if $SENT_ANY; then
         echo "Test complete! Check your notification channels."
-        if [ ${#SEND_ERRORS[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
+        # Check if SEND_ERRORS has any elements
+        if [ ${#SEND_ERRORS[@]} -gt 0 ] 2>/dev/null; then
             echo ""
             echo "Note: Some platforms failed to send. Check configuration."
         fi
diff --git a/ralph.sh b/ralph.sh
index 9230776..7c901f2 100755
--- a/ralph.sh
+++ b/ralph.sh
@@ -111,7 +111,18 @@ RALPH_CONFIG_FILE="${USER_HOME}/.ralph.env"
 if [ -f "$RALPH_CONFIG_FILE" ] && validate_config "$RALPH_CONFIG_FILE"; then
     source "$RALPH_CONFIG_FILE"
 
-    # Validate loaded configuration values
+    # Decrypt encrypted environment variables BEFORE validation
+    if [ -f "$RALPH_DIR/decrypt-env.sh" ]; then
+        source "$RALPH_DIR/decrypt-env.sh"
+        # Call decrypt_ralph_env directly to allow variable updates
+        # Capture any errors but don't pipe the output (which would run in a subshell)
+        if ! decrypt_ralph_env; then
+            echo -e "${YELLOW}Warning: Failed to decrypt some environment variables${NC}" >&2
+            echo "Some notification platforms may not work correctly" >&2
+        fi
+    fi
+
+    # Validate loaded configuration values (now with decrypted values)
     if [ -n "${RALPH_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL:-}" ]; then
         if ! validate_webhook_url "$RALPH_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL" "RALPH_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL"; then
             echo -e "${YELLOW}Warning: Invalid RALPH_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL, disabling Slack notifications${NC}" >&2
@@ -153,17 +164,6 @@ if [ -f "$RALPH_CONFIG_FILE" ] && validate_config "$RALPH_CONFIG_FILE"; then
     fi
 fi
 
-# Decrypt encrypted environment variables
-if [ -f "$RALPH_DIR/decrypt-env.sh" ]; then
-    source "$RALPH_DIR/decrypt-env.sh"
-    if ! decrypt_ralph_env 2>&1 | grep -q "^Error:"; then
-        : # Decryption succeeded or no encrypted values
-    else
-        echo -e "${YELLOW}Warning: Failed to decrypt some environment variables${NC}" >&2
-        echo "Run 'ralph notify setup' if you have notification issues" >&2
-    fi
-fi
-
 VERSION="1.7.0"
 
 # Auto-commit setting (default: true)
@@ -171,6 +171,10 @@ VERSION="1.7.0"
 # Or by adding DO_NOT_COMMIT on its own line in the plan file
 RALPH_AUTO_COMMIT="${RALPH_AUTO_COMMIT:-true}"
 
+# Model setting (default: sonnet)
+# Can be set via: export RALPH_MODEL="claude-opus-4-6" in ~/.ralph.env
+RALPH_MODEL="${RALPH_MODEL:-sonnet}"
+
 # Check if plan file contains DO_NOT_COMMIT directive
 # Skips content inside ``` code blocks to avoid false positives
 should_skip_commit_from_plan() {
@@ -547,6 +551,7 @@ echo -e "  Plan:      ${YELLOW}$PLAN_FILE${NC}"
 echo -e "  Mode:      ${YELLOW}$MODE${NC}"
 echo -e "  Progress:  ${YELLOW}$PROGRESS_FILE${NC}"
 [ "$MAX_ITERATIONS" -gt 0 ] && echo -e "  Max Iter:  ${YELLOW}$MAX_ITERATIONS${NC}"
+echo -e "  Model:     ${YELLOW}$RALPH_MODEL${NC}"
 if [ "$SHOULD_COMMIT" = "true" ]; then
     echo -e "  Commit:    ${GREEN}enabled${NC}"
 else
@@ -719,18 +724,11 @@ while true; do
         }
         chmod 600 "$claude_output_file" "$claude_error_file"
 
-        # Run Claude
+        # Run Claude (stream output to terminal via tee while capturing to file)
         echo "$PROMPT" | claude -p \
             --dangerously-skip-permissions \
-            --model sonnet \
-            --verbose > "$claude_output_file" 2>"$claude_error_file" || claude_exit_code=$?
-
-        # Display output on first attempt or final retry
-        if [ $claude_attempt -eq 1 ] || [ $claude_attempt -eq $max_claude_retries ]; then
-            if [ -f "$claude_output_file" ]; then
-                cat "$claude_output_file"
-            fi
-        fi
+            --model "$RALPH_MODEL" \
+            --verbose 2>"$claude_error_file" | tee "$claude_output_file" || claude_exit_code=$?
 
         # Capture any error output
         claude_errors=""
diff --git a/setup-notifications.sh b/setup-notifications.sh
index c0ed2f1..eee303f 100755
--- a/setup-notifications.sh
+++ b/setup-notifications.sh
@@ -580,7 +580,6 @@ echo "" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
 
 if [ -n "$SLACK_URL" ]; then
     echo "# Slack" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
-    local encrypted_slack
     encrypted_slack=$(encrypt_value "$SLACK_URL")
     echo "export RALPH_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL=\"$encrypted_slack\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
     echo "" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
@@ -588,7 +587,6 @@ fi
 
 if [ -n "$DISCORD_URL" ]; then
     echo "# Discord" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
-    local encrypted_discord
     encrypted_discord=$(encrypt_value "$DISCORD_URL")
     echo "export RALPH_DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL=\"$encrypted_discord\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
     echo "" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
@@ -596,8 +594,6 @@ fi
 
 if [ -n "$TELEGRAM_TOKEN" ]; then
     echo "# Telegram" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
-    local encrypted_token
-    local encrypted_chat
     encrypted_token=$(encrypt_value "$TELEGRAM_TOKEN")
     encrypted_chat=$(encrypt_value "$TELEGRAM_CHAT")
     echo "export RALPH_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=\"$encrypted_token\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
@@ -611,7 +607,7 @@ if [ -n "$EMAIL_TO" ]; then
     echo "export RALPH_EMAIL_FROM=\"$EMAIL_FROM\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
 
     if [ "$EMAIL_METHOD" = "smtp" ]; then
-        local encrypted_pass
+        encrypted_pass
         encrypted_pass=$(encrypt_value "$SMTP_PASS")
         echo "export RALPH_SMTP_HOST=\"$SMTP_HOST\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
         echo "export RALPH_SMTP_PORT=\"$SMTP_PORT\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
@@ -619,11 +615,11 @@ if [ -n "$EMAIL_TO" ]; then
         echo "export RALPH_SMTP_PASSWORD=\"$encrypted_pass\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
         echo "export RALPH_SMTP_TLS=\"true\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
     elif [ "$EMAIL_METHOD" = "sendgrid" ]; then
-        local encrypted_key
+        encrypted_key
         encrypted_key=$(encrypt_value "$SENDGRID_KEY")
         echo "export RALPH_SENDGRID_API_KEY=\"$encrypted_key\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
     elif [ "$EMAIL_METHOD" = "ses" ]; then
-        local encrypted_secret
+        encrypted_secret
         encrypted_secret=$(encrypt_value "$AWS_SECRET")
         echo "export RALPH_AWS_SES_REGION=\"$AWS_REGION\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
         echo "export RALPH_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=\"$AWS_KEY\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
@@ -632,8 +628,8 @@ if [ -n "$EMAIL_TO" ]; then
 
     # Email options
     echo "export RALPH_EMAIL_HTML=\"true\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
-    local batch_delay="${EMAIL_BATCH_DELAY_DEFAULT:-300}"
-    local batch_max="${EMAIL_BATCH_MAX_DEFAULT:-10}"
+    batch_delay="${EMAIL_BATCH_DELAY_DEFAULT:-300}"
+    batch_max="${EMAIL_BATCH_MAX_DEFAULT:-10}"
     echo "export RALPH_EMAIL_BATCH_DELAY=\"$batch_delay\"  # $(($batch_delay / 60)) minutes" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
     echo "export RALPH_EMAIL_BATCH_MAX=\"$batch_max\"" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"
     echo "" >> "$CONFIG_FILE"

The diff shows changes across 3 files. Our changes (from this session) are:

notify.sh: The infinite loop fix in Discord bold conversion
ralph.sh: The tee streaming fix

But there are also other changes that were already present before our session (the git status at the start showed all 3 files as modified):

notify.sh: decrypt_ralph_env changes, SEND_ERRORS initialization
ralph.sh: decrypt ordering, model variable, hardcoded sonnet → $RALPH_MODEL
setup-notifications.sh: removing local keywords outside functions
I should commit all of these together with a message that captures the fixes we made plus the pre-existing improvements like making the model configurable and reordering the decrypt calls.

git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
Fix infinite loop in Discord notification and stream Claude output

- Fix notify.sh Discord bold conversion (*x* -> **x**) that looped
  forever because the output still matched the input regex pattern.
  Replace with single-pass left-to-right processing.
- Stream Claude output to terminal in real-time via tee instead of
  buffering to a temp file and displaying after completion.
- Make model configurable via RALPH_MODEL env var (was hardcoded to sonnet).
- Move decrypt-env before config validation so decrypted values get validated.
- Fix 'local' keyword used outside functions in setup-notifications.sh.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
EOF
)"

[master 6a520a1] Fix infinite loop in Discord notification and stream Claude output
 3 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 42 deletions(-)

Readralph.sh

Committed as 6a520a1. Working tree is clean. One commit ahead of origin if you want to push.

Can you put up a PR for this change?

200 of 212