The user wanted to run an AI planning program using Claude and see live progress output while it was working. Initially, the program was stuck due to a bug causing a notification script to loop infinitely. After fixing that, the user requested streaming output from Claude, which was implemented by changing how output was handled and parsing JSON streams.
I see this output on my screen, but the plan_PROGRESS.md exists and there is no claude process running. Is the program stuck?
Let me investigate the current state of things.
I don't see any plan_PROGRESS.md file in the repo. Let me look more broadly and check for lock files.
Look in ~/src/mage
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.
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:
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.
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
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RALPH - Autonomous AI Development Loop
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Plan: plan.md
Mode: plan
Progress: plan_PROGRESS.md
Model: claude-opus-4-6
Commit: enabled
Notify: Discord
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Exit conditions:
Lock acquired: /tmp/ralph_9b32b1156d685b82ade4dd4698c62e4d.lock
══════════════════ ITERATION 1 ══════════════════
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?
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
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?
I'll create a branch and push it for the PR.
Git is configured for SSH but the remote uses HTTPS. Let me fix that.
You don't have push access to aaron777collins/portableralph. Let me fork it and push there instead.
Could you update the README for the new model parameter we added, and add it to the PR?
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
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.
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.
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.
Good. Now let me amend this into the PR.
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
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Plan: plan.md
Mode: plan
Progress: plan_PROGRESS.md
Model: claude-opus-4-6
Commit: enabled
Notify: Discord
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Exit conditions:
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.
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)
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Claude CLI Error (after 1 attempts): interrupted by user (Ctrl+C)
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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
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RALPH - Autonomous AI Development Loop
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Plan: plan.md
Mode: plan
Progress: plan_PROGRESS.md
Model: claude-opus-4-6
Commit: enabled
Notify: Discord
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Exit conditions:
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
Now let me update the PR description.
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?
Here's the comparison:
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 |
RALPH_MODEL)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?