Autonomous SDLC pipeline runner — a Rust CLI daemon that orchestrates parallel Claude Code worker sessions to execute stories around the clock with self-healing capabilities.
Ralph pairs with BMAD-METHOD for planning, shifting delivery from human-in-the-loop to human-on-the-loop.
- BMAD produces sprint plans with sequenced, dependency-mapped stories
- Ralph daemon ingests the plan, analyzes parallelization opportunities
- Concurrent Claude Code workers execute stories in isolated git worktrees
- Three-layer self-healing (retry → restart → diagnose) handles failures automatically
- Developer monitors progress via terminal dashboard and intervenes only when needed
5-crate Cargo workspace:
ralph (CLI binary)
├── ralph-pipeline — State machine, story scheduling, self-healing
├── ralph-worker — Process spawning, health monitoring, worktree isolation
├── ralph-config — TOML config with three-tier precedence
└── ralph-common — Shared error types, state models, SQLite schema
Key choices: SQLite + WAL for persistence, Unix Domain Socket IPC, tokio async runtime.
ralph start # Start daemon, begin processing sprint plan
ralph stop # Graceful shutdown
ralph status # Pipeline state, story progress, worker health
ralph watch # Live terminal dashboard
ralph diagnose # Diagnostic report for failed stories
ralph retry # Re-feed corrected stories into pipeline
ralph init # Initialize ralph on a project
Early development — project foundation in progress.
| Epic | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Project Foundation & Developer Setup | Workspace scaffold, shared types, config system, init command | In Progress (1/5 stories done) |
| 2. Autonomous Story Execution | Daemon lifecycle, IPC, state persistence, pipeline engine, workers | Backlog |
| 3. Pipeline Monitoring & Status Display | Terminal rendering, status commands | Backlog |
| 4. Self-Healing & Error Recovery | Three-layer healing, diagnose/retry commands | Backlog |
| 5. Planning Integration | BMAD submodule integration, artifact handoff | Backlog |
- Story 1-1: Cargo workspace scaffold & CLI entry point
cargo build --workspace
make test-all # tests + clippy + fmt-checkRequires Rust 2024 edition (stable toolchain, pinned via rust-toolchain.toml).
MIT