Smart Ralph

Core skill for all Ralph plugins. Defines common arguments, execution modes, and shared behaviors.

Common Arguments

All Ralph commands support these standard arguments:

Argument	Short	Description	Default
--quick	-q	Skip interactive phases, auto-generate artifacts, start execution immediately	false
--commit	-c	Commit and push spec/feature files after generation	true (normal), false (quick)
--no-commit		Explicitly disable committing files	-
--max-task-iterations	-m	Max retries per failed task before stopping	5
--fresh	-f	Force new spec/feature, overwrite if exists	false

Argument Parsing Rules

Priority Order (highest to lowest):
1. --no-commit (explicit disable)
2. --commit (explicit enable)
3. --quick mode default (false)
4. Normal mode default (true)

Parsing Logic

commitSpec = true  // default

if "--no-commit" in args:
  commitSpec = false
else if "--commit" in args:
  commitSpec = true
else if "--quick" in args:
  commitSpec = false  // quick mode defaults to no commit
// else keep default (true)

Execution Modes

Normal Mode (Interactive)

• User reviews artifacts between phases
• Phase transitions require explicit commands
• Each phase sets awaitingApproval: true
• Commits spec files by default

Quick Mode (--quick)

• Skips all interactive prompts and interviews
• Auto-generates all artifacts in sequence
• Immediately starts execution after generation
• Does NOT commit by default (use --commit to override)
• Still delegates to subagents (delegation is mandatory)

State File Structure

All Ralph plugins use a state file with common fields:

{
  "phase": "research|requirements|design|tasks|execution",
  "taskIndex": 0,
  "totalTasks": 0,
  "taskIteration": 1,
  "maxTaskIterations": 5,
  "awaitingApproval": false
}