Agent skill · writing content · cursor
ralph-loop-help
Explain the Ralph Loop plugin, how it works, and available skills. Use when the user asks for help with ralph loop, wants to understand the technique, or needs usage examples.
Why this skill is useful
Codifies the usage and operational details of the Ralph Loop technique, which the AI could infer but now has clear guidance.
What it needs
About 2k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-06. 2,555 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Ralph Loop Help Trigger The user asks what Ralph Loop is, how it works, or needs usage guidance. What to Explain What is Ralph Loop? Ralph Loop implements the Ralph Wiggum technique — an iterative development methodology based on continuous AI loops, pioneered by Geoffrey Huntley. Core concept: the same prompt is fed to the agent repeatedly. The "self-referential" aspect comes from the agent seeing its own previous work in the files and git history, not from feeding output back as input. Each iteration: 1. The agent receives the SAME prompt 2. Works on the task, modifying files 3. Tries to exit 4. Stop hook intercepts and feeds the same prompt again 5. The agent sees its previous work in the files 6. Iteratively improves until completion Starting a Ralph Loop Tell the agent your task along with options: Options: --max-iterations N — max iterations before auto-stop --completion-promise "TEXT" — phrase to signal completion How it works: 1. Creates .cursor/ralph/scratchpad.md state file 2. Agent works on the task 3. Stop hook intercepts exit and feeds the same prompt back 4. Agent sees its previous work and iterates 5. Continues until promise detected or max iterations reached Cancelling a Ralph Loop Ask the agent to cancel the ralph loop. It will remove the state file and report the iteration count. Completion Promises To signal completion, the agent outputs a <promise> tag: The stop hook looks for this specific tag. Without it (or --max-iterations), Ralph runs indefinitely. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills cursor/ralph-loop-help