Ralph Hero

A Claude Code plugin that turns Claude into an autonomous software engineer. Ralph triages issues, researches codebases, writes implementation plans, codes in isolated worktrees, creates PRs, and merges — all driven by a GitHub Projects V2 board.

The naive hero picks tickets, does their best work, and moves on.

How It Works

Ralph manages GitHub issues through a structured workflow state machine:

Backlog → Research Needed → Research in Progress → Ready for Plan
       → Plan in Progress → Plan in Review → In Progress → In Review → Done

Each transition is enforced by hooks and validated by the MCP server. Issues flow through phases — triage, research, planning, review, implementation, and merge — autonomous by default, with a human checkpoint only when a plan raises an open design decision (it holds in Plan in Review with a ## Decision Request comment until you answer) or a reviewer requests changes on the PR (CHANGES_REQUESTED always blocks merge).

Autonomous mode (/ralph:hero): Ralph drives an issue tree end-to-end, splitting large tickets, researching each sub-issue, creating plans, and implementing them.

Interactive mode: Use individual skills like /ralph:plan or /ralph:impl with human-in-the-loop verification at each step.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Claude Code CLI
• Node.js 20+
• A GitHub Personal Access Token with repo and project scopes

Install the Plugin

claude plugins add cdubiel08/ralph-hero --plugin ralph

Configure

Add your GitHub token and project settings to .claude/settings.local.json (gitignored):

{
  "env": {
    "RALPH_HERO_GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here",
    "RALPH_GH_OWNER": "your-github-username",
    "RALPH_GH_PROJECT_NUMBER": "1"
  }
}

Set Up Your Project Board

/ralph:setup

This creates a GitHub Projects V2 board with the required custom fields: Workflow State, Priority, and Estimate.

Token Expired?

gh auth refresh -s repo,project,read:org

Then restart Claude Code.

If you're using explicit RALPH_GH_REPO_TOKEN / RALPH_GH_PROJECT_TOKEN / RALPH_HERO_GITHUB_TOKEN: regenerate the PAT at https://github.com/settings/tokens, update ~/.claude/settings.json (or .claude/settings.local.json), restart Claude Code.

Skills

Skill	Description
/ralph:hero	Drive an issue through the full lifecycle end-to-end (autonomous)
/ralph:hero-fable	Experimental rail-free surface for Fable: outcome + boundaries + artifact contract, no prescribed phases (/ralph:hero --model fable forwards here)
/ralph:research	Investigate an issue, create a research document, update issue state
/ralph:plan	Create or review an implementation plan
/ralph:impl	Implement an approved plan in an isolated worktree
/ralph:review	Validate implementation or review a plan
/ralph:caretake	Triage, hygiene, unblock, trends, split, debug, report
/ralph:catch-up	Session orientation — narrative, dashboard, or status report
/ralph:form	Crystallize ideas into structured GitHub issues
/ralph:setup	One-time project board setup

MCP Server

The plugin bundles an MCP server (ralph-hero-mcp-server) that provides GitHub Projects V2 tools to Claude Code via the Model Context Protocol.

Tools

The MCP server registers ~32 ralph_hero__* tools; the table below is a curated subset of the most-used ones (issue/project CRUD, relationships, dashboards, trends). Additional tools include create_sub_issues, decompose_feature, archive_items, sync_plan_graph, detect_stream_positions, remove_dependency, and the sre__* autoremediation set; debug tools register only when RALPH_DEBUG=true.

Tool	Description
health_check	Validate API connectivity, tokens, repo/project access, and required fields
get_project	Fetch project metadata, fields, and items
setup_project	Create or configure a project with required fields and workflow states
get_issue	Get full issue details with project fields, sub-issues, and dependencies
list_issues	Query issues with filtering, sorting, and pagination
save_issue	Create or update issues with project field values (workflow state, priority, estimate)
create_issue	Create a new issue and add it to the project
create_comment	Add a comment to an issue
create_status_update	Post a status update to the project
add_sub_issue	Add a sub-issue relationship
list_sub_issues	List sub-issues of a parent
add_dependency	Add a blocking dependency between issues
list_dependencies	List blocking and blocked-by relationships
advance_issue	Move an issue to the next workflow state with validation
batch_update	Bulk-update project fields across multiple issues
pipeline_dashboard	Aggregated pipeline view with counts per workflow state and health indicators
project_hygiene	Board health report — stale items, orphans, field gaps
next_actions	Ranked list of recommended next actions
recent_activity	Read per-session activity log
capture_snapshot	Capture pipeline snapshot for trend tracking
metrics_trends	1d/7d/30d velocity and WIP trends

Architecture

mcp-server/              # TypeScript MCP server (published as ralph-hero-mcp-server)
ralph/                   # Claude Code plugin
├── skills/              # 9 fat verbs + experimental hero-fable surface
├── agents/              # 16 agents (8 per-phase + 8 investigators)
├── hooks/               # Lifecycle enforcement hooks
└── .claude-plugin/      # Plugin manifest + .mcp.json
plugin/
├── ralph-knowledge/     # Semantic search over thoughts/ documents
├── ralph-playwright/    # Polymorphic UI testing
└── ralph-demo/          # Sprint demo video generation

CI/CD

Workflow	Trigger	Description
ci.yml	PR to main	Build + test; hook tests; workflow lint
release.yml	mcp-server/ changes on main	Auto-bump version, publish to npm with provenance, pin ralph/.mcp.json
release-ralph.yml	ralph/ changes on main	Bump ralph plugin version + tag
route-issues.yml	Issue opened	Route new issues to project board
sync-issue-state.yml	Issue state change	Sync GitHub issue state with project workflow
sync-pr-merge.yml	PR merged	Move linked issues to Done
sync-project-state.yml	Project field change	Sync project state changes back to issues
advance-parent.yml	Sub-issue state change	Auto-advance parent when all children reach a gate state

Configuration

Variable	Required	Description
RALPH_HERO_GITHUB_TOKEN	No (defaults to gh auth token)	GitHub PAT with repo + project scopes
RALPH_GH_OWNER	Yes	GitHub owner (user or org)
RALPH_GH_PROJECT_NUMBER	Yes	GitHub Projects V2 number
RALPH_GH_REPO	No	Repository name (inferred from project if omitted)
RALPH_GH_PROJECT_NUMBERS	No	Comma-separated project numbers for cross-project dashboard
RALPH_GH_PROJECT_OWNER	No	Project owner if different from repo owner
RALPH_GH_REPO_TOKEN	No	Separate repo token (falls back to main token)
RALPH_GH_PROJECT_TOKEN	No	Separate project token (falls back to repo token)
RALPH_IMPL_MODEL	No	Override model for impl-agent (sonnet, opus, or fable; default sonnet; BLOCKED escalation re-dispatches once at opus)
RALPH_REVIEW_PLAN	No	Plan-review gate (default auto, decision-driven: decision-free APPROVED plans auto-advance; plans with open #### Decision: blocks hold with a ## Decision Request comment). interactive opts into the whole-plan picker.
RALPH_REVIEW_MODE	No	Merge gate (default auto: val → code-review → merge → CI watch unattended; CHANGES_REQUESTED always blocks). interactive opts into report-PR-URLs-and-stop.
RALPH_AUTOPILOT_ENABLE	No	Must be "true" for /ralph:hero --mode auto (enforced by autopilot-enable-gate.sh)
RALPH_DEBUG	No	Enable JSONL debug logging + OpenTelemetry export

Set all variables in .claude/settings.local.json under the "env" key. Do not put tokens in .mcp.json.

Development

cd mcp-server
npm install
npm run build
npm test

Tests use Vitest.

Release process: Merges to main that touch mcp-server/src/** automatically bump the version, publish to npm, and pin ralph/.mcp.json. Include #minor or #major in a commit message for larger version bumps.

Security

To report a vulnerability or review our supported versions and disclosure process, see SECURITY.md.

License

MIT