Smart Ralph

Smart Ralph is an AI Engineering skill for Claude Code, published by tzachbon in smart-ralph.

527 stars47 forkson tzachbon/smart-ralphAdded 2026/08/26+2% in starsRepository updated 2026/07/23

agentic-codingaiai-agentsautonomous-codingclaudeclaude-codeclaude-code-pluginclaude-code-skillsclaude-skillscodex-skillscoding-agentdeveloper-toolsllmproductivityralph-loopralph-wiggumspec-driven-developmentworkflow-automation

Install in seconds

Install Smart Ralph

Copy Smart Ralph into your Claude Code skills folder. Run the command in your terminal, or review the source on GitHub before installing.

terminal

npx degit https://github.com/tzachbon/smart-ralph/tree/main/plugins/ralph-speckit/skills/smart-ralph ~/.claude/skills/smart-ralph

Requires Node.js. Downloads this skill only — not the rest of the repository — into your Claude Code skills folder.

Without Node.js

git clone https://github.com/tzachbon/smart-ralph.git

Clones the whole repository, then copy the skill’s own directory into your skills folder yourself.

In this catalog

Source file: plugins/ralph-speckit/skills/smart-ralph/SKILL.md in tzachbon/smart-ralph
Installs to: ~/.claude/skills/smart-ralph
Collection: One of 19 skills cataloged from this repository
Category: AI Engineering — 2451 skills

What Smart Ralph does

Smart Ralph defines shared arguments, execution modes, state files, and commit behavior for Ralph plugins. Use it when implementing or running a Ralph plugin that follows the common loop and branch rules.

Smart Ralph is cataloged under AI Engineering on DirSkills. Smart Ralph comes from a repository tagged agentic-coding, ai, ai-agents, autonomous-coding and claude.

Documentation

README

Excerpt

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

This is the opening of the README. Read the full README on GitHub.

Frequently asked about Smart Ralph

What else does tzachbon publish alongside Smart Ralph?
Smart Ralph is one of 19 skills that DirSkills catalogs from tzachbon/smart-ralph, the repository it ships in. Its siblings there include Communication Style, Delegation Principle and Ralph Specum. Each one is a separate skill with its own page in this directory, installs the same way Smart Ralph does, and is maintained by tzachbon in that same repository. The rest of the collection is listed on the tzachbon/smart-ralph page.
How does Smart Ralph compare to other AI Engineering skills?
Smart Ralph ranks #2121 by stars among the 2451 AI Engineering skills in this catalog. The most-starred ones next to it are Architecture Decision Records, AI-First Engineering and Agentic OS. DirSkills ranks by the star count of the repository each skill ships in, so that order reflects how popular those repositories are rather than any review of Smart Ralph against them. Open each page to compare what they document and how they install.