ralph-tui

Ralph TUI

AI Agent Loop Orchestrator - A terminal UI for orchestrating AI coding agents to work through task lists autonomously.

Ralph TUI connects your AI coding assistant (Claude Code, OpenCode, Factory Droid, Cursor CLI, Gemini CLI, Codex, Kiro CLI) to your task tracker and runs them in an autonomous loop, completing tasks one-by-one with intelligent selection, error handling, and full visibility.

Quick Start

# Install
bun install -g ralph-tui

# Setup your project
cd your-project
ralph-tui setup

# Create a PRD with AI assistance
ralph-tui create-prd --chat

# Run Ralph!
ralph-tui run --prd ./prd.json

That's it! Ralph will work through your tasks autonomously.

Documentation

ralph-tui.com - Full documentation, guides, and examples.

Quick Links

• Quick Start Guide - Get running in 2 minutes
• Installation - All installation options
• CLI Reference - Complete command reference
• Configuration - Customize Ralph for your workflow
• Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions

How It Works

…

Ralph selects the highest-priority task, builds a prompt, executes your AI agent, detects completion, and repeats until all tasks are done.

Features

• Task Trackers: prd.json (simple), Beads (git-backed with dependencies)
• AI Agents: Claude Code, OpenCode, Factory Droid, Cursor CLI, Gemini CLI, Codex, Kiro CLI
• Session Persistence: Pause anytime, resume later, survive crashes
• Real-time TUI: Watch agent output, control execution with keyboard shortcuts
• Subagent Tracing: See nested agent calls in real-time
• Cross-iteration Context: Automatic progress tracking between tasks
• Flexible Skills: Use PRD/task skills directly in your agent or via the TUI
• Remote Instances: Monitor and control ralph-tui running on multiple machines from a single TUI

CLI Commands

Common Options

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Create PRD Options

# Create a PRD with AI assistance (default chat mode)
ralph-tui create-prd
ralph-tui prime  # Alias

# Use a custom PRD skill from skills_dir
ralph-tui create-prd --prd-skill my-custom-skill

# Override agent
ralph-tui create-prd --agent claude

# Output to custom directory
ralph-tui create-prd --output ./docs

TUI Keyboard Shortcuts

Multi-epic sessions: Repeated --epic and comma-separated --epics create one Ralph session across all selected hierarchy-tracker epics. Ralph uses one scheduler, one repo lock, one session branch, one merge queue, and task-scoped worktrees. The TUI scope filter (g/G) is only a local view filter over that session.

Dashboard (d key): Toggle a status panel showing:

• Current execution status and active task
• Agent name and model (e.g., claude-code, anthropic/claude-sonnet)
• Tracker source (e.g., prd, beads)
• Git branch with dirty indicator (repo:branch*)
• Sandbox status ( enabled, disabled) with mode
• Auto-commit setting (✓ auto, ✗ manual)
• Remote connection info (when viewing remote tabs)

See the full CLI reference for all options.

Custom Themes

Ralph TUI supports custom color themes via the --theme option:

# Use a bundled theme by name
ralph-tui run --theme dracula

# Or use a custom theme file
ralph-tui run --theme ./my-custom-theme.json

Bundled themes: bright, catppuccin, dracula, high-contrast, solarized-light

See the Themes documentation for the full theme schema and creating custom themes.

Using Skills Directly in Your Agent

Install ralph-tui skills to your agent using add-skill:

# Install all skills to all detected agents globally
bunx add-skill subsy/ralph-tui --all

# Install to a specific agent
bunx add-skill subsy/ralph-tui -a claude-code -g -y
bunx add-skill subsy/ralph-tui -a kiro-cli -g -y

# Or use the ralph-tui wrapper (maps agent IDs automatically)
ralph-tui skills install
ralph-tui skills install --agent claude
ralph-tui skills install --agent kiro
# If symlinked installs are problematic, copy files instead:
ralph-tui skills install --copy

Use these slash commands in your agent:

/ralph-tui-prd           # Create a PRD interactively
/ralph-tui-create-json   # Convert PRD to prd.json
/ralph-tui-create-beads  # Convert PRD to Beads issues

This lets you create PRDs while referencing source files (@filename) and using your full conversation context—then use ralph-tui run for autonomous execution.

Custom Skills Directory

You can configure a custom skills_dir in your config file to use custom PRD skills:

# In .ralph-tui/config.toml or ~/.config/ralph-tui/config.toml
skills_dir = "/path/to/my-skills"

# Then use custom skills
ralph-tui create-prd --prd-skill my-custom-skill

Skills must be folders inside skills_dir containing a SKILL.md file.

Remote Instance Management

Control multiple ralph-tui instances running on different machines (VPS servers, CI/CD environments, development boxes) from a single TUI.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  LOCAL [1]│ ● prod [2]│ ◐ staging [3]│ ○ dev [4]│      +       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                 │
│   Your local TUI can connect to and control remote instances    │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Quick Start: Remote Control

On the remote machine (server):

# Start ralph with remote listener enabled
ralph-tui run --listen --prd ./prd.json

# First run generates a secure token - save it!
# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
#                    Remote Listener Enabled
# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
#   Port: 7890
#   New server token generated:
#   OGQwNTcxMjM0NTY3ODkwYWJjZGVmMDEyMzQ1Njc4OQ
#   ⚠️  Save this token securely - it won't be shown again!
# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

On your local machine (client):

# Add the remote server
ralph-tui remote add prod server.example.com:7890 --token OGQwNTcxMjM0NTY3...

# Test the connection
ralph-tui remote test prod

# Launch TUI - you'll see tabs for local + remote instances
ralph-tui

Remote Listener Commands

Recommended: Use run --listen (runs engine with remote access):

# Start with remote listener on default port (7890)
ralph-tui run --listen --prd ./prd.json

# Start with custom port
ralph-tui run --listen --listen-port 8080 --epic my-epic

Token management:

# Rotate authentication token (invalidates old token immediately)
ralph-tui run --listen --rotate-token --prd ./prd.json

# View remote listener options
ralph-tui run --help

Remote Configuration Commands

# Add a remote server
ralph-tui remote add <alias> <host:port> --token <token>

# List all remotes with connection status
ralph-tui remote list

# Test connectivity to a specific remote
ralph-tui remote test <alias>

# Remove a remote
ralph-tui remote remove <alias>

# Push config to a remote (propagate your local settings)
ralph-tui remote push-config <alias>
ralph-tui remote push-config --all  # Push to all remotes

Push Configuration to Remotes

When managing multiple ralph-tui instances, you typically want them all to use the same configuration. The push-config command lets you propagate your local config to remote instances:

# Push config to a specific remote
ralph-tui remote push-config prod

# Preview what would be pushed (without applying)
ralph-tui remote push-config prod --preview

# Push to all configured remotes
ralph-tui remote push-config --all

# Force overwrite existing config without confirmation
ralph-tui remote push-config prod --force

# Push specific scope (global or project config)
ralph-tui remote push-config prod --scope global
ralph-tui remote push-config prod --scope project

How it works:

1. Reads your local config (~/.config/ralph-tui/config.toml or .ralph-tui/config.toml)
2. Connects to the remote instance
3. Checks what config exists on the remote
4. Creates a backup if overwriting (e.g., config.toml.backup.2026-01-19T12-30-00-000Z)
5. Writes the new config
6. Triggers auto-migration to install skills/templates

Scope selection:

• --scope global: Push to ~/.config/ralph-tui/config.toml on remote
• --scope project: Push to .ralph-tui/config.toml in remote's working directory
• Without --scope: Auto-detects based on what exists locally and remotely

Security Model

Ralph uses a two-tier token system for secure remote access:

Security features:

• Without a token configured, the listener binds only to localhost (127.0.0.1)
• With a token configured, the listener binds to all interfaces (0.0.0.0)
• All connections require authentication
• All remote actions are logged to ~/.config/ralph-tui/audit.log
• Tokens are shown only once at generation time

Connection Resilience

Remote connections automatically handle network interruptions:

• Auto-reconnect: Exponential backoff from 1s to 30s (max 10 retries)
• Silent retries: First 3 retries are silent, then toast notifications appear
• Status indicators: ● connected, ◐ connecting, ⟳ reconnecting, ○ disconnected
• Metrics display: Latency (ms) and connection duration shown in tab bar

Tab Navigation

When connected to remote instances, a tab bar appears at the top of the TUI: