ralph-stop

Stop Ralph's autonomous iteration loop gracefully.

What This Skill Does

This skill stops the autonomous loop started by /ralph:start. It sets a stop signal, allows the current iteration to finish, and updates the status.

Prerequisites

• •Ralph must be initialized (/ralph:init has been run)
• •docs/ai/ralph/status.json must exist

Implementation

When this skill is invoked:

1. •

   Set the stop flag: Create a stop signal file that /ralph:start will check

   bash

   touch docs/ai/ralph/.ralph_stop
   

2. •

   Inform about current iteration: If an iteration is running, let it finish naturally. The stop signal will be checked before spawning the next iteration.

3. •

   Update status.json: Set the status to 'stopped' and record the timestamp

   bash

   # Read current status.json
   jq '.status = "stopped" | .last_updated = now | .stopped_at = now' docs/ai/ralph/status.json > /tmp/status.json.tmp
   mv /tmp/status.json.tmp docs/ai/ralph/status.json
   

4. •

   Report to user:

   code

   Ralph has been signaled to stop.
   
   - The current iteration (if running) will finish naturally
   - No new iterations will be spawned
   - Status updated to 'stopped'
   
   You can resume later with /ralph:start or run a single iteration with /ralph:iterate.
   

Coordination with /ralph:start

The /ralph:start skill checks for the existence of docs/ai/ralph/.ralph_stop before each iteration. When this file exists:

• •The loop stops spawning new ralph-worker subagents
• •The current iteration completes normally
• •The loop exits gracefully

Notes

• •This is a graceful stop, not an emergency abort
• •Any work in progress will complete
• •To resume, use /ralph:start again (it will clear the stop flag)
• •The stop flag is just a signal file, not a lock file