How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/ralph-swarm:helpThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Display the following help text exactly as written (adjusting formatting for readability):
Display the following help text exactly as written (adjusting formatting for readability):
===============================================================================
ralph-swarm Plugin Help
===============================================================================
DESCRIPTION
ralph-swarm orchestrates multi-phase planning and execution of development
tasks. It breaks a goal into research, requirements, design, and tasks,
then executes them either sequentially or in parallel using Agent Teams.
COMMANDS
/ralph-swarm:start <"goal"> [flags]
The main entry point. Provide a goal in quotes and optional flags.
By default, runs only the research phase and pauses for review.
Use --full to run all 4 planning phases at once (legacy behavior).
Use --yolo for --full + skip review + execute immediately.
Examples:
/ralph-swarm:start "add user authentication with JWT"
/ralph-swarm:start "refactor database layer" --full --swarm
/ralph-swarm:start "fix pagination bug" --yolo
/ralph-swarm:start "migrate to new API" --full --swarm --yolo --no-commit
/ralph-swarm:requirements
Run the requirements planning phase. Takes research output and
produces detailed requirements. Only works after research is complete.
Example:
/ralph-swarm:requirements
/ralph-swarm:design
Run the architecture/design planning phase. Takes research and
requirements output and produces an architecture document. Only
works after requirements are complete.
Example:
/ralph-swarm:design
/ralph-swarm:tasks
Run the task breakdown planning phase. Takes all prior spec files
and produces vertical feature slice tasks. Only works after design
is complete. Transitions to planning-review when done.
Example:
/ralph-swarm:tasks
/ralph-swarm:go
Resume execution after reviewing the generated plan. Only works when
phase is "planning-review". Edit spec files before running this if
you want to adjust the plan.
Example:
/ralph-swarm:go
/ralph-swarm:status
Show current swarm progress including planning phases, task completion,
iteration count, and teammate status (in swarm mode).
Example:
/ralph-swarm:status
/ralph-swarm:cancel
Cancel the active swarm, shut down teammates, remove state file,
and clean up orphaned worktrees. Spec files and code changes are
preserved.
Example:
/ralph-swarm:cancel
/ralph-swarm:rollback
Roll back ALL execution changes to the pre-execution snapshot
commit. This is DESTRUCTIVE — all code from task execution is
lost. Spec files are preserved only if they were committed before
execution. Requires user confirmation.
Example:
/ralph-swarm:rollback
/ralph-swarm:help
Show this help text.
FLAGS (for /ralph-swarm:start)
--full Run all 4 planning phases (research, requirements,
design, tasks) in one shot without pausing between
phases. Without this flag, /start only runs research
and pauses for review.
Default: false
--swarm Enable parallel planning (intra-phase agents) and
parallel execution (Agent Teams with worktrees).
Default: false (sequential mode)
--yolo Skip the planning review pause and go straight
to execution. Implies --full. Commit behavior is
unchanged (--commit remains true by default).
Default: false
--teammates <N> Number of parallel agents in swarm mode.
Only effective with --swarm.
Default: "auto" (min of largest batch size and 4, at least 2)
Max: 10
--agent-type <TYPE> Agent type for executor teammates.
Only effective with --swarm.
Default: "auto" (uses swarm-executor)
--max-iterations <N> Maximum stop-hook re-injection cycles before
the swarm auto-terminates.
Default: 30
--commit Commit changes after each task (sequential) or
after all tasks (swarm). Default: true
--no-commit Do not commit changes. Overrides --commit.
EXECUTION MODES
Sequential (default):
Tasks are executed one at a time in dependency order. The lead agent
delegates each task to a swarm-executor agent, waits for completion,
then moves to the next. The stop hook re-injects the lead after each
task to continue the loop.
Swarm (--swarm):
Tasks are executed in parallel using Claude Code Agent Teams. The lead
creates a team, spawns executor teammates, distributes tasks respecting
dependencies, and monitors progress. Multiple tasks run simultaneously
when their dependencies are satisfied. In swarm mode, planning phases
also leverage parallelism — research uses 3 agents, requirements and
design each use 2 agents running concurrently within their phase.
FLOW DIAGRAM
Incremental (default):
/ralph-swarm:start "goal"
|
v
+------------------+
| Parse Arguments |
+------------------+
|
v
+------------------+
| Research | <-- pauses here (pausedAfter: "research")
| (swarm-researcher)
+------------------+
| /ralph-swarm:requirements
v
+------------------+
| Requirements | <-- pauses here (pausedAfter: "requirements")
| (swarm-requirements)
+------------------+
| /ralph-swarm:design
v
+------------------+
| Design | <-- pauses here (pausedAfter: "design")
| (swarm-architect)
+------------------+
| /ralph-swarm:tasks
v
+------------------+
| Task Planner | <-- pauses here (planning-review)
| (swarm-task-planner)
+------------------+
| /ralph-swarm:go
v
+----+----+
| |
v v
Sequential Swarm
(one agent) (team of agents)
| |
v v
+------------------+
| Tasks Execute |
| (stop hook loop)|
+------------------+
|
v
<promise>SWARM COMPLETE</promise>
Full (--full or --yolo):
/ralph-swarm:start "goal" --full
|
v
All 4 phases run in sequence (no pauses)
|
v
Planning Review (or --yolo skips to execution)
|
v
Execution (same as above)
STATE FILE
.ralph-swarm-state.json in the project root tracks all swarm state.
The stop hook (swarm-watcher.sh) reads this file to decide whether
to re-inject the lead agent or allow the session to exit.
Phases: planning (with pauses) -> planning-review -> execution -> (complete/removed)
SPEC FILES
./specs/<name>/research.md - Codebase and external research
./specs/<name>/requirements.md - Functional and non-functional requirements
./specs/<name>/design.md - Architecture and implementation design
./specs/<name>/tasks.md - Ordered, dependency-aware task breakdown
These files are never deleted by /ralph-swarm:cancel. They persist for
reuse or reference.
REQUIREMENTS
- Claude Code with plugin support
- For swarm mode: Agent Teams support (TeamCreate tool must be available).
The /ralph-swarm:start command validates this automatically when --swarm
is used.
- The following agent types should be available:
- swarm-researcher (required, included with plugin)
- swarm-requirements (optional, falls back to general-purpose)
- swarm-architect (optional, falls back to general-purpose)
- swarm-task-planner (optional, falls back to general-purpose)
- swarm-executor (optional, falls back to general-purpose)
TIPS
- By default, /start only runs research and pauses. Review research.md
before proceeding to /requirements. This catches bad research early.
- Use --full if you trust the goal is well-defined and want speed.
- Start without --swarm first to validate the approach, then re-run
with --swarm for speed on larger tasks.
- Review and edit spec files at each pause point. Each phase uses
prior phases as input — fixing early saves cascading errors.
- Re-running a phase (e.g., /requirements when already complete)
will reset and delete all downstream phases.
- Use /ralph-swarm:status frequently during long executions to monitor
progress.
- If a swarm gets stuck, /ralph-swarm:cancel is safe — it preserves
all code changes and spec files.
- The --max-iterations flag prevents runaway loops. Increase it for
very large task lists (default 30 is usually enough for 10-15 tasks).
===============================================================================
npx claudepluginhub divkix/ralph-swarm --plugin ralph-swarmDocuments Ralph plugin arguments (--quick, --commit), execution modes (normal/quick), state management (.ralph-state.json), commit behavior, task loops, and error handling.
Guides customization of Choo Choo Ralph workflows, formulas, learning harvest, troubleshooting loops, and multi-Ralph setups. Use for Ralph-specific questions.
Executes full autonomous engineering workflow with swarm-mode parallelization: plans features, builds via agent swarms, parallel reviews/tests/de-slopping, autofixes, learns patterns, resolves todos, records PR video.