Stop-Hook Ralph (Deterministic Loop Without Bash)

A Ralph variant that lives inside a single Claude Code session: a stop hook re-injects the task prompt whenever the agent tries to end its turn, trading the bash while-loop's fresh context for a persistent session.

Implementation note

When to use: you want Ralph-style relentless iteration but inside a single Claude Code session — no bash wrapper, no process management — and you accept persistent context instead of fresh context as the trade. How it works: a Claude Code stop hook intercepts the agent whenever it tries to end its turn and re-injects the task prompt, forcing another iteration until a completion condition or a hard iteration cap is met. That yields Ralph semantics — keep going until done — deterministically within one session, trading the bash while-loop's fresh-context-per-iteration for session continuity and its context accumulation. Safety: the source's warning is the rule: always include a hard iteration cap in the hook logic, because a stop hook with no cap is an infinite loop by construction — the agent literally cannot end its turn. Make the completion condition machine-checkable, and remember that accumulated context drifts; for very long runs, fresh-context Ralph resists drift better.

Source: paddo.dev ↗graded C · 55/100 — how grades work →

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