How to use Claude to turn a plan into a reviewed branch
Ralphex asks planning questions, executes tasks in fresh Claude Code sessions and performs multiple review phases. Its author reports an overnight test that produced a PR-ready branch.
news.ycombinator.com
Suggested prompt
Suggested prompt written by Agents In Use, not the source author. Replace bracketed inputs and review tool permissions first.
Plan [feature] in [repository]. Ask clarifying questions, inspect the codebase and write a Markdown task plan. Execute each task in a fresh session, preserve progress in [log file], and review the resulting branch for defects before reporting its PR readiness.
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Sourced account- Source poster / publisher
- bumpa
- Original account
- Read the source ↗
- Published
- Source link checked
- Reported result
- The author reports that an overnight test of a 25-task plan, with five to seven items per task, produced a surprisingly solid PR-ready branch.
- Human involvement
- Interactive planning asks the human what to build; the author assessed the resulting branch as PR-ready, but describes no merge or detailed manual review.
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How the agent did it
- Run ralphex in the project directory to begin the workflow.
- Answer planning questions while the tool explores the codebase and writes a plan.
- Execute planned tasks using a fresh session for each task.
The author built Ralphex to manage a Claude Code workflow from initial planning through a reviewed branch. In a reported test, it processed a 25-task plan with five to seven items per task overnight. The author woke up to what they described as a surprisingly solid, PR-ready branch.
Running the ralphex binary inside a project directory starts the workflow. If no plan file exists, interactive mode asks what to build, explores the codebase and writes a Markdown plan. Execution then gives each task a fresh session. Prompts carry the plan file, progress log and goal as the context needed to continue.
After execution, the workflow performs multiple review phases using Claude and optionally Codex. A progress file accumulates planning questions and answers, execution logs and review findings between iterations. Output appears in both the terminal and the progress log.
The tool also provides a web dashboard for monitoring progress files across directories, viewing active sessions, streaming output and spotting failures. The reported result is a branch ready for a pull request, rather than a merged change.
Who it's for: Developers who want planned coding work to continue through automated review while retaining visible progress records.
Prompt
Suggested prompt (written by Agents In Use, not the author's)
Source: Hacker News · bumpa
Frequently asked questions
What happens when there is no existing plan file?
Ralphex starts interactive mode, asks what to build, explores the codebase and writes a Markdown plan before executing tasks.
How does the workflow preserve progress between sessions?
Each phase receives the plan file, progress log and goal. The progress file collects planning Q&A, task execution logs and review findings between iterations.
Did the reported overnight run merge a pull request?
The author reports a PR-ready branch. The post does not say that a pull request was merged.
More details
Remaining steps
- Run multiple review phases with Claude and optional Codex.
- Inspect the resulting branch and accumulated progress records.
About this account
Ralphex carries planned tasks through execution and automated review, with fresh sessions and persisted progress between phases.
Platform: Hacker News. Attribution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46799135. Prompt: Suggested (written by Agents In Use, not the author's). Sourced by the Agents In Use pipeline.
Credit: bumpa on Hacker News
Source published
Added to Agents In Use
Source checked
Tools and topics
Ralphex · Claude Code · Codex · Web dashboard
Planning · Code review · Overnight coding · Claude Code
Editorial completeness: 100/100. Measures documented fields, not agent performance or verified outcomes.