Ralph loops

A Ralph loop runs one objective as a chain of fresh rounds: each round starts a new agent with no memory of your chat, works, and reports whether to carry on. DataMind Oda starts a loop only when you ask for one, and the loop holds the turn until a round reports the work done or the rounds run out.

Ask for a Ralph loop

Say what to complete, and ask for a Ralph loop, or a fresh-agent iteration, in your own words. Oda reaches for a loop only on that explicit ask; it never starts one by itself.
Send the message. The loop appears as a card titled ralph that shows your objective, and the turn it runs in does not finish until the whole loop settles.

The objective is immutable: every round receives the same one. To work toward something else, stop the loop and ask again.
A loop suits work that benefits from starting each attempt clean. For ordinary long-running objectives Oda uses Goals; for bounded delegation and fan-out it uses Subagents or Workflows.
The loop sits behind the Ralph autonomous loop feature: turn it on in Settings > Developer > Advanced features (Advanced features catalog). In a Relentless chat it works without the switch, because choosing the preset is the opt-in; an organisation policy that holds the switch off, or a feature the computer cannot run, still keeps it off.

What happens in each round

One fresh agent. A round starts a child agent with no conversation seed and no history of the chat.
A bounded handoff. Only the last round's closing report crosses to the next round, capped at 16,384 characters. The shared workspace is the only other long-term memory the rounds have.
The chat's folder. Every round works in the folder the chat works in.
A closing report. Each round ends with a structured report: continue (next steps, no blocker), complete (evidence, no next steps, no blocker) or blocked (a concrete blocker). A report that is missing, does not fit its state, or runs over the handoff cap ends the run.

How a loop ends

The loop ends when a round reports the work complete, when a round reports a blocker, or when the round limit is reached. The result carries the last bounded report and how many rounds ran.
When a round reports the work complete: Ralph worker reported completion after <n>.
When a round reports a blocker: Ralph worker reported a blocker after <n>.
When the round limit is reached: Ralph reached its <n> limit; the worker reported work remaining.
In these lines <n> reads as the number of rounds, such as 1 round or 2 rounds.
A round that ends without its report stops the run as well: the result reads Ralph round <n> child failed before producing a structured report. and carries Last successful handoff: with the last report, or No previous handoff was available. when there is none. A round failure is terminal for the loop.
Stopping the turn that runs the loop cancels it, and the result reads Ralph workflow was cancelled. A loop that fails gives Ralph workflow failed: followed by the failure.

Follow a running loop

The chat shows the loop's card and, when the loop settles, one closing result. The rounds' inner reports do not appear in the chat.
In Activity, the loop folds into a single Ralph row with each round as a member (Activity). Its records are observational: they describe the run, and they never reach a model request.

The limits behind a loop

256 rounds is the default and the ceiling for one run. The round count is the only bound on a loop's total effort; no elapsed-time deadline stops it.
Reports and the final result are each capped at 16,384 characters by default. A longer final result is cut with a … [truncated] notice.
One round starts exactly one fresh agent: a loop does not fan out inside a round.
A loop is foreground only: no background job, no job id and no resume. For work that can run in the background, see Background jobs.
Completion and blockers are the rounds' own reports, not an independent check of the work.
Before any round starts, the loop is checked: the objective must say what to complete (Ralph objective must be a non-empty string), and the child-agent route behind the loop must be registered, able to produce structured reports (Ralph subagent provider "<name>" does not support structured output) and start fresh rather than inherit the chat's context (Ralph subagent provider "<name>" inherits parent context; Ralph requires a fresh provider). A loop that fails a check starts nothing.
For the call fields behind these checks and the full list of refusals, see The Ralph tool.

Questions, answered

Does Oda ever start a Ralph loop on its own?

No. Oda starts a loop only when you explicitly ask for one. Everything else stays with its usual tools: goals for long-running objectives, subagents and workflows for delegation and fan-out.

What is the `ralph` card in my chat?

It is the loop's call, shown as a card. It carries the objective the loop works toward and holds the turn until the whole loop settles.

How do the rounds pass work between them?

Through a bounded handoff and the workspace. Every round starts fresh, with no conversation seed and no history of the chat; only the last round's closing report crosses to the next round, capped at 16,384 characters. The shared workspace is the only other long-term memory the rounds share.

Do I see what each round did?

Not in the chat. The chat shows the loop's card and one closing result; the rounds' inner reports do not appear there. In Activity, the loop is a single Ralph row with each round as a member.

How long can a loop keep going?

The round count bounds a loop, not the clock: no elapsed-time deadline stops it, and 256 rounds is the default and the ceiling for one run. The loop runs in the turn that called it, so stopping that turn cancels it.

What happens when a round reports a blocker?

The loop stops. The result reads Ralph worker reported a blocker after <n>., and it carries the last report. The loop does not continue on its own.

Can I change the objective while the loop runs?

No. The objective is immutable: every round receives the same one, and there is no way to edit it while the loop runs. Stop the loop and ask again with the new objective.

Why can't Oda run the loop I asked for?

The loop is refused before any round starts when a check fails: an empty objective, or a child-agent route that is not registered, cannot produce structured reports, or would start from the chat's own context. A refused loop starts nothing, and the refusal names its reason.