Wreck it Ralph Wiggum 🔨

January 28, 2026 · View on GitHub

Wreck it Ralph Wiggum holding a sign 'MY CODE IS IN DANGER'

⚡ Quickstart: Run Ralph Loops Now

Want to run Ralph Wiggum loops right now? You need LLM API access. Ralph uses a lot of tokens, which gets expensive quickly.

Zai Coding Plan is a great way to get access to a lot of tokens for a low price.

Zai Coding Plan — starts at $3/month, works with Claude Code, Amp, Cline, and 10+ coding tools. This link gets you 10% off (full disclosure: I'm @mikehostetler and by using this link you help support my work on Wreckit).

npm install -g wreckit && wreckit init
wreckit ideas < YOUR_IDEAS.md
wreckit  # go touch grass

Once you have API access, you can set up Claude Code to use the Zai API:

👉 Claude Code setup instructions

Wreck it Ralph Wiggum 🔨

"I'm gonna wreck it!" — Wreck-It Ralph
"I'm in danger." — Ralph Wiggum, also your codebase

Your AI agent, unsupervised, wrecking through your backlog while you sleep.

wreckit ideas < BACKLOG.md && wreckit  # go touch grass

What Is This

A CLI that runs a Ralph Wiggum Loop over your roadmap:

ideas → research → plan → implement → PR → done
       └──────────────────────────────────┘
         "I'm helping!" — the agent, probably

You dump a text file of half-baked ideas. Wreckit turns them into researched, planned, implemented, and PR'd code. You review. Merge. Ship.

It's the HumanLayer Research → Plan → Implement workflow, fully automated. The agent researches your codebase, writes a detailed plan, then executes it story-by-story until there's a PR ready for your review.

Files are truth. Everything lives in .wreckit/ as JSON and Markdown. Git-trackable. Inspectable. Resumable. No magic databases. No cloud sync. Just files.

Quick Start

# Install the chaos
npm install -g wreckit

# Initialize in your repo
cd my-project
wreckit init

# Feed it ideas (literally anything)
wreckit ideas < IDEAS.md
# or: echo "add dark mode" | wreckit ideas
# or: wreckit ideas --file ROADMAP.md

# Let Ralph loose
wreckit

# Go do something else. Come back to PRs.

The Loop

Each item progresses through states:

raw → researched → planned → implementing → in_pr → done
StateWhat Happened
rawIngested, waiting for attention
researchedAgent analyzed codebase, wrote research.md
plannedAgent created plan.md + prd.json with user stories
implementingAgent coding through stories, committing as it goes
in_prPR opened, awaiting your review
doneMerged. Ralph did it.

The Workflow

  1. Research — Agent reads your codebase thoroughly. Finds patterns. Documents file paths, conventions, integration points. Outputs research.md.

  2. Plan — Agent designs the solution. Breaks it into phases with success criteria. Creates user stories with acceptance criteria. Outputs plan.md + prd.json.

  3. Implement — Agent picks the highest priority story, implements it, runs tests, commits, marks it done. Repeats until all stories complete.

  4. PR — Agent opens a pull request. You review. You merge. You ship.

CLI Commands

The Essentials

CommandWhat It Does
wreckitRun everything. TUI shows progress.
wreckit initInitialize .wreckit/ in repo
wreckit ideas < FILEIngest ideas from stdin
wreckit statusList all items with state
wreckit run <id>Run single item through all phases
wreckit nextRun the next incomplete item
wreckit doctorValidate items, find issues

Phase Commands (for debugging)

CommandTransition
wreckit research <id>raw → researched
wreckit plan <id>researched → planned
wreckit implement <id>planned → implementing
wreckit pr <id>implementing → in_pr
wreckit complete <id>in_pr → done

Flags

FlagWhat
--sandboxRun in isolated Firecracker VM
--verboseMore logs
--quietErrors only
--no-tuiDisable TUI (CI mode)
--dry-runPreview, don't execute
--forceRegenerate artifacts

Sandbox Mode

Sandbox mode runs your agent in an isolated Firecracker microVM, automatically syncing files back and forth. This is the safest way to run untrusted code or risky operations.

Quick Start

# Run a single item in sandbox mode
wreckit run 079-sandbox-usability-layer --sandbox

# Run all phases in sandbox mode
wreckit research 079-sandbox-usability-layer --sandbox
wreckit plan 079-sandbox-usability-layer --sandbox
wreckit implement 079-sandbox-usability-layer --sandbox

# Run everything in sandbox mode
wreckit --sandbox

What Sandbox Mode Does

When you use --sandbox, Wreckit:

  1. Spawns a Firecracker VM — Creates an isolated microVM via Sprite
  2. Syncs your project — Pushes your code to the VM before execution
  3. Runs the agent — Executes in complete isolation
  4. Pulls back changes — Syncs modified files back to your machine on success
  5. Cleans up — Automatically destroys the VM when done

Why Use Sandbox Mode?

  • Safety: Run risky code (file operations, network requests, system commands) in isolation
  • Clean environments: Each sandbox starts fresh, no leftover state
  • Parallel execution: Run multiple sandboxes simultaneously without conflicts
  • Reproducibility: Same VM config every time

Requirements

  • Sprite CLI — Install from sprites.dev
  • Sprites.dev account — Free tier available for testing
  • Sufficient resources — Each VM uses ~512MiB RAM by default

How It Works

VM Lifecycle:

1. Auto-generate VM name: wreckit-sandbox-<item-id>-<timestamp>
2. Start VM with Sprite CLI
3. Push project files to VM (excludes: .git, node_modules, .wreckit, dist, build)
4. Run agent in VM
5. On success: Pull modified files back from VM
6. Destroy VM (ephemeral cleanup)

Interrupt Safety:

  • Press Ctrl+C once → Graceful shutdown with VM cleanup
  • Press Ctrl+C twice → Force exit (if cleanup hangs)

Bi-directional Sync:

  • Files modified in the VM are pulled back automatically on success
  • Excludes: .git, node_modules, .wreckit, dist, build, .DS_Store

Advanced: Manual VM Management

For power users who want persistent VMs or manual control:

# List running VMs
wreckit sprite list

# Start a VM manually
wreckit sprite start my-vm

# Execute commands in a VM
wreckit sprite exec my-vm -- npm test

# Pull files from VM
wreckit sprite pull my-vm

# Kill a VM
wreckit sprite kill my-vm

# Attach to a VM (interactive shell)
wreckit sprite attach my-vm

When to use manual VM management:

  • You want a persistent VM for multiple runs
  • You need to debug inside the VM
  • You want to run custom commands before/after agent execution
  • You're running many operations and don't want to restart the VM each time

Configuration

You can also configure sandbox mode in .wreckit/config.json:

{
  "agent": {
    "kind": "sprite",
    "wispPath": "sprite",
    "syncEnabled": true,
    "syncOnSuccess": true,
    "maxVMs": 5,
    "defaultMemory": "512MiB",
    "defaultCPUs": "1"
  }
}

However, using --sandbox is recommended because it:

  • Automatically sets sensible defaults
  • Enables ephemeral mode (auto-cleanup)
  • Enables bi-directional sync
  • Works with any agent configuration

Troubleshooting

VM fails to start:

# Check Sprite CLI is installed
sprite --version

# Verify authentication
sprite auth status

# Check available VMs
wreckit sprite list

Files not syncing back:

  • Ensure syncOnSuccess: true in config (automatic with --sandbox)
  • Check that files aren't in exclude patterns
  • Run with --verbose to see sync logs

Orphaned VMs:

# List all VMs
wreckit sprite list

# Kill orphaned VMs
wreckit sprite kill <vm-name>

Configuration

Lives in .wreckit/config.json:

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "base_branch": "main",
  "branch_prefix": "wreckit/",
  "agent": {
    "command": "amp",
    "args": ["--dangerously-allow-all"],
    "completion_signal": "<promise>COMPLETE</promise>"
  },
  "max_iterations": 100,
  "timeout_seconds": 3600
}

Agent Options

Wreckit supports multiple agent execution backends:

KindDescriptionConfiguration
claude_sdkClaude Agent SDK (recommended)model, max_tokens, tools
amp_sdkAmp SDK (experimental)model (optional)
codex_sdkCodex SDK (experimental)model (default: codex-1)
opencode_sdkOpenCode SDK (experimental)none
processExternal CLI processcommand, args, completion_signal

Uses the Claude Agent SDK directly for best performance and error handling:

{
  "agent": {
    "kind": "claude_sdk",
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    "max_tokens": 8192
  }
}

Experimental SDK Modes

Wreckit also supports experimental SDK integrations. These use the same underlying SDK infrastructure and share authentication/environment variable resolution with claude_sdk.

Note: Experimental SDKs may have API changes in future releases.

Amp SDK:

{
  "agent": {
    "kind": "amp_sdk",
    "model": "custom-model"
  }
}

Codex SDK:

{
  "agent": {
    "kind": "codex_sdk",
    "model": "codex-1"
  }
}

OpenCode SDK:

{
  "agent": {
    "kind": "opencode_sdk"
  }
}

Process Mode

Spawns an external CLI process (for backward compatibility or custom agents):

Amp CLI:

{
  "agent": {
    "kind": "process",
    "command": "amp",
    "args": ["--dangerously-allow-all"],
    "completion_signal": "<promise>COMPLETE</promise>"
  }
}

Claude CLI:

{
  "agent": {
    "kind": "process",
    "command": "claude",
    "args": ["--dangerously-skip-permissions", "--print"],
    "completion_signal": "<promise>COMPLETE</promise>"
  }
}

See MIGRATION.md for detailed configuration and environment variable documentation.

Folder Structure

.wreckit/
├── config.json              # Global config
├── index.json               # Registry of all items
├── prompts/                 # Customizable prompt templates
│   ├── research.md
│   ├── plan.md
│   └── implement.md
└── <section>/
    └── <nnn>-<slug>/
        ├── item.json        # State and metadata
        ├── research.md      # Codebase analysis
        ├── plan.md          # Implementation plan
        ├── prd.json         # User stories
        ├── prompt.md        # Generated agent prompt
        └── progress.log     # What the agent learned

Items are organized by section (e.g., features/, bugs/, infra/) with sequential numbering.

Customization

Prompt Templates

Edit files in .wreckit/prompts/ to customize agent behavior:

  • research.md — How the agent analyzes your codebase
  • plan.md — How it designs solutions
  • implement.md — How it executes user stories

Template Variables

VariableDescription
{{id}}Item ID (e.g., features/001-dark-mode)
{{title}}Item title
{{section}}Section name
{{overview}}Item description
{{item_path}}Path to item folder
{{branch_name}}Git branch name
{{base_branch}}Base branch
{{completion_signal}}Agent completion signal
{{research}}Contents of research.md
{{plan}}Contents of plan.md
{{prd}}Contents of prd.json
{{progress}}Contents of progress.log

Example Session

$ cat IDEAS.md
Add dark mode toggle
Fix the login timeout bug
Migrate auth to OAuth2

$ wreckit ideas < IDEAS.md
Created 3 items:
  features/001-dark-mode-toggle
  bugs/001-login-timeout
  infra/001-oauth2-migration

$ wreckit status
ID                              STATE
features/001-dark-mode-toggle   raw
bugs/001-login-timeout          raw
infra/001-oauth2-migration      raw

$ wreckit
# TUI runs, agent researches, plans, implements...
# You go do literally anything else

$ wreckit status
ID                              STATE     PR
features/001-dark-mode-toggle   in_pr     #42
bugs/001-login-timeout          in_pr     #43
infra/001-oauth2-migration      implementing

$ # Review PRs, merge, done

Design Principles

  1. Files are truth — JSON + Markdown, git-trackable
  2. Idempotent — Re-run anything safely
  3. Resumable — Ctrl-C and pick up where you left off
  4. Transparent — Every prompt is inspectable and editable
  5. Recoverable — wreckit doctor --fix repairs broken state

Cloud Sandboxes

Wreckit is designed for multi-actor parallelism — spin up multiple sandboxes, each working on different items from the same repo. The file-based state in .wreckit/ means no conflicts, no coordination headaches.

We recommend Sprites from Fly.io for cloud dev environments. Spin up a fleet of Ralphs, let them wreck in parallel.

# Each sandbox pulls the repo, runs one item
wreckit next  # grabs the next incomplete item, runs it

Requirements

  • Node.js 18+
  • gh CLI (for GitHub PRs)
  • An AI agent:
    • SDK Mode (recommended):
      • Direct API: export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
      • Custom endpoint (e.g., Zai): Set ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN
      • Verify setup: wreckit sdk-info
      • See MIGRATION.md#environment-variables for full details
    • Process Mode: Amp or Claude CLI

Development

git clone https://github.com/mikehostetler/wreckit.git
cd wreckit
bun install
bun run build
bun run test

Exit Codes

CodeMeaning
0Success
1Error
130Interrupted (Ctrl-C)

Acknowledgements

The "Ralph Wiggum Loop" methodology stands on the shoulders of giants:

  • Ryan Carson — for the Ralph pattern that inspired the core loop
  • Geoff Huntley — for evangelizing the Ralph Wiggum agent pattern
  • Dexter Horthy and the entire HumanLayer team — for the Research → Plan → Implement workflow that makes agents actually useful
  • Everyone in the community teaching agents to stop vibing and start shipping

License

MIT

"My code is in danger!" — your codebase, nervously