Ratchet Skill

Track progress through the RPI workflow with permanent gates.

Note: /ratchet tracks and locks progress. It does not “run the loop” by itself—pair it with /crank (epic loop) or /swarm (Ralph loop) to actually execute work.

The Brownian Ratchet

Progress = Chaos × Filter → Ratchet

Key insight: Progress is permanent. You can’t un-ratchet.

Execution Steps

Given /ratchet [command]:

status – Check Current State

ao ratchet status 2>/dev/null

Or check the chain manually:

cat .agents/ao/chain.jsonl 2>/dev/null | tail -10

check [step] – Verify Gate

ao ratchet check <step> 2>/dev/null

Steps: research, plan, implement, vibe, post-mortem

record [step] – Record Completion

ao ratchet record <step> --output "<artifact-path>" 2>/dev/null

Or record manually by writing to chain:

echo '{"step":"<step>","status":"completed","output":"<path>","time":"<ISO-timestamp>"}' >> .agents/ao/chain.jsonl

skip [step] – Skip Intentionally

ao ratchet skip <step> --reason "<why>" 2>/dev/null

Workflow Steps

Chain Storage

Progress stored in .agents/ao/chain.jsonl:

{"step":"research","status":"completed","output":".agents/research/auth.md","time":"2026-01-25T10:00:00Z"}
{"step":"plan","status":"completed","output":".agents/plans/auth-plan.md","time":"2026-01-25T11:00:00Z"}
{"step":"implement","status":"in_progress","time":"2026-01-25T12:00:00Z"}

Key Rules

• Progress is permanent – can’t un-ratchet
• Gates must pass – validate before proceeding
• Record everything – maintain the chain
• Skip explicitly – document why if skipping a step