Scribe and Ralph
Scribe close-out
Scribe is the background session logger and close-out helper. Daemon, coordinator, and ceremony lifecycle paths converge on the shared Scribe close-out service.
Close-out can record:
- completion summaries
- health/report paths
- directive close-out capture
- branch and worktree lifecycle metadata
- next-wave hints
Close-out is intended to be idempotent: running it again without new work should not create duplicate state.
Directive capture
Directive capture writes durable markdown into .squad/decisions/inbox/. MCP capture is fail-open: the markdown and database path should succeed even when auxiliary MCP capture is unavailable.
Ralph-equivalent monitor
Ralph is the opt-in autonomous work monitor. In upstream Squad, Ralph watches GitHub issues and PRs. In Squadboard, the Ralph-equivalent loop is board-first: it looks at the project board's Ready semantic column and only uses GitHub signals when the project has GitHub sync configured.
This is the core Squadboard design decision: the multi-agent inner loop happens before work reaches GitHub. A card can be captured, shaped, assigned, run, reviewed, and approved inside Squadboard. GitHub becomes a sync and shipping surface, not the first place work has to exist.
States:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
active | Monitor can pick the next eligible action |
paused | Monitor is temporarily disabled |
idle | Monitor ran and found no action |
stopped | Monitor is off |
Priority order:
- unassigned cards in the Ready column
- Ready-column cards with an assignee or
squad:{member}label - CI failures
- review feedback
- approved and green PRs
- draft PRs
Every decision, including no-action idle transitions, should be audited.
Ready work monitor ceremony
Use this ceremony pattern when you want a Ralph-like loop without requiring GitHub:
Ready work monitor
trigger: schedule, agent signal, or project monitor sweep
scan: cards where column semantic = ready
gates: no active run, project autonomy enabled, agent is active, no blocked parent
action: create an issue_run for assigned work, or record a routing decision for unassigned work
result: run moves card to In Progress; review/approval moves it toward Done
When GitHub is connected, the same monitor can also surface CI failures, review feedback, draft PRs, and approved PRs. Those are follow-up signals; they do not replace the Ready-column pickup path.