Sources
Every external claim, version number, dollar figure, and quote-card in this repo is cited here. This file and the in-text citations are kept in bijection by a lint (Stage 7): every external claim links to an entry here, and every entry here is referenced somewhere.
Accuracy stance: label-and-cite. Volatile specifics are included but marked as of June 2026 — verify before relying. Self-reported figures are marked illustrative. Quote-card screenshots are captured and each links to its originating post.
Origin and lineage
The timeline in docs/01 is recorded as of June 2026 — verify before relying. The people and dates are recorded from secondary recollection and should be confirmed against primary posts before publication; some are illustrative reconstructions for teaching.
| Claim | Attribution | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
The bare "Ralph" loop (re-run a prompt in while true) |
Geoffrey Huntley | https://ghuntley.com/ralph/ | primary |
| Viral thread on long unattended agent loops | Steinberger | https://x.com/steipete/status/2063697162748260627 | primary (X) |
| Framing loops inside coding-agent tooling | Boris Cherny | https://officechai.com/ai/i-now-just-write-loops-to-prompt-claude-code-claude-code-creator-boris-cherny/ | secondary (OfficeChai) |
| Named + defined "loop engineering" | Addy Osmani | https://addyosmani.com/blog/loop-engineering/ | primary |
| Governed "Ralph loop++" | Greg Brockman | https://x.com/gdb/status/2050194039077495089 | primary (X) |
Tooling
The tool matrix in docs/02 is illustrative of the shape, not a feature contract — as of June 2026, verify before relying.
| Claim | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code / Codex / Cowork / OpenCode loop & scheduling capabilities | each tool's official docs | verify before relying |
Quote-card sources
These rows back the attributed screenshots in assets/quote-cards/. Each card in
the README credits links to its originating post below.
| Slot | Attribution | Source URL | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
steinberger |
Steinberger (Ralph loop) | https://x.com/steipete/status/2063697162748260627 | linked |
cherny |
Boris Cherny (Claude Code) | https://officechai.com/ai/i-now-just-write-loops-to-prompt-claude-code-claude-code-creator-boris-cherny/ | linked |
osmani |
Addy Osmani (loop engineering) | https://addyosmani.com/blog/loop-engineering/ | linked |
huntley |
Geoffrey Huntley (original Ralph) | https://ghuntley.com/ralph/ | linked |
brockman |
Greg Brockman ("Ralph loop++") | https://x.com/gdb/status/2050194039077495089 | linked |
Each quote card in the README credits links to its source post above. The two X.com URLs are allowlisted for the link-checker in
tools/links/allowlist.json(x.com returns 403 to automated checkers).
Figures and statistics
All figures below are illustrative — as of June 2026, verify before relying.
| Figure | Where | Basis | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost model: input $2.00/1M, output $8.00/1M tokens | docs/04, all examples | illustrative model, not a vendor price | illustrative |
$217.34 ungoverned vs $11.20 governed |
docs/04, example 1 | generated from examples/1-*/cost.csv |
illustrative |
$15/night cost cap (governed run) |
docs/04 | asserted governance cap, not derived from the receipts | illustrative — verify |
| Usage split ~56% / 17% / 13% | docs/03 | self-reported, directional | illustrative — verify |