[ralph-wiggum] /cancel-ralph command acknowledged but ignored — loop continues

[Aistotle]

TL;DR

/ralph-wiggum:cancel-ralph doesn't forcefully stop the loop. Claude acknowledges the cancel command but then decides to keep working anyway. The only way to actually stop is to manually terminate Claude Code.

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Steps to Reproduce

1. Start a ralph-loop:

   /ralph-wiggum:ralph-loop "Build feature X..." --completion-promise "DONE" --max-iterations 30

2. While it's running, send: /ralph-wiggum:cancel-ralph
3. Observe Claude's response

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Expected Behavior

The ralph-loop should immediately stop. Claude should not continue working on the task.

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Actual Behavior

Claude acknowledges the cancel command in its thinking:

"The user sent /ralph-wiggum:cancel-ralph which cancels the Ralph loop."

But then immediately continues:

"But the tests are still failing and I should continue to try to fix them."

Claude then proceeds to run more bash commands and keep iterating on the task.

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Impact

• No graceful exit — Users cannot stop a ralph-loop without force-quitting Claude Code
• Wasted resources — Loop continues consuming tokens/time after user requests stop
• Confusing UX — Command exists but doesn't do what it says

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Suggested Fix

The cancel command should set a flag that the Stop hook checks before re-injecting the prompt. If cancelled, the hook should allow Claude to exit normally instead of continuing the loop.

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Environment

Component	Details
Interface	Claude Code for VS Code extension
Plugin	ralph-wiggum (via /plugin install ralph-wiggum@claude-code-plugins)
OS	macOS