I Glued 2 of the Best AI Dev Frameworks Together

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

If you’ve used Claude Code for anything beyond quick scripts, you know the pattern: you start prompting, things go well for 20 minutes, then your project turns into spaghetti because there was never a plan. I ran into this constantly, so I began using two open‑source tools separately.

Tools Overview

BMAD‑METHOD

A structured planning system with AI agents that walk you through product briefs, PRDs, architecture docs, and user stories.

Ralph

An autonomous bash loop that picks up stories one by one, implements them with TDD, and commits as it goes.

Both tools are solid on their own, but switching between them introduced friction: copy‑pasting artifacts, manually setting up Ralph’s task list, and keeping everything in sync when plans changed.

Building bmalph

I spent about a month creating bmalph, a CLI that installs both systems, connects them with slash commands, and handles the handoff from planning to implementation.

npm install -g bmalph
cd my-project
bmalph init

The init command drops BMAD agents, Ralph’s loop, and 50+ slash commands into your project.

Usage

Planning phases

Work through three planning phases in Claude Code using slash commands such as:

• /analyst – gathers requirements
• /pm – creates the product brief and PRD
• /architect – designs the architecture and user stories

Each phase produces specific deliverables (product brief, PRD, architecture, stories).

Implementation

When the plan is solid, run:

/bmalph-implement

This command:

1. Reads your BMAD stories.
2. Generates Ralph’s task list (@fix_plan.md).
3. Copies specs over.

Then start the autonomous loop:

bash .ralph/ralph_loop.sh

Ralph picks stories from the plan, implements them with TDD, commits, and moves to the next one. A circuit breaker stops the loop if something goes wrong; you can also abort manually with Ctrl +C.

Incremental development

• Plan Epic 1 → let Ralph build it.
• Return to BMAD to plan Epic 2.
• Run /bmalph-implement again – completed stories are preserved, new ones are added.

A specs changelog tracks changes so Ralph knows what’s new.

Feedback

I’ve been using bmalph on my own projects and it fits my workflow, but I’m a single developer with a specific style. I’d love to know:

• Does this workflow make sense to you, or is it over‑engineered for how you use Claude Code?
• What’s missing?
• What would you change?

If you try it, please give the repository a star, open an issue, or drop a comment. Stars help with visibility, but honest feedback is what actually makes it better.

Repository

GitHub: larscowe/bmalph