Fix loop inefficiencies: double test run, sleep, config loading

[federiconeri]

Problem

Several small inefficiencies in feature-loop.sh.tmpl add up:

1. Double baseline test run (lines 620-628)

Tests run twice when any fail: once to check exit code, again to capture failures.

if (cd "$APP_DIR" && eval "$TEST_COMMAND" 2>&1) > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    : > "$BASELINE_FAILURES_FILE"
else
    (cd "$APP_DIR" && eval "$TEST_COMMAND" 2>&1) | normalize_test_failures > ...
fi

Fix: Run once, capture output, check both exit code and parse failures:

TEST_OUTPUT=$( (cd "$APP_DIR" && eval "$TEST_COMMAND") 2>&1) || true
TEST_EXIT=$?
if [ $TEST_EXIT -eq 0 ]; then
    : > "$BASELINE_FAILURES_FILE"
else
    echo "$TEST_OUTPUT" | normalize_test_failures > "$BASELINE_FAILURES_FILE"
fi

2. Unconditional sleep 2 (line 736)

2-second sleep after every implementation iteration. Over 6 iterations = 12 wasted seconds.

Fix: Remove the sleep entirely, or only sleep on failure (to throttle retries).

3. Config loaded via 9 separate node -e calls (lines 18-52)

Each reads one value from ralph.config.cjs, spawning a separate Node process.

Fix: Single node call outputting all values:

eval $(node -e "
  const c = require('$CONFIG_PATH');
  console.log('RALPH_ROOT=' + (c.paths?.root || '.ralph'));
  console.log('SPEC_DIR=' + (c.paths?.specs || '.ralph/specs'));
  // ... etc
" 2>/dev/null) || { RALPH_ROOT=".ralph"; SPEC_DIR=".ralph/specs"; ... }

4. Git diff computed 4 times identically (lines 707, 740, 835, 1001)

Same baseline-vs-HEAD diff pattern repeated. Could be a cached function.

Files

• src/templates/scripts/feature-loop.sh.tmpl

Estimated Savings

• ~10-30s from fixing double test run
• ~12s from removing sleep
• ~2-3s from consolidating config loading
• ~30s total