Loop vs Ralph Loop
The general concept of a repeating cycle, versus one specific, named implementation of it
Loop
The general concept: any recurring or self-pacing prompt cycle. It makes no claim about how context is handled between iterations, that detail is left entirely to whoever builds the specific loop.
Ralph Loop
One specific, named pattern: each iteration starts a genuinely fresh Claude Code instance with a clean context window, reads a progress file and AGENTS.md, completes exactly one task fully, and commits before the next fresh instance picks up.
Which one do you actually need
Every Ralph Loop is a loop, but not every loop is a Ralph Loop. What earns the specific name is the clean-context-per-iteration discipline: memory survives through git history and a progress file instead of a continuous conversation, which is a deliberate design choice a generic loop is free to skip.