Explores coding agents as repeatable systems, from the Ralph loop to a Lisp application that acquires new capabilities through conversation.
Why read Geoffrey Huntley?
Huntley is useful when you want to understand an agent's repeated attempts. His Ralph article explains a loop built around a task, specifications and feedback from builds or tests, illustrated with a compiler experiment.
His Jiti article takes a different route: adding and using functions inside a running Lisp application through chat. Reading the two together gives you concrete examples of how instructions, executable code and observed results can form a development process. His descriptions expose the mechanisms, making them useful material for your own experiments.
Start with the original
Selected work
Guide ·
Ralph Wiggum as a "software engineer"
How do repeated agent attempts become a workflow? Huntley explains specifications, one task per loop and feedback from builds or tests through his compiler experiment.
Essay ·
an application in lisp you grow by talking to it
Can an app grow while it is running? Huntley demonstrates Jiti, where conversation adds Lisp functions and later requests can inspect, compose or execute them. The article links the implementation and explains its controller and persistent worker.
Projects & roles
Ralph technique
A method for repeatedly running a coding agent against instructions and results.
Jiti
A kernel for developing and using a running Common Lisp application through conversation.
Community rating
Sources & further reading
- His own contact page links the GeoffreyHuntley X account and other public channels.
- Huntley describes his writing as his own views and explains his focus on helping software engineers work with AI.
- His own announcement on 24 July 2026 of joining Antithesis, accompanied by his views on software verification.
- The implementation linked from his own Jiti article documents its conversational interface and persistent Lisp environment.