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Geoffrey Huntley

Software developer; creator of the Ralph technique

Explores coding agents as repeatable systems, from the Ralph loop to a Lisp application that acquires new capabilities through conversation.

Community rating

68

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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.

Selected work

  1. Guide,

    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.

    Cite this selection

    XFollowList, “Ralph Wiggum as a "software engineer"” reading notes in the Geoffrey Huntley profile. https://xfollowlist.com/people/geoffrey-huntley#work-59a366a1495b

    The linked work is the original source; this permalink identifies XFollowList’s reason to read it. Original work published .

    Profile-source checking date and references · Dated reading map

  2. Essay,

    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.

    Cite this selection

    XFollowList, “an application in lisp you grow by talking to it” reading notes in the Geoffrey Huntley profile. https://xfollowlist.com/people/geoffrey-huntley#work-5e53edcd82e9

    The linked work is the original source; this permalink identifies XFollowList’s reason to read it. Original work published .

    Profile-source checking date and references · Dated reading map

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.

Sources & further reading

Profile sources checked . This describes checking these references, separately from the publication dates of selected works.

Cite this profile’s source check

XFollowList, Geoffrey Huntley profile sources. Sources checked 2026-10-09. https://xfollowlist.com/people/geoffrey-huntley#sources-checked