In-app coordinator/Ralph never reads .squad/ralph-instructions.md; only squad watch --execute does #2233

Problem

.squad/ralph-instructions.md is the user-owned file for Ralph's repo rules. Its own header says squad init creates it and squad upgrade never overwrites it. But only squad watch --execute tells the spawned session to read it.

The in-app path never mentions the file. "Ralph, go" and coordinator-driven issue dispatch run from .github/agents/squad.agent.md (coordinator v1.0.1) and its on-demand .squad/templates/ralph-reference.md, and neither references .squad/ralph-instructions.md. So any rule a user writes there is skipped whenever the coordinator, rather than watch --execute, dispatches issue work.

Observed with squad-cli 1.0.1 on Windows:

• The repo's ralph-instructions.md defines a multi-host claim protocol: assign the issue, comment "Claimed by ", and run an election over the issue timeline.
• An in-app coordinator session dispatched about 10 issue sessions without claiming any of them.
• Two issues were worked twice by the same coordinator across context windows, which a claim check would have prevented.
• Other rules in that file are skipped too, including host concurrency limits and the round-report format.

.squad/templates/ralph-reference.md line 11 also points to itself ("Read .squad/templates/ralph-reference.md…"), so the reference chain ends there.

Expected

Every Ralph/coordinator work-dispatch path loads .squad/ralph-instructions.md when it exists, with the same precedence watch --execute gives it. That way the user-owned rules apply no matter how work is dispatched.

Suggested fix

• In squad.agent.md, in the Ralph section and before any issue dispatch: "If {TEAM_ROOT}/.squad/ralph-instructions.md exists, read it and follow it before selecting or dispatching issue work."
• Fix the self-reference in templates/ralph-reference.md.
• Optionally, have the coordinator load it once per session alongside team.md/routing.md.

Workaround

Add a pointer in .github/copilot-instructions.md, which squad upgrade does not manage.

Related: #1314 (documenting the escape hatch).