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Show HN: Skillscript – A declarative, sandboxed language for tool orchestration

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Re: Show HN: Skillscript – A declarative, sandboxed language for tool orchestration

#32

Post by DenisM »

sshwarts wrote: post #19
DenisM wrote: post #12

1. How a this better than just using any other script language? 2. Inventing a new language complicates large models ability to generate such scrips compared to a well-known language. Did you find it to be a problem? How did you mitigate? 3. The AI is showing. :) I had the similar discussion with ChapGPT and some phrasing is near the same. Not a dig, just a funny observation. 4. Consider the recursive nature of the p…

I really appreciate the comments and the encouragement. "How this better than just using any other script language?" I wanted to make the language something built for a machine to write and a human to approve with a narrow scope and my control of what extends that. What shell commands, if any. What MCP and what tools in that MCP, and so on. If an agent generates a Python script to run unattended every morning, I feel…

> I tested the language against cold agents

I was procrastinating on that, thanks!

> the recursive nature

It’s not clear from you answer if we’re on the same page. Your options are allow the worker agent run wild or constrain it with a rigid guidance. Skillscript can serve dual purpose - constrain the workflow to make it more observable and constrain elemental parts to make them more directional. Apologies if that makes no sense - the AI red shift (expanding universe) makes it very hard to communicate.

Re: Show HN: Skillscript – A declarative, sandboxed language for tool orchestration

#33

Post by christoff12 »

sshwarts wrote: post #28
christoff12 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: difference -- Ok, I think I understand. Ultimately, we need a "permissions" layer and you've built a solve for that. Re: README -- I can't recall a specific repo with one off the top of my head so took a stab at editing yours[1] instead of hunting around. It's not perfect -- I'd want to trim the bullet lists further, for example -- but is much more scannable in my opinion. --- [1] https://gist.github.com/thedatad…

Oh wow. Talking about going above and beyond! Thanks for this. I'll use it as a template for sure. You might have guessed, first time building in public per se. Everything else I do is pretty much for clients and C/C++ work.

No prob

Re: Show HN: Skillscript – A declarative, sandboxed language for tool orchestration

#34

Post by sshwarts »

DenisM wrote: post #32
sshwarts wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really appreciate the comments and the encouragement. "How this better than just using any other script language?" I wanted to make the language something built for a machine to write and a human to approve with a narrow scope and my control of what extends that. What shell commands, if any. What MCP and what tools in that MCP, and so on. If an agent generates a Python script to run unattended every morning, I feel…

> I tested the language against cold agents I was procrastinating on that, thanks! > the recursive nature It’s not clear from you answer if we’re on the same page. Your options are allow the worker agent run wild or constrain it with a rigid guidance. Skillscript can serve dual purpose - constrain the workflow to make it more observable and constrain elemental parts to make them more directional. Apologies if that ma…

It makes sense. I think my response skewed things a bit. The worker can not run wild for exactly the reasons you state. Constraints of the language and the workflow are easy for a human to understand (especially a non-programmer human).

I expect, in general, agents to be writing automation for non-programmers to approve which is another case for why not bash or python.

Re: Show HN: Skillscript – A declarative, sandboxed language for tool orchestration

#35

Post by bpavuk »

sshwarts wrote: post #15
bpavuk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same, Zen Browser (Firefox fork) on Linux

Is what you are seeing is the topics sidebar overlapping the text?

dark theme went to shits. white sidebar with white text, occasionally white-on-white spots in the docs.

Re: Show HN: Skillscript – A declarative, sandboxed language for tool orchestration

#37

Post by sshwarts »

sxiong wrote: post #36

So the real benefit is succinctness and readability... would be nice to have a comparison against other scripting languages or plain text, to prove better performance or accuracy.

I would say you're right in that with succinctness comes constraint. And the constraint is really the point, not the brevity. It's small because it can't do arbitrary things, which is exactly what lets you read one and approve it (and for hopefully anyone to understand), and what makes it run the same way every time.

A comparison would be useful. No published benchmark yet, but that's fair to ask for, and probably the next thing worth putting out.

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