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Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

simonwillison.net

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Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#91

Post by [deleted] »

kazinator wrote: post #86
kristopolous wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also I forgot to one other built on llm. This one is a ZSH plugin that uses zle to translate your English to shell commands with a keystroke. https://github.com/day50-dev/Zummoner It's been life changing for me. Here's one I wrote today: $ git find out if abcdefg is a descendent of hijklmnop In fact I used it in one of these comments $ for i in $(seq 1 6); do printf "%${i}sh${i}\n\n-----\n" | tr " " "#"; done | pv -b…

The brace expansion syntax in Bash and Zsh expands integer ranges: {1..6}; no calling out to external command. It's also intelligent about inferring leading zeros without needing to be told with options, e.g. {001..995}.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#92

Post by xrd »

simonw wrote: post #52
xrd wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is no one else bothered by that way of using tools? Tools feel like a way to get deterministic behavior from a very hallucinatory process. But unless you put a very lengthy and comprehensive non-deterministic English statement, you can't effectively use tools. As we all know, the more code, the more bugs. These long and often hidden prompts seem like the wrong way to go. And, this is why I'm very excited about this a…

As an experienced software engineer I'm bothered about pretty much everything about how we develop things on top of LLMs! I can't even figure out how to write automated tests for them. See also my multi-year obsession with prompt injection and LLM security, which still isn't close to being a solved problem: https://simonwillison.net/tags/prompt-injection/ Yet somehow I can't tear myself away from them. The fact that…

You put it so well! I agree wholeheartedly. Llms are language toys we get to play and it's so much fun. But I'm bothered in the same way you are and that's fine.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#93

Post by sillysaurusx »

prettyblocks wrote: post #90

I've been trying to maintain a (mostly vibe-coded) zsh/omz plugin for tab completions on your LLM cli and the rate at which you release new features makes it tough to keep up! Fortunately this gets me 90% of the way there: llm -f README.md -f llm.plugin.zsh -f completions/_llm -f https://simonwillison.net/2025/May/27/llm-tools/ "implement tab completions for the new tool plugins feature" My repo is here: https://gith…

Kind of crazy this isn’t sci-fi, it’s just how coding is done now. Future generations are going to wonder how we ever got anything done, the same way we wonder how assembly programmers managed to.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#94

Post by furyofantares »

cyanydeez wrote: post #51
furyofantares wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use llm, but I have my own "think" tool (with MUCH less support than llm, it just calls openai + some special prompt I have set) and what I use it for is when I need to call an llm from a script. Most recently I wanted a script that could produce word lists from a dictionary of 180k words given a query, like "is this an animal?" The script breaks the dictionary up into chunks of size N (asking "which of these…

youre pnly a few steps away from creating a LLM synaptic network

I'm automating spending money at an exponential rate.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#95

Post by abc-1 »

dang wrote: post #87
abc-1 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Could you please stop posting shallow dismissals and putdowns of other people and their work? It's against the site guidelines, and your account has unfortunately been doing a lot of it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44073456 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44073413 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44070923 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44070514 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44010921 htt…

[dead]

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#96

Post by zer00eyz »

th0ma5 wrote: post #72
simonw wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you an alt for th0ma5?

They are not. I think it is a good criticism though. Many people seem to be touting productivity that is only in the context of productivity towards more LLM inference operations and not productive in the sense of solving real world computing problems. There is a lot of material that suggests positive results are a kind of wish casting and people are not aware of the agency they are bringing to the interaction. The f…

The hype: "LLM's will replace all of the coders".

The hate: "LLM's can't do anything without hand holding"

I think both of these takes a disingenuous.

> not productive in the sense of solving real world computing problems.

Solving problems is a pretty vague term.

> The fact that you can hack things that do cool stuff

Lots of times this is how problems actually get solved. I would argue most of the time this is how problems get solved. More so if your working with other peoples software because your not reinventing CUPS, Dashboards, VPN's, Marketing Tools, Mail clients, Chat Clients and so on... I would argue that LOTS of good software is propped up directly and indirectly by this sort of hacking.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#97

Post by simonw »

th0ma5 wrote: post #71
simonw wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an experienced software engineer I'm bothered about pretty much everything about how we develop things on top of LLMs! I can't even figure out how to write automated tests for them. See also my multi-year obsession with prompt injection and LLM security, which still isn't close to being a solved problem: https://simonwillison.net/tags/prompt-injection/ Yet somehow I can't tear myself away from them. The fact that…

> The fact that we can use computers to mostly understand human language I agree that'd be amazing if they do that, but they most certainly do not. I think this is the core my disagreement here that you believe this and let this guide you. They don't understand anything and are matching and synthesizing patterns. I can see how that's enthralling like watching a rube goldberg machine go through its paces, but there is…

That's why I said "mostly".

I know they're just statistical models, and that having conversations with them is like having a conversation with a stack of dice.

But if the simulation is good enough to be useful, the fact that they don't genuinely "understand" doesn't really matter to me.

I've had tens of thousands of "conversations" with these things now (I know because I log them all). Whether or not they understand anything they're still providing a ton of value back to me.

Re: Show HN: My LLM CLI tool can run tools now, from Python code or plugins

#99

Post by dang »

abc-1 wrote: post #95
dang wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please stop posting shallow dismissals and putdowns of other people and their work? It's against the site guidelines, and your account has unfortunately been doing a lot of it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44073456 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44073413 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44070923 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44070514 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44010921 htt…

[dead]

Ok, since you don't seem to be interested in using HN as intended, I've banned the account.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

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