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Just-bash: Bash for Agents

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Re: Just-bash: Bash for Agents

#31

Post by wild_egg »

otterley wrote: post #22
wild_egg wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jails are alien magic and typescript is safe and familiar

What, exactly, is "safe" about TypeScript other than type safety? TypeScript is just a language anyway. It's the runtime that needs to be contained. In that sense it's no different from any other interpreter or runtime, whether it be Go, Python, Java, or any shell. In my view this really is best managed by the OS kernel, as the ultimate responsibility for process isolation belongs to it. Relying on userspace solution…

Ah I forgot to add an /s

I agree on all counts and that this project is silly on the face of it.

My comment was more that there is a massive cohort of devs who have never done sysadmin and know nothing of prior art in the space. Typescript "feels" safe and familiar and the right way to accomplish their goals, regardless of if it actually is.

Re: Just-bash: Bash for Agents

#32

Post by JohnMakin »

IceWreck wrote: post #7

At this point why not make the agents use a restricted subset of python, typescript or lua or something. Bash has been unchanged for decades but its not a very nice language. I know pydantic has been experimenting with https://github.com/pydantic/monty (restricted python) and I think Cloudflare and co were experimenting with giving typescript to agents.

They use bash in ways a human never would, and it seems very intuitive for them.

Re: Just-bash: Bash for Agents

#34

Post by andrewingram »

IceWreck wrote: post #7

At this point why not make the agents use a restricted subset of python, typescript or lua or something. Bash has been unchanged for decades but its not a very nice language. I know pydantic has been experimenting with https://github.com/pydantic/monty (restricted python) and I think Cloudflare and co were experimenting with giving typescript to agents.

just-bash comes with Python installed, so in a way that's what this has done. I've used this for some prototypes with AI tools (via bash-tool), can't really productionise it in our current setup, but it worked very well and was undeniably pretty cool.

Re: Just-bash: Bash for Agents

#35

Post by andrewingram »

jeffchuber wrote: post #27

last weekend I vibe-coded a project called `openfs` that plugs into just-bash https://github.com/jeffchuber/just-bash-openfs it puts a bash interface in front of s3, filesystem (real and in-memory), postgres, and chroma. still very much alpha - but curious what people think about it. see an example app here: https://github.com/jeffchuber/openfs-incident-app

I did a slightly less ambitious prototype a few weeks ago where I created added lazy loading of GCS files into the just-bash file-systems, as well as lots of other on-demand files. Was a lot of fun.

Re: Just-bash: Bash for Agents

#36

Post by esafak »

gaigalas wrote: post #24
esafak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no connection to coral or just-bash. Why don't you do it yourself and let us know, since you are familiar with it?

I've been working with the shell long enough that I know just by looking at it. Anyway, it was rethorical. I was making a point about portability. Scripts we write today run even on ancient versions, and it has been an effort kept by lots of different interpreters (not only bash). I'm trying to give sane advice here. Re-implementing bash is a herculean task, and some "small incompatibilities" sometimes reveal themsel…

The project does not list portability as a concern. It's for agent use; they are not trying to re-use existing bash code.

Re: Just-bash: Bash for Agents

#37

Post by gaigalas »

simonw wrote: post #19
gaigalas wrote: post #2

https://github.com/vercel-labs/just-bash/blob/main/src/spec-... That's a lot of incompatibilities. LLMs like to use the shell because it's stable and virtually unchanged for decades. It doesn't need to worry much about versions or whether something is supported or not, it can just assume it is. Re-implementing bash is a herculean effort. I wish good luck.

Incompatibilities don't matter much provided your error messages are actionable - an LLM can hit a problem, read the error message and try again. They'll also remember that solution for the rest of that session.

I don't think the current incompatibilities can be worked around.

Also, huge waste of tokens. And the waste is not even worth it, the sandbox seems insufficient.

Again, good luck to the developers. I just don't think it's ready.

Re: Just-bash: Bash for Agents

#38

Post by Bolwin »

IceWreck wrote: post #7

At this point why not make the agents use a restricted subset of python, typescript or lua or something. Bash has been unchanged for decades but its not a very nice language. I know pydantic has been experimenting with https://github.com/pydantic/monty (restricted python) and I think Cloudflare and co were experimenting with giving typescript to agents.

I've had LLMs write some pretty complex powershell on the fly. Still a shell language but a lot nicer.

Ideally something like nushell but they don't know that well

Re: Just-bash: Bash for Agents

#39

Post by jeffchuber »

andrewingram wrote: post #35
jeffchuber wrote: post #27

last weekend I vibe-coded a project called `openfs` that plugs into just-bash https://github.com/jeffchuber/just-bash-openfs it puts a bash interface in front of s3, filesystem (real and in-memory), postgres, and chroma. still very much alpha - but curious what people think about it. see an example app here: https://github.com/jeffchuber/openfs-incident-app

I did a slightly less ambitious prototype a few weeks ago where I created added lazy loading of GCS files into the just-bash file-systems, as well as lots of other on-demand files. Was a lot of fun.

yeah (optional) caching is interesting to think about - incl write_through and write_back
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