Comment by wiether
1 day ago
I think I get the idea... but why not officially create a new file type altogether?
Not only it would avoid any confusion (Markdown wasn't meant to be executable?) but it would allow future extensions in a domain that is moving fast.
The recent incident (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46532075) regarding Claude Code's changelog shows that pure Markdown can break things if it is consumed raw.
Also, regarding: "Detect my OS and architecture, download the right binary from GitHub releases, extract to ~/.local/bin, update my shell config."
I have a hard time seeing how this is "more auditable" than a shell script with hardcoded URLs/paths.
"the right binary" is something that would make me reject an issue from a PM, asking for clarifications because it's way too vague.
But maybe that's why I'll soon get the sack?
Another format is an interesting idea. This tool will work with any text file content and file extension. So you could create another text-based format yourself and use it in theory.
I think the reasons Markdown is appealing include:
- It's just a text file.
- LLMs like Claude have high comprehension of the format, so Claude Code does very well with it.
- You can mix structured and unstructured text, and code with plain language: YAML frontmatter, outline/headings, code blocks, tables, links and images etc.
I used a heavily condensed version of the example prompt that Pete Koomen posted about as a simplified example, so that's really just me cutting it back to the most simple form of the concept.
In real-use it would be detailed, verbose and specific, and include the actual code blocks and external shell script references to retrieve and execute. So this really is just a proof of concept to give an idea of the sort of thing that people could create in future.
I know lots of us developers joke about getting the sack and losing out to AI. But for what it's worth, the sorts of points you raise are exactly why I think skilled developers become even more valuable than ever with AI.
Programming will change massively this next decade. But it has many times even in my life. So I'm definitely in the camp that thinks this is a new programming abstraction level, and Claude Code and Codex and others are useful tools that improve the productivity of skilled coders. Especially when they are used carefully and thoughtfully.
I use .ag and it's YAML-inspired. I have incorporated ideas from Design by contract: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46554477
The YAML-inspired format is clear, and pretty cool actually. You can use those `.ag` files directly with claude-run in the shebang or from the command line unmodified. The shebang gets stripped before the file is passed to Claude Code.