marfrit f94d16fc89 repl: background CMD&: with handle/poll (closes #8)
Builds, long-running network calls, and file watches no longer block
the turn. A new "CMD&: <cmd>" marker (analogue of CMD:) tells the REPL
to spawn the command in the background, return immediately, and poll
for completion between user inputs.

Process model: shell-wrapped to avoid needing fork()/execv() FFI.

  nohup sh -c '(<cmd>) > <log> 2>&1; echo $? > <status>' </dev/null
       >/dev/null 2>&1 & echo $!

The child is reparented to init; we hold only the PID and the path to
the .status sidecar. Completion is detected by the .status file
existing (the wrapper writes it as its last act). No waitpid needed —
the child isn't ours after the popen subshell exits.

Storage: <history.dir>/bg/<id>.log + <id>.status. The directory is
created lazily at startup (mkdir -p). Requires history.dir to be
configured; without it CMD&: emits an error status and the model
sees an "[bg failed to start]" exec-output note.

check_bg_done() runs at the top of each main-loop iteration alongside
check_every_due(). When a job is detected as exited, the REPL:
  - emits a status line "[bg:<id> exited <code>, <bytes>, <secs>s wall] <cmd>"
  - appends the same string to ctx as exec output, so the model sees
    the completion on its next turn (natural follow-up: "ok the build
    finished; let me check the log")

Meta surface:
  :bg-spawn <cmd>       start a bg job directly (no AI needed; also
                        useful for testing without depending on the
                        model emitting CMD&:)
  :bg-list              show running/done jobs (id, pid, state, runtime, cmd)
  :bg-output <id>       dump the log file to stdout
  :bg-kill <id>         SIGTERM (note: only delivers if the PID is
                        still the actual command — long-lived shells
                        may need pkill by name)

Scope (deliberately limited for v1):
  - No callback-mode readline: bg completion detection is pre-prompt,
    not mid-readline. If a build finishes while the user is typing,
    notification comes when they hit Enter.
  - Permission policy DSL (#9) does NOT apply to CMD&: — the
    asynchronous gating model wasn't designed for the y/N flow.
    Filed as follow-up if needed.
  - Norris not extended: helpers.exec_cmd is still synchronous; the
    planner doesn't dispatch bg jobs.
  - Plan mode interaction: CMD&: in plan mode emits "PLAN: & <cmd>"
    and a "[plan] would bg-run: <cmd>" exec-output note, no spawn.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-16 21:25:55 +00:00

aish

aish — AI-augmented conversational shell.

A single REPL that interleaves shell command execution and language-model conversation, backed by a llama.cpp HTTP broker. Implementation is LuaJIT 2.x with FFI bindings to libcurl, GNU readline, and libc — no C extensions, no build step, one source tree.

Why

Three flows that currently live in three windows fold into one:

  1. "Run this command and show me the output" — fast feedback loop, no copy-paste between terminal and chat.
  2. "Explain or write code based on the output we just looked at" — exec output is automatically injected into the model's context.
  3. "Plan and execute a multi-step task with confirmation gates" — landing in Phase 3 as Chuck Norris autonomous mode.

aish is not a wrapper around bash. It's a first-class interactive environment where the shell is one of several execution channels.

Status

Component State
Repository skeleton in this commit
Phase 0 manifest docs/PHASE0.md — locked
Phase 0 implementation 🔜 next session
Phase 1+ 📋 enumerated in PHASE0.md §11

Every module file currently raises not implemented (Phase 0 pending) when called. luajit main.lua fails loudly at the first un-implemented function, never silently.

Quick orientation

Read this If you want to know
docs/PHASE0.md §12 What aish is and what Phase 0 ships
docs/PHASE0.md §3 Technology decisions (LuaJIT, FFI, readline, libcurl, llama.cpp)
docs/PHASE0.md §4 Directory layout — these file names are stable across all phases
docs/PHASE0.md §5 How input is dispatched (meta / shell / AI)
docs/PHASE0.md §6 Broker contract: /v1/chat/completions, CMD: extraction
docs/PHASE0.md §10 Config schema and resolution order
docs/PHASE0.md §11 Phase sequence (what lands when)
docs/PHASE0.md §13 Open questions, tracked per phase
CLAUDE.md Project conventions for AI-assisted contributors

Directory layout

aish/
├── main.lua              # entry point
├── repl.lua              # readline loop, dispatch, prompt
├── broker.lua            # llama.cpp HTTP client
├── router.lua            # input classifier (meta/shell/AI)
├── executor.lua          # command exec + CMD: extraction
├── context.lua           # in-memory turn history
├── history.lua           # disk persistence (Phase 1+)
├── safety.lua            # destructive-op gate (Phase 3+)
├── renderer.lua          # output formatting
├── config.lua            # default model registry + preferences
├── ffi/
│   ├── curl.lua          # libcurl easy interface
│   ├── readline.lua      # GNU readline
│   ├── pty.lua           # forkpty (Phase 1+)
│   └── libc.lua          # chdir, errno, strerror
└── docs/
    └── PHASE0.md         # locked substrate

Build / runtime dependencies

System packages (Debian / ALARM / Arch names):

  • luajit (>= 2.0)
  • libcurl4 / libcurl-openssl-3 runtime
  • libreadline8 runtime
  • libc6 runtime (always present)

No compilation, no luarocks, no make. Just luajit main.lua.

Running

Once Phase 0 ships:

luajit main.lua                          # uses ~/.config/aish/config.lua
luajit main.lua --config ./config.lua    # explicit config path
AISH_CONFIG=/path/to/config.lua luajit main.lua

Config resolution order is documented in docs/PHASE0.md §10.

Configuration

config.lua is a Lua file returning a single table. The committed config.lua in this repo is both the canonical example and the development-fallback config (lowest precedence). Copy it to ~/.config/aish/config.lua and edit endpoints to your local llama.cpp servers, or point AISH_CONFIG at your own.

The default endpoints assume mfritsche's home network:

  • fastdirac.fritz.box:8081 (Qwen2.5-Coder-7B q4 8k ctx)
  • deepdirac.fritz.box:8080 (Qwen2.5-Coder-7B q4 32k ctx)
  • cloudhossenfelder.fritz.box:8082 (forwards to OpenRouter)

Replace these with your own llama.cpp endpoints if you're not on that LAN.

License

Not yet selected. Default-private until decided.

Project conventions

See CLAUDE.md for contribution conventions, commit style, and the phase-loop discipline this project follows.

S
Description
AI-augmented conversational shell — LuaJIT REPL with llama.cpp broker, shell executor, and routed AI inference.
Readme MIT 2.2 MiB
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Lua 99.8%
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