pizx — zx fork with native Pi AI integration, on cordis

AI-powered shell scripting for Node.js — a zx fork with native Pi AI integration, built on the cordis plugin framework. Four letters ship in core — π (text generation), Π (coding agent), α (any ACP-compatible agent), and ε (any CLI AI harness — claude, kiro-cli, …) — and you define your own letters as plugins. Every run is traceable and exportable as JSONL, and cacheable letters hit a local result cache.

#!/usr/bin/env pizx

const answer = await π`what is the capital of France?`
echo(answer)

await Π`fix the TypeScript errors in src/`

Quick Start

# Step 1: Install Pi CLI (one-time) — needed for AI credentials
npm install -g @earendil-works/pi
pi auth login

# Step 2: Install pizx in your project
npm install @topce/pizx

Write a script (hello.mjs):

#!/usr/bin/env pizx

// Simple AI query
const answer = await π`what is the capital of France?`
echo(answer)

// Shell + AI, zx-style
const files = await $`ls src/`
const summary = await π`summarize these files in one sentence: ${files}`
console.log(summary)

Run it:

chmod +x hello.mjs
./hello.mjs          # or: pizx hello.mjs

Prerequisites: Node.js >= 22.19.0, Pi AI CLI configured with pi auth login. No separate zx install needed — pizx bundles zx; $, cd, echo, fetch and friends come built-in.

The letters

Letter	What it does
π (pi, ai)	Pi AI text generation — ask a model anything, stream it, cache it
Π (Pi, piAgent, codingAgent)	Pi coding agent with tools (read, bash, edit, write, grep, …)
α (acp, agent)	Any ACP-compatible coding agent (server required — no pi needed)
ε (run, harness, cli)	Any CLI AI harness — claude, kiro-cli, opencode, … (binary required — no pi needed)

const answer = await π({ model: 'anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5' })`explain async/await`
const json = await π.quiet()`generate a JSON array of 5 colors`
for await (const chunk of π.stream`tell me a story`) process.stdout.write(chunk)

await Π({ tools: ['read', 'bash', 'edit'] })`refactor the auth module`

// α speaks the generic Agent Client Protocol — any ACP v1 server works:
await α({ server: ['kiro-cli', 'acp'] })`fix the TypeScript errors in src/`

// ε runs any CLI AI harness; unknown options become its CLI flags:
await ε({ harness: 'claude', model: 'sonnet' })`review this diff`   // claude -p --model sonnet …

All four return a LetterOutput: text, modelId (alias modelUsed), isFromCache (alias fromCache), timing, and token/cost getters — plus output.trace with the LLM calls of that invocation. Full option tables: π, Π, α, ε. α and ε are independent of pi entirely: α drives any ACP server command you name; ε drives any harness binary you have installed (e.g. Kiro, Claude Code).

Define your own letters

pizx is a plugin host. A letter is a cordis plugin that registers a template tag — full guide in docs/extension.md:

// plugins/summarize.mjs
import Schema from 'schemastery'

export const name = 'summarize'
export const inject = ['letters', 'llm']

export function apply(ctx) {
  ctx.letters.define('Σ', {
    aliases: ['summarize'],
    options: Schema.object({ maxWords: Schema.natural().default(30), model: Schema.string() }),
    run: async (prompt, opts, { ctx }) => {
      const result = await ctx.llm.ask(
        `Summarize in at most ${opts.maxWords} words:\n\n${prompt}`,
        { model: opts.model }
      )
      return result.text
    },
  })
}

export default { name, inject, apply }

// pizx.config.mjs — next to your script (loaded automatically)
import summarize from './plugins/summarize.mjs'
export const plugins = [summarize]

#!/usr/bin/env pizx
const summary = await Σ({ maxWords: 20 })`pizx is…`

Your letters get the full built-in DX automatically: option chaining, .quiet / .cache variants, .stream support, tracing, caching, and globals injection (pizx --letters lists them). Collisions are errors, unloading a plugin removes its letters (cordis effects), and inject dependencies make load order irrelevant.

Words — composable AI patterns

Words are named AI patterns built by composing letters; a word is itself a letter, so words compose recursively. Seven ship as ready-made plugins in examples/plugins/ — the patterns from Anthropic's Building effective agents — and load through pizx.config.mjs like any plugin:

Word	Aliases	Pattern
ralph	loop	Agent loop — iterative analyze/plan/execute/review
fleet	parallel	Parallelization: sectioning — split prompt, fan out
chain	pipeline	Prompt chaining — sequential steps + optional gate
route	branch	Routing — classify, then dispatch
vote	jury	Voting — N parallel answers, tallied
refine	optimize	Evaluator-optimizer — revise against criteria until PASS
orchestrate	director	Orchestrator-workers — decompose, fan out, synthesize

await chain({ steps: ['outline', 'π'] })`write a document about X`
await route({ routes: { refund: 'π', tech: 'Π' } })`support query`
await vote({ votes: 5 })`is this diff safe to merge?`
await refine({ criteria: 'no jargon, under 50 words' })`explain monads`
await orchestrate`audit the docs for inconsistencies`

Every word's letters live in replaceable slots — ralph({ execute: 'α' }), fleet({ worker: 'Π' }) — and letters needing options get them through the word (server, model, cwd, … are forwarded). Full reference: docs/words.md.

Traceable, exportable, cache-friendly

pizx --trace script.mjs                 # token/cache/cost summary on stderr
pizx --export-log script.mjs            # .pizx/logs/<runId>.jsonl
pizx --export-log /tmp/run.jsonl s.mjs  # explicit path (also on crashes)
pizx --cache script.mjs                 # enable the local result cache

Every run is a JSONL-exportable event log (run-start, letter-start, llm-call with disjoint input/output/cache-read/cache-write tokens, cache-hit/cache-miss, letter-end, run-end) — deepseek-harness style. --trace prints totals; repeated calls to cacheable letters hit a content-addressed local cache (.pizx/cache, TTL + LRU) and record cache-hit instead of an LLM call. Π sessions are pooled per model/tools, keeping provider prompt caches warm. Details: docs/trace.md.

const app = await createPizx({ cache: true })
const first = await app.π.cache`what is 7! + 5?`
const second = await app.π.cache`what is 7! + 5?`
second.fromCache            // true — no second LLM call
app.exportLog('jsonl')      // the whole run, one event per line
await app.dispose()

CLI

pizx script.mjs                # run a script ($, π, Π, α, ε and your letters as globals)
pizx -p "your prompt"          # quick pi-ai query
echo "your prompt" | pizx -p - # read the prompt from stdin
pizx --acp --acp-server "kiro-cli acp" "your prompt"  # quick ACP agent query
pizx --run --run-harness claude "your prompt"         # quick CLI harness query
pizx --model <id> script.mjs   # model for the run
pizx --config ./cfg.mjs s.mjs  # load plugins from a config file
pizx --letters                 # list registered letters
pizx --cache | --no-cache      # toggle the local result cache
pizx --json -p "your prompt"   # machine-readable output (implies --quiet/--no-color)
pizx --no-color script.mjs     # disable ANSI color (also honors NO_COLOR)
pizx --trace --export-log s.mjs
pizx --version | --help

Machine-readable output for agents: --json emits a result envelope ({ text, modelId, fromCache, durationMs, tokens, costUsd }) or, with --letters, the letter registry; failures print { error: { code, message } } to stderr and exit with a distinct code (2 usage · 3 auth · 4 agent · 5 acp · 6 cancelled · 7 internal · 8 harness). See AGENTS.md.

Programmatic use

import { $, π, Π } from '@topce/pizx'          // lazy default app
import '@topce/pizx/globals'                   // or everything as globals

import { createPizx } from '@topce/pizx'       // explicit app
const app = await createPizx({ cache: true, plugins: [summarize] })
await app.π`hello`
await app.letter('Σ')`summarize this`
console.log(app.traceSummary())
await app.flushLog('run.jsonl')
await app.dispose()

Docs

• AGENTS.md — guide for AI agents writing pizx code (script template, letters, --json, exit codes)
• Onboarding — architecture and file map
• Defining letters — the plugin API
• Words — composing letters into AI patterns (the word library)
• Trace & logs — event format, export, cache-friendliness
• π · Π · α · ε — built-in letter references
• α idea — the ACP letter's design rationale and roadmap

What happened to the 0.9 patterns?

pizx 1.0 rewrote the core on cordis and ships π, Π, α, and ε — the 16 hardcoded pattern tags (Ralph, Fleet, Debate, Pipeline, …) are gone from the core and come back as letter plugins. Seven already have: ralph, fleet, chain (pipeline), route (branch), vote (jury), refine (optimize), and orchestrate (director) ship as word plugins in examples/plugins/ — see docs/words.md. The old code lives in the 0.9 branch.

License

MIT