Unix coreutils with XML/JSON output — built for AI agents, not humans.
Install · Quick start · All tools · MCP server · Claude Code · Token cost · Benchmarks · Contributing
AI agents run ls
, grep
, and cat
and get back human-readable plaintext. Then they spend tokens parsing column positions, guessing field widths, and handling inconsistent formats. This is fragile and wasteful.
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 2048 Apr 6 10:00 main.go ← which column is size?
-rw-r--r-- 1 user staff 1024 Apr 6 10:00 utils.go ← what's the language?
drwxr-xr-x 5 user staff 160 Apr 6 10:00 internal ← is this a directory?
aict
reimplements 33 Unix tools with structured output the agent can read directly — no parsing required.
$ aict ls src/
<ls timestamp="1746123456" total_entries="3">
<file name="main.go" path="src/main.go" absolute="/project/src/main.go"
size_bytes="2048" size_human="2.0K" language="go" mime="text/x-go"
binary="false" executable="false" modified="1746120000" modified_ago_s="3456"/>
<file name="utils.go" path="src/utils.go" absolute="/project/src/utils.go"
size_bytes="1024" size_human="1.0K" language="go" mime="text/x-go"
binary="false" executable="false" modified="1746120000" modified_ago_s="3456"/>
<directory name="internal" path="src/internal" modified="1746120000"/>
</ls>
Every field is labeled. Paths are always absolute. Timestamps are Unix integers. Language and MIME type are detected automatically — zero parsing needed.
brew tap synseqack/aict
brew install aict
This installs aict
plus shell completions for bash and zsh. The MCP server is built in: aict mcp
.
go install github.com/synseqack/aict@latest
git clone https://github.com/synseqack/aict
cd aict
go build -o aict .
Verify install:aict --help
should list all available tools.
aict ls src/
aict grep "func" . -r
aict cat main.go
aict diff old.go new.go
aict ls src/ --json
aict ls src/ --plain
export AICT_XML=1
33 tools across 6 categories. Every tool supports --xml
(default), --json
, and --plain
.
| Category | Tools |
|---|---|
| File inspection | |
cat head tail file stat wc |
|
| Search & compare | |
ls find grep diff |
|
| Path utilities | |
realpath basename dirname pwd |
|
| Text processing | |
sort uniq cut tr sed awk |
|
| Data & archives | |
jq tar |
|
| System & environment | |
env system ps df du checksums md5sum sha1sum sha256sum |
Additional: git
(status, diff, log, ls-files, blame) · completions
(bash/zsh/fish) · doctor
(self-diagnostic)
All tools follow the same conventions:
| Field | Convention |
|---|---|
| Paths | Always absolute (absolute attr) |
| Timestamps | Unix epoch integers + _ago_s companion |
| Sizes | Bytes (size_bytes ) + human-readable (size_human ) |
| Booleans | "true" / "false" strings |
| Errors | <error code="" msg=""/> elements — never stderr |
| Empty results | Valid XML with zero counts, never an error |
aict mcp
exposes all tools as callable MCP functions via stdio transport. AI assistants call them natively — no shell wrapping needed. The MCP server is a subcommand of the main binary.
Configure Claude Desktop (~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json
):
{
"mcpServers": {
"aict": {
"command": "aict",
"args": ["mcp"]
}
}
}
If aict
is not in PATH, use its full path:
{
"mcpServers": {
"aict": {
"command": "/usr/local/bin/aict",
"args": ["mcp"]
}
}
}
Add to ~/.claude.json
:
{
"mcpServers": {
"aict": {
"command": "aict",
"args": ["mcp"]
}
}
}
Once connected, Claude Code can call ls
, grep
, diff
, and all other tools as native functions with typed arguments and structured JSON results.
Honest numbers first: aict output costs 1.1–7.8× more tokens per task than terse GNU output (measured with tiktoken o200k_base
). What those tokens buy: fewer round-trips and zero parsing ambiguity. Where plaintext needs 2–4 chained calls (ls
then file
for languages, find
then stat
per hit), aict answers in one.
| Task | GNU | aict | Tokens (GNU → aict) |
|---|---|---|---|
| List dir with size/type/language | 2 calls | 1 call | 246 → 820 · 3.3× |
| Read file + line count + type | 3 calls | 1 call | 173 → 274 · 1.6× |
Find .go files with size/mtime |
|||
| 4 calls | 1 call | 47 → 367 · 7.8× | |
| Grep with file/line/context | 1 call | 1 call | 141 → 326 · 2.3× |
| Diff with change types | 1 call | 1 call | 167 → 192 · 1.2× |
Every extra plaintext call is a full agent turn — model inference, tool-call overhead, and intermediate output all land in the context window anyway, none of which the token counts above include. And in this very benchmark, file(1)
misidentified a Go source file as "C source"; aict labeled it go
.
In a live agent eval (opencode, same task 3× per toolchain), the aict-equipped agent generated ~46% fewer output tokens (median 265 vs 487) and was correct 3/3 — the GNU-equipped agent shipped a flawed report in the run where it trusted file(1)
's language detection. See benchmarks/TOKENS.md for both methodologies; reproduce with
go run ./cmd/tokenbench
.Use --plain
when you only need raw content.
aict trades some speed for semantic richness (language detection, MIME typing, absolute paths). The overhead is intentional. Startup cost is ~3.6 ms per invocation.
| Tool | GNU | --plain |
--xml |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
diff (1000 lines) |
0.9 ms | 1.9 ms · 2.1× | 2.1 ms · 2.4× | ✅ Myers O(ND) |
wc (100k lines) |
6.1 ms | 16 ms · 2.6× | 17 ms · 2.7× | ✅ |
awk (10k lines) |
4.1 ms | 12 ms · 2.9× | 11 ms · 2.6× | ✅ |
sed (10k lines) |
3.3 ms | 14 ms · 4.2× | 16 ms · 4.9× | ✅ |
find (deep tree) |
1.9 ms | 13 ms · 6.8× | 15 ms · 8.0× | ✅ |
ls (1000 files) |
4.0 ms | 51 ms · 12.9× | 70 ms · 17.7× | MIME+lang detection per file |
cat (100k lines) |
1.4 ms | 24 ms · 16.4× | 31 ms · 21.6× | line-by-line scan + encoding detect |
grep (100k lines) |
1.3 ms | 119 ms · 88× | 130 ms · 96× | Go regexp vs GNU SIMD |
Medians from 5 runs on Linux/amd64. See benchmarks/ for methodology and
make bench
to reproduce.Use --plain
to skip enrichment when you only need raw content.
Why XML and not JSON by default?
XML attributes are denser in a context window. <file size="1024" lang="go"/>
is shorter than {"size":1024,"lang":"go"}
. Use --json
if you prefer JSON — the structure is identical.
Why not pipe GNU tools to jq?
ls
, cat
, stat
, find
, diff
, and wc
don't output JSON. jq
can't help with them. aict provides structured output for the entire toolchain, not just grep. (aict also ships its own jq
for querying JSON files with path expressions.)
How does this compare to ripgrep?
ripgrep is much faster for pure search. aict grep adds language detection, MIME type, and a consistent output format shared with every other tool. Use ripgrep for speed-critical search; use aict when the agent needs structured context.
How does this compare to eza / lsd?
eza and lsd are better ls
for humans — great colors and formatting. aict outputs data structures, not formatted tables. They're solving different problems.
Does it work on Windows?
ls
, cat
, stat
, wc
, find
, diff
, grep
, head
, tail
, sort
, uniq
, cut
, tr
, sed
, awk
, jq
, tar
, checksums
, df
, and path utilities work on Windows. system
is Linux/macOS; ps
is Linux-only (it reads /proc
). Unsupported platforms get a structured <error>
element, never a crash.
Is this safe to run in a sandboxed environment?
Yes. aict is strictly read-only. No network requests (MIME detection uses the Go stdlib, not HTTP). No telemetry. No data collection. It only reads paths you explicitly pass to it.
How many dependencies does it have?
One: the official MCP Go SDK, used only by the aict mcp
subcommand. All 33 tools and every internal package are pure Go standard library — enforced as a hard constraint in AGENTS.md.
Bug reports, feature requests, and PRs are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines, code style, and the tool implementation pattern.
Issues tagged good first issue are a good place to start.
MIT — built entirely by AI tools, for AI tools.