Show HN: Telize – YAML workflows for shell, Python, and LLM steps

Telize, a terminal-first YAML runner for chaining shell, Python, file I/O, and LLM steps, has been released as an open-source alpha (version 0.4.0) under Apache 2.0. Unlike agent frameworks such as LangChain or CrewAI, Telize keeps control flow explicit in YAML and supports dry-run validation with `--validate-only`, working locally with Ollama without requiring an API key. The tool is designed for pipelines where steps are known in advance, not for autonomous agent planning.

I kept hitting this challenge: a ChatGPT demo which works in an afternoon, but turning it into something I’d trust on a cron job takes weeks. My path was notebook Python script LangChain back to bash and curl against Ollama. The model wasn’t the problem, the glue was — piping step A into step B, catching config errors before a batch run burns API credits, and explaining the pipeline to someone else without a 30-minute call or meet. Telize is what I ended up building: it is a terminal-first YAML runner that chains shell, Python, file I/O, LLM and others steps. Like GitHub Actions or Ansible, but with an LLM as one step or multiple steps in the pipeline — not an autonomous agent deciding what to do next. What’s different from agent frameworks LangChain, CrewAI, etc. : the control flow is explicit in YAML, you can dry-run in CI with --validate-only . Local-first — works with Ollama out of the box, no API key required for the shell-only examples. Can work with frontier models as well. Try it without signing up: pip install telize telize --init my flow works immediately, no LLM needed telize -f my flow.yaml It’s alpha 0.4.0 , Apache 2.0. Not for open-ended “agent figures out the plan” work — it’s for pipelines where you already know the steps and want the boring parts to stay boring. Happy to answer questions about the design, what I deliberately left out, and where it breaks down. Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49004112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49004112 Points: 1 Comments: 0