Show HN: Aict – Unix coreutils that output XML/JSON, built for AI agents

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 aictThis 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 --helpshould list all available tools.

# Default: XML output (best for AI agents)

aict ls src/

aict grep "func" . -r

aict cat main.go

aict diff old.go new.go

# JSON output

aict ls src/ --json

# Plain text (same as the original Unix tools)

aict ls src/ --plain

# Enable XML globally for all aict calls

export AICT_XML=133 tools across 6 categories. Every tool supports --xml (default), --json, and --plain.

Additional: git (status, diff, log, ls-files, blame) · completions (bash/zsh/fish) · doctor (self-diagnostic)

All tools follow the same conventions:

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):