Show HN: Aict – Unix coreutils that output XML/JSON, built for AI agents
A new open-source project called 'aict' provides Unix coreutils that output structured XML or JSON instead of human-readable text. This tool is specifically designed to improve the efficiency and reliability of AI agents interacting with command-line interfaces.
Why it matters
By eliminating the need for AI to parse inconsistent plaintext, this tool addresses a major bottleneck in AI-driven automation and software engineering.
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? The solution aict reimplements 33 Unix tools with structured output the agent can read directly — no parsing required.
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