aiorch 0.1.2

YAML-driven LLM + Python + shell pipelines, runnable from the CLI.

aiorch

YAML-driven pipelines for LLMs, Python, and shell — runnable from the command line.

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aiorch turns a YAML file into a runnable pipeline. Declare your steps — LLM prompts, Python snippets, shell commands — and aiorch run executes the DAG. No server, no scheduler, no database setup.

pip install aiorch
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-...
aiorch run examples/llm/01-hello-llm.yaml

Works with any provider LiteLLM supports — OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter, Ollama, Bedrock, and more.

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How it works

aiorch turns a YAML file into an executable DAG. The full lifecycle of aiorch run:

1. Parse — aiorch.core.parser reads your YAML into a typed pipeline object (steps, inputs, dependencies).
2. DAG build — aiorch.core.dag resolves depends: and foreach: into a layered DAG. Independent steps land on the same layer so they run in parallel.
3. Execute — the runtime walks the DAG layer by layer. Each step is dispatched to its primitive handler.
4. Primitives:
   • prompt — LLM calls via LiteLLM, response-cached by hash of (prompt, model, temperature, max_tokens).
   • python — a Python body runs in an isolated subprocess with inputs and result bindings.
   • run — shell command via subprocess, Jinja-resolved against the context.
   • flow — invoke another pipeline as a single step.
   • foreach — per-item fan-out with optional parallel: true.
   • condition — branch on a boolean expression.
5. Persist — every run and step is logged to SQLite. LLM responses are cached so re-running a step with identical inputs is free.
6. Replay — aiorch history / aiorch trace <run-id> reads back exactly what happened.

A pipeline is a DAG, not a script

Three steps — extract data, summarise with an LLM, write to disk:

steps:
  extract:
    python: |
      import csv
      rows = list(csv.DictReader(open(inputs["file"])))
      result = [r["comment"] for r in rows]

  summarise:
    prompt: |
      Summarise these customer comments in 3 bullets:
      {% for c in extract %}- {{c}}
      {% endfor %}
    depends: [extract]

  write:
    run: cat > report.md <<EOF
{{summarise}}
EOF
    depends: [summarise]

Each step declares what it needs (depends:) and what it produces (implicit via its name). aiorch figures out the order, the parallelism, and the retries.

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Features

• LLM primitives — prompt, schema-validated extraction, classify-and-branch, multi-model comparison.
• DAG shapes — chain, parallel + merge, foreach, diamond, conditional routing.
• LLM + Python hybrid — the LLM for reasoning, deterministic Python for side effects.
• Sub-pipeline composition — one pipeline invokes another via flow:.
• Cost tracking — prompt / completion tokens and USD per provider per run, persisted to ~/.aiorch/history.db.
• Dry-run + validation — catch schema errors and unresolved templates before spending tokens.

Not in the CLI: real production connectors (Postgres / S3 / Kafka / SMTP / webhook), the agent: primitive with function-calling + MCP tools, artifact storage, multi-tenant workspaces, scheduling, and Prometheus metrics. Those live in the commercial aiorch Platform — see §The commercial platform.

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Quick start setup

1. Install

pip install aiorch                   # CLI — LLM / Python / shell primitives
pip install 'aiorch[validation]'     # + jsonschema input validation

Requires Python 3.11+.

2. Configure a provider

aiorch works with any model LiteLLM supports. Export the key for whichever provider you're using:

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-...     # OpenRouter (multi-provider, recommended)
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...                # direct OpenAI
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...         # direct Anthropic
export GOOGLE_API_KEY=...                   # direct Google AI

Optionally, drop an aiorch.yaml alongside your pipelines to pin the provider, model, and storage backend:

# aiorch.yaml
llm:
  api_key: ${OPENROUTER_API_KEY}
  api_base: https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
  model: google/gemini-2.5-flash

storage:
  type: sqlite        # default — ~/.aiorch/history.db

Without aiorch.yaml, aiorch falls back to standard env vars (OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENROUTER_API_KEY, etc.) and a sensible default model. aiorch auto-discovers aiorch.yaml by walking up from the current directory, so cd into the folder holding it before running.

3. Write a pipeline

# hello.yaml
name: hello
steps:
  answer:
    prompt: |
      In one sentence, what is aiorch?
    output: summary

  show:
    run: echo "{{summary}}"
    depends: [answer]

4. Run it

$ aiorch run hello.yaml
[answer]  aiorch runs declarative YAML pipelines...
[show]    aiorch runs declarative YAML pipelines...

Override inputs at runtime with -i KEY=VALUE (scalars), -i KEY=@./path (files), or --input file.json (bulk):

$ aiorch run examples/llm/20-csv-to-markdown-report.yaml \
    -i data=@./examples/llm/inputs/sample-projects.csv

5. Inspect the run

aiorch history                 # list recent runs
aiorch trace <run-id>          # step-by-step timeline for one run
aiorch run hello.yaml --dry    # show plan without executing (skips LLM calls)
aiorch run hello.yaml -v       # verbose — print each step's input and output

Every run is persisted to ~/.aiorch/history.db. LLM responses are cached by hash of (prompt, model, temperature, max_tokens) — re-running a step with identical inputs hits the cache and costs nothing.

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CLI reference

Command	Purpose
aiorch run <file>	Execute a pipeline
aiorch validate <file>	Schema + template lint, no execution
aiorch list <file>	List all steps in a pipeline
aiorch visualize <file>	ASCII DAG diagram
aiorch plan <file>	DAG layers + cost estimate
aiorch init <template>	Scaffold a new pipeline from a template
aiorch history	List recent runs and their status
aiorch history <run-id>	Show details of one run
aiorch trace <run-id>	Step-by-step trace for one run

Run aiorch --help for the full list of flags.

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Examples

72 runnable pipelines shipped under examples/, organized into two tracks:

Directory	Count	What's inside
examples/llm/	30	LLM pipelines — prompts, extraction, chains, fan-out, hybrid LLM + Python
examples/core/	42	Zero-LLM pipelines — every primitive, every DAG shape, input types, developer utilities

Each track has its own walkthrough:

• examples/README.md — start here for the full guide on secrets, model selection, and passing inputs.
• examples/llm/README.md — LLM pipelines by tier (basic → DAG shapes → hybrid → developer workflows).
• examples/core/README.md — core pipelines by group (primitives → DAG shapes → DB access → production patterns → utilities).

# Core pipelines — no API key required
aiorch run examples/core/01-smoke-test.yaml

# LLM pipelines — provider config lives at examples/llm/aiorch.yaml
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-...
cd examples/llm && aiorch run 01-hello-llm.yaml

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Roadmap

This is v0.1 alpha — YAML schema and CLI flags may change. Pin an exact version in CI.

Planned:

• Additional LLM primitives (structured output schemas, streaming sinks).
• Richer flow: composition (parameter forwarding, outputs passthrough).
• First-class Windows support.

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Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome at github.com/ereshzealous/aiorch-cli.

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The commercial platform

Everything above is the OSS CLI — LLM orchestration, YAML DAG, local SQLite history. For team-scale work you'll want the commercial aiorch Platform, which adds:

• Production connectors — Postgres, S3 / MinIO / R2 / GCS, Kafka, SMTP, webhook — with workspace-scoped secrets and audit logs.
• agent: primitive with MCP — function-calling agents over stdio + Streamable HTTP, plus a session-pooled MCP registry for cross-replica agent orchestration.
• Artifact store — content-addressed file storage (local disk or S3-compatible) with dedup, quotas, and UI download.
• Multi-tenant workspaces + RBAC — orgs, workspaces, roles (viewer / operator / editor / admin / owner), API keys, invitations.
• Scheduler + webhook triggers — cron, HMAC-verified webhooks, per-trigger rate limits, delivery history.
• Executor fleet — distributed, admission-controlled, Redis-coordinated run execution with per-workspace concurrency caps.
• Web UI — full-featured dashboard, pipeline editor, trace viewer, cost analytics, health page, and coordination observability.
• Prometheus metrics + /api/health — production observability for every runtime surface.
• Postgres storage — run history, audit trail, and query-able run metadata across a team.

Contact if that's you.

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License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.