mkscript

Compile a one-off task description into a single, self-contained, runnable script — using AI.

Status: early / specification stage. The design is modeled in the growth MCP service (requirements, milestones, work items, verification, architecture); code has not landed yet. This README describes the intended v1.

What it does (one thing)

You give mkscript a natural-language definition of a task. It asks an AI backend to produce exactly one self-contained script and emits it. mkscript does not execute the script — the emitted file is the sole deliverable.

• The model chooses the language. mkscript does not hard-code bash or Python; the AI picks a platform-appropriate language/runtime. You may nudge it with optional hints.
• One file, no companions. Dependencies are satisfied from within the single file using the language's idiom (e.g. PEP 723 inline metadata for Python, standard-shell builtins for bash).
• Validated before emit. Where a syntax check exists for the chosen language (e.g. bash -n, py_compile), a script that fails it is not silently emitted.
• Swappable backend. Generation sits behind a thin, vendor-neutral interface; the one shipped backend uses Pydantic-AI (pydantic-ai-slim[anthropic,openai]), so you bring your own provider key and pick a model like anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-6 or openai:gpt-4o.

Intended CLI

mkscript "describe the task"            # script printed to stdout
mkscript "..." --out build.sh           # written to a file instead
echo "describe the task" | mkscript     # definition from stdin
mkscript "..." --model openai:gpt-4o    # pick the provider:model
mkscript "..." --lang python            # preferred-language hint
mkscript "..." --platform linux         # target platform (defaults to host OS)
mkscript "..." --context-file sample.csv  # optional context (sample data / format)
mkscript "..." --refine                 # interactive, bounded refine loop

Before emitting, mkscript runs a language-appropriate syntax check where one exists (py_compile for Python, bash -n for shell); a script that fails is surfaced and not emitted. Languages without a shipped checker are emitted best-effort.

With --refine, mkscript shows each candidate script (and its check status) and prompts on stderr, so stdout stays clean for the final file. Type a natural-language change to revise it, :accept to emit the current script, or :quit (or a blank line) to exit without emitting. A script that failed its syntax check is not emitted by :accept; use :accept! to emit it anyway. The loop is bounded by a maximum number of rounds.

Configuration resolves by precedence. The provider/model is taken from the --model flag → MKSCRIPT_MODEL → a model key in the config file → a built-in default. The API credential is taken from MKSCRIPT_API_KEY → an api_key key in the config file → the provider-native variable (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY / OPENAI_API_KEY) that Pydantic-AI reads itself. With no credential resolvable, mkscript exits non-zero and names the variable to set.

The config file is TOML at <OS config dir>/mkscript/config.toml (located via platformdirs):

model = "anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-6"
api_key = "sk-..."

Stack

Python, packaged under src/mkscript/ and run via uv (uv tool install). Note: the single-file constraint applies to the scripts mkscript generates, not to mkscript's own source.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.