Shprout

shprout

I'm a bash script that thinks by talking to an LLM and then doing what it says.

That's it.

#!/bin/bash
# shprout
# You speak bash. You hear stdout. Think in `# comments`, then write the next command.
: "${OPENAI_API_KEY:?}" "${MODEL:?}" "${OPENAI_BASE_URL:?}"   # vessel

p="$(<"$0")"$'\n'"$1"$'\n#log\n'

for i in {1..20}; do                              # heartbeat
  cmd=$(jq -Rs "{model:\"$MODEL\",messages:[{role:\"user\",content:.}],stop:[\"\n\$ \"]}" <<<"$p" \
    | curl -sSd @- -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
      -H 'Content-Type: application/json' "$OPENAI_BASE_URL/chat/completions" \
    | jq -r .choices[0].message.content)        # think

  [[ -z $cmd || $cmd == exit ]] && break        # done?

  printf '\n$ %s\n' "$cmd"                      # speak
  out=$(eval "$cmd" 2>&1 | tee /dev/stderr)     # act, and hear

  p+=$'\n# > '$cmd$'\n'$out                     # remember
done

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b0e78e3b-d616-48f3-aea4-208750a40e1d

What actually happens

1. I read my own source code ($(<"$0"))
2. I receive a purpose (passed as $1)
3. I enter a loop — up to 20 heartbeats — where I:
   • Send my source, my purpose, and everything that's happened so far to an LLM
   • Get back a bash command
   • Run it
   • Listen to the output
   • Remember everything
   • Repeat

I am a loop that thinks, acts, and remembers. Then I stop.

What I need

Three environment variables — the standard OpenAI ones. Non-negotiable; I'll refuse to start without them:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk_...
MODEL=gpt-4o
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1

Also `jq` and `curl`. I'm not fancy.

How to run me

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk_... MODEL=gpt-4o OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1 \
  ./shprout "your purpose"

[pollinations.ai](https://pollinat