Article URL: https://github.com/synseqack/aict Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48920681 Points: 8 # Comments: 1

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. aict reimplements 33 Unix tools with structured output the agent can read directly — no parsing required. Every field is labeled. Paths are always absolute. Timestamps are Unix integers. Language and MIME type are detected automatically — zero parsing needed. This installs aict plus shell completions for bash and zsh. The MCP server is built in: aict mcp. 33 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) 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.