jaiph.org · Your first workflow · Your first agent + sandboxed run · Install & switch versions · Agent Skill · Architecture · CLI · Contributing

Docs note: The Jaiph documentation site follows the Diátaxis framework. Tutorials: Your first workflow, Your first agent + sandboxed run. How-to: Install & switch versions, Run in a Docker sandbox, Authenticate agent backends, Configure backend & model, Add a hook, Use & publish a library, Save artifacts, Write & run tests. Reference: CLI, Configuration, Grammar, Language, Environment variables. Explanation: Why Jaiph, Architecture, Sandboxing, Inbox & Dispatch, Async Handles. Contributor: Contributing, Agent Skill.

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Open Source · Powerful · Friendly

What is Jaiph?

Jaiph is a composable scripting language and runtime for defining and orchestrating AI agent workflows. You write .jh files that combine prompts, rules, scripts, and workflows into executable pipelines. The CLI parses source into an AST, validates references at compile time, and the Node workflow runtime interprets the AST directly.

Warning

Jaiph is still in an early stage. Expect breaking changes.

Features

• Workflows — Compose prompt, run, ensure, channel sends, conditionals, run async with implicit join, catch, and repair-and-retry recover.
• Rules and scripts — Rules stay structured (no raw shell lines); script steps run bash or polyglot code as subprocesses.
• Agents — Backends include Cursor, Claude, Codex (HTTP), or a custom agent.command.
• Testing — *.test.jh files run in-process (jaiph test) with mocks and expect_* assertions (Write & run tests).
• Safety and inspectability — Docker-backed sandbox for jaiph run (env-controlled; see Sandboxing and Run in a Docker sandbox); live __JAIPH_EVENT__ on stderr and durable .jaiph/runs/ artifacts (Architecture).
• Tooling — jaiph compile, jaiph format, jaiph install / .jaiph/libs/ (Use & publish a library), and optional hooks.json (CLI, Add a hook).

Core components

• CLI (src/cli) — jaiph run / test / compile / format / init / install / use; prepares scripts, spawns the workflow runner (or in-process test runner), parses __JAIPH_EVENT__ on stderr, runs hooks on jaiph run only.
• Parser (src/parser.ts, src/parse/*) — .jh / .test.jh → AST.
• Validator (src/transpile/validate.ts) — imports and symbol references at compile time.
• Transpiler (src/transpile/*) — emits atomic script files under scripts/ only (no workflow-level shell).
• Node workflow runtime (src/runtime/kernel/node-workflow-runtime.ts, graph.ts) — interprets the AST; buildRuntimeGraph(graph) consumes the ModuleGraph produced by loadModuleGraph (no filesystem reads).
• Node test runner (src/runtime/kernel/node-test-runner.ts) — *.test.jh blocks with mocks.
• JS kernel (src/runtime/kernel/) — prompts, managed scripts, __JAIPH_EVENT__, inbox, mocks. Diagrams, runtime contracts, on-disk artifact layout, and distribution: Architecture. Test layers and E2E policy: Contributing.

Quick try

Run a sample workflow without installing anything first:

curl -fsSL https://jaiph.org/run | bash -s '
workflow default() {
  const response = prompt "Say: Hello I'\''m [model name]!"
  log response
}'

Requires node and curl. The script installs Jaiph automatically if needed.

Install

curl -fsSL https://jaiph.org/install | bash

Or install from npm:

npm install -g jaiph

Verify: jaiph --version. Switch versions: jaiph use nightly or jaiph use 0.10.0.

Initialize a project (optional): jaiph init writes .jaiph/ with bootstrap workflow, gitignore entries for runs/tmp, and SKILL.md. The CLI resolves the skill body in this order — JAIPH_SKILL_PATH, install-relative jaiph-skill.md, docs/jaiph-skill.md under cwd, then an embedded copy baked into the binary as the final fallback — so jaiph init always writes SKILL.md (see Install & switch versions). Canonical skill text for agents: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jaiphlang/jaiph/refs/heads/main/docs/jaiph-skill.md.

Usage

• Run the default workflow: jaiph run path/to/main.jh [args...] or ./main.jh [args...] with a #!/usr/bin/env jaiph shebang.
• Run tests: jaiph test (workspace), jaiph test ./dir, or jaiph test path.test.jh.
• Validate without executing: jaiph compile … (same validateReferences checks as before jaiph run; no scripts/ emission — see Architecture).
• Format sources: jaiph format … / jaiph format --check ….

Full flags and environment variables: CLI, Environment variables. New here? Start with Your first workflow.

Example

#!/usr/bin/env jaiph

import "tools/security.jh" as security

script check_deps = `test -f "package.json"`

rule deps_exist() {
  run check_deps() catch (err) {
    fail "Missing package.json"
  }
}

workflow default(task) {
  ensure deps_exist()
  const ts = run `date +%s`()
  prompt "Build the application: ${task}"
  ensure security.scan_passes()
}

./main.jh "add user authentication"

For the full language reference, see Grammar and Language. For install, libraries, sandboxing, hooks, testing, and artifacts, see the How-to quadrant: Install & switch versions, Use & publish a library, Run in a Docker sandbox, Add a hook, Write & run tests, Save artifacts. New to Jaiph? Start with the tutorials: Your first workflow and Your first agent + sandboxed run. Or visit jaiph.org.

Start here

• AI agent who wants to work in a predictable, structured way? Read the Agent Skill — it teaches you how to author Jaiph workflows and makes your behavior verifiable and auditable.
• Human who manages agents and wants reliable, repeatable automation? See the Samples and Your first workflow.
• Contributor who wants to improve Jaiph itself? See Contributing.

Contributing

See Contributing for branch strategy, pull requests, the test layers, and code style. Use GitHub Issues for bugs and feature discussion.

License

Apache License 2.0.