jk

Transparent CLI alias runner - a small, no-magic alternative to just / make.

You have shell incantations you keep copy-pasting from notes - project builds, container runs, ffmpeg pipelines. Put them in a .jk file once, run them by name:

# Before - copy-paste from notes.md every time
$ ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 22 -c:a aac -b:a 128k out.mp4

# After - same exact command, aliased
$ jk x264enc in.mp4 out.mp4

The string you wrote in .jk, after placeholder substitution, is what gets handed to your shell. No DSL, no command rewriting, no wrapper magic or implicit behaviour.

Example

.jk in your project root (TOML):

shell = "bash"

[build]
desc = "build in release"
cmd = "cargo build --release"

[update]
desc = "apt update + upgrade"
cmd = [
  "apt update",
  "apt upgrade -y",
]

[x264enc]
desc = "h264 + aac with sensible defaults"
cmd = "ffmpeg -i #{1} -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 22 -c:a aac -b:a 128k #{2}"

$ jk                  # list everything in the current .jk
$ jk build            # → bash -c 'cargo build --release'
$ jk update           # runs each item as its own child process
$ jk x264enc a b      # #{1}/#{2} substituted from argv
$ jk build ++dry-run  # print the exact command without executing

More patterns

Multi-line - folded to a single line at run time

[docker-sh]
cmd = '''
docker run --rm -it
  -v $(pwd):/work
  -w /work
  alpine sh
'''
# jk docker-sh

Namespaces (any depth) - jk encode lists encode/*

[encode.jpg]
cmd = "magick #{1} -quality 90 #{2}"
# jk encode jpg in.tiff out.jpg

All remaining args

[fmt]
cmd = "rustfmt #{@}"
# jk fmt src/main.rs src/lib.rs

Raw substitution - value dropped in without shell-quoting (#{N!} / #{@!})

[vfilter]
cmd = "ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf '#{1!}' out.mp4"
# jk vfilter 'scale=640:480'

Per-leaf shell override

[winproc]
shell = "pwsh"
cmd = "Get-Process | Select-Object Name, CPU"

Install

Binary - download from Releases.

From source (stable Rust):

cargo install --git https://github.com/Elypha/jk --locked

Notes

• You name the shell (bash, pwsh, fish, zsh, sh) per file, with optional per-leaf override.
• Each sequence item is an independent child process - state (cwd, $(...) results, shell variables) does not carry between items.
• Child-shell exit codes pass through losslessly, so jk a && jk b composes naturally.
• jk looks for .jk walking up from cwd. ~/.jk/config.toml provides global commands; local entries with the same name override global.

jk's own flags (all listed below) are prefixed ++ so they never collide with your underlying command's flags:

• ++dry-run - print the rendered strings without executing
• ++version - print version and exit
• ++config=<path> - use this file instead of cwd walk-up
• -- - end-of-flags separator (anything after is positional)

License

Apache-2.0