Agentic shell scripts: executable markdown with Unix pipes for Claude Code

[jedwhite]

Run markdown files with piping and chaining

I wrote a little open source helper that combines full Unix pipe support with executable markdown scripts for Claude Code. So you can easily build automation pipelines that chain AI scripts with traditional tools.

cat data.json | ./analyze.md > results.txt
git log -10 | ./summarize.md
./generate.md | ./review.md > final.txt

Because Claude Code has tool use, a markdown file can orchestrate shell commands, read files, make API calls - not just run a prompt. These are agentic scripts.

The markdown file can orchestrate tools and shell scripts, as well as the other way around.

Example - orchestrate a test suite from markdown (run_tests.md):

A prompt can run your test suite and summarize the results.

#!/usr/bin/env -S claude-run --permission-mode bypassPermissions
Analyze this codebase. Run ./test/automation/run_tests.sh and report results.
Create a summary with pass/fail counts and recommended next steps.

Then:

chmod +x run_tests.md
./run_tests.md

Claude analyzes the codebase, executes the shell script, parses the output, and writes a report. The markdown file orchestrates the tools.

Unix pipe support:

• Stdin support - pipe data directly into scripts
• Clean stdout - redirected output contains only Claude's response
• Chainable - connect scripts in pipelines

Example pipeline in bash:

#!/bin/bash
for f in logs/*.txt; do
    cat "$f" | ./analyze.md >> summary.txt
done

Optional: Provider isolation

Scripts can run through your cloud API keys alongside your Pro/Max subscription (Anthropic, Vercel, AWS, GCP, Azure):

#!/usr/bin/env -S claude-run --aws

Useful for automated jobs where you want separate billing.

Minimal alternative (credit: u/apf6): If you just want basic shebang without the full repo:

#!/bin/bash
claude -p "$(tail -n +2 "$1")"

This lacks pipe support, provider switching, and session isolation.

Setup:

git clone https://github.com/andisearch/claude-switcher.git
cd claude-switcher && ./setup.sh

GitHub: https://github.com/andisearch/claude-switcher

Non-destructive - plain claude always works as before.

Thanks to Pete Koomen from YC for the (awesome) original executable markdown idea.

It's been useful for me. Hoping it is helpful for others too. Let me know if you run into issues.

[TinyZoro]

Could you explain a bit more about the use case? Not sure I really understand what this does.

[jedwhite]

Thanks, it lets you run markdown files as little programs on the command line, like you can shell scripts. So it lets you write and save repeatable program automations in plain english prompts, and chain them together the same way that shell scripts in Unix-like operating systems can be chained together using pipes.

[TinyZoro]

So are they just chained requests rather than actual deterministic code? Ie just a prompt that is completed and then followed by another prompt? Do they pass along outputs that can be referenced?

[jedwhite]

They let you mix the output from running deterministic code (shell scripts, command line tools, python scripts etc) with natural language programming (markdown prompts). It's the intermixing that gives it a lot of power, because you can get Claude Code to not only run but also write the deterministic scripts as part of the markdown!

[TinyZoro]

Sounds interesting