Show HN: Executable Markdown files with Unix pipes

Re:Show HN: Executable Markdown files with Unix pipes by jedwhite on Thursday January 08, 2026 @10:58PM (#46549898)

One thing to consider is that the steps in the pipeline can be deterministic (the code executed) while the outputs (summaries, reviews, evaluations, explanations) may be nondeterministic. An example would be summarizing data calculated via a traditional script, and piping it to a report-format markdown script that generates the report and summarizes the results.

I agree that this is a choice by each person using tools like this, and that it is up to each of us as developers whether a tool like this suits the use case at hand.

My own view is that the world is rapidly moving to more human language programming tools, and that system automation and shell scripting will be part of this. There is a wide array of sensible potential use cases I can see between the two polarized views of "never use an LLM' and "let's vibe code system automation".

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Re:Show HN: Executable Markdown files with Unix pipes by shakna on Friday January 09, 2026 @04:36AM (#46551868)

If the code executed is deterministic - then so is the output.

If your output is in any way nondeterministic, then so is the code executed. Fin. No nuance to mathematically be had.

Randomness is nothing new. Various algorithms have always been non-deterministic. Randomness is in most standard libraries.

My problem here is not with what you're doing - but that you're presenting as if you do not understand what you're doing.

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