| title | Getting started | |
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| permalink | /getting-started | |
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Jaiph is a language and runtime for defining and orchestrating AI agent workflows.
It allows you to combine agentic workflows with strict checks and script calls. It comes with built-in Docker sandboxing for agentic workflows, and a set of tooling to make your development faster and more efficient.
- Setup and installation — Install the CLI, run a one-liner sample without cloning, execute workflows, format sources, and initialize a project with
.jaiph/and workspace conventions. - Libraries — Install git-based
.jhmodules under.jaiph/libs/, pin versions with a lockfile, and import them with paths like"lib-name/rest"(first segment is the folder under.jaiph/libs/).
- Language — Practical guide to rules, scripts, prompts, workflows, and imports, with patterns you can copy.
- Inbox & Dispatch — Named channels and
sendfor routing work between workflows without tight coupling. - Testing —
*.test.jhsuites, mocks, and assertions for deterministic checks around workflows. - Spec: Async Handles —
Handle<T>resolution, implicit join, and interaction withrun async. - Grammar — Formal syntax, types, and step contracts for the whole surface area.
- CLI —
jaiph run,test,compile,format,init,install,use, flags, environment variables, and file-path shorthand for existing.jh/*.test.jhfiles.jaiph compilewalks the import closure and runsvalidateReferencesonly — noscripts/emission, nobuildRuntimeGraph(), no runner (Architecture — Summary; directory discovery skips*.test.jhunless you pass a test file explicitly). - Configuration —
config { }blocks, agent backends, logging, and runtime options (including env overrides). - Runtime artifacts — What Jaiph writes under
.jaiph/runs/(per-step captures,run_summary.jsonl, optionalinbox/files) versus live__JAIPH_EVENT__lines on stderr for progress and hooks. - Hooks — Project or user
hooks.jsonto run shell commands on workflow and step lifecycle events (hooks run on the host CLI even when the workflow runs in Docker). - Sandboxing — Docker-backed isolation for
jaiph runonly (beta; on by default whenJAIPH_DOCKER_ENABLEDis unset andJAIPH_UNSAFEis nottrue). Enablement is environment-only — useJAIPH_DOCKER_ENABLEDandJAIPH_UNSAFEas described in Enabling Docker; workflowconfigcannot turn Docker on or off. There is nojaiph run --dockerflag. Image, network, and timeout still come fromruntime.*andJAIPH_DOCKER_*where applicable (Configuration).jaiph testdoes not use Docker (Architecture — Test runner integration).
- VS Code extension — Syntax highlighting, formatting, and compile feedback in the editor.
- Architecture — How the CLI, parser, transpiler, Node runtime, and contracts fit together; aimed at contributors and deep dives.
- Contributing — Clone-and-build workflow, branch strategy, test layers, and how to propose changes.
- Agent Skill — Short, opinionated defaults for AI assistants authoring and running Jaiph in a repo (same content as the canonical raw URL:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jaiphlang/jaiph/refs/heads/main/docs/jaiph-skill.md). - Examples — Runnable samples (async, inbox, testing, recovery) alongside the main tree.