combo

name

combo

description

Chain several tricks into one pipeline so the output of one flows straight into the next — redact then wash then strip, or wash then score — and run the whole routine in a single call. Use when a task needs more than one trick in sequence (clean-and-check, extract-and-analyze, gate-then-transform) instead of invoking each trick separately. Built on the Unix pipe: every trick is a stdin→stdout program, and combo wires the stages together, forwards each stage's summary, and aborts the moment a gate fails.

combo

pull the whole routine.

A magician's combo is several tricks performed as one move. This is that, for the bag. Most real jobs aren't one trick — they're a sequence: redact the secrets, then wash the typographic prints, then strip the personality. combo runs that sequence as a single pipeline so you don't invoke three tricks by hand and shuttle text between them.

There is no new framework here. Every trick in the bag is already a stdin→stdout program, so the composition layer is just the Unix pipe. combo wires the stages together, forwards each stage's one-line summary (the tricks write those to stderr), and stops the instant a stage fails — so a gate aborts the whole routine and its exit code propagates.

The three shapes

Tricks fall into shapes, and the shape tells you where a trick can sit in a routine:

1. filter — emits transformed text on stdout, so it chains in the middle of a routine. frisk (redact), launder (wash bytes), salvage (rip out JSON), mole (tag injections), deadpan (strip personality).
2. analyzer — emits a report or verdict, so it's a terminal stage (a sink): nothing useful flows out of it into another trick. tell (AI-smell score), fold (overconfidence), alibi (grounding), mugshot, bluff, tollbooth.
3. gate mode — not a separate trick but a mode several tricks share (--check, --max): print nothing, exit non-zero to abort the routine. Put a gate first to refuse bad input, or last to fail a build.

Rule of thumb: any number of filters, optionally ended by one analyzer or fronted/closed by a gate.

Rules

1. Order matters — think about what each stage consumes. Redact (frisk) before you extract (salvage) so the secret never reaches the parser. Wash bytes (launder) before a strict reader. Don't put an analyzer in the middle — nothing flows out of a sink.
2. Per-stage flags need the quoted form. combo "frisk --pii | launder". The bare-list form combo frisk launder is names only, because combo can't tell whose flag is whose.
3. A gate stops the routine. If any stage exits non-zero (a --check that tripped, a missing trick), combo stops there and returns that code. Use && to act only on a clean routine.
4. Don't hand-simulate a pipeline. When the task is two or more tricks in sequence, call combo once rather than running each trick and pasting output between them.

Examples

# redact secrets, wash the bytes, strip the chirp — one call
combo "frisk --pii | launder | deadpan" < reply.md

# wash first, then measure how AI the prose still reads (filter -> analyzer)
combo "launder | tell --score" < draft.md

# refuse to continue if a secret is present (gate -> filter)
combo "frisk --check | launder" < draft.md && echo "shipped clean"

# redact a secret living inside JSON, then rip the JSON out of the chatter
combo "frisk | salvage" < model_output.txt

# see the shapes, or preview a routine without running it
combo --list
combo --dry-run "frisk | launder | tell"

Output

Deliver the routine's final output, not a narration of the stages. combo already forwards each stage's summary to stderr; don't restate them. If a gate aborted the routine, say which stage failed and why (the stderr line tells you), not a generic "it failed". Pick the pipeline order deliberately and, if it's non-obvious, name the reason in one line (e.g. "redact before extract").

Companion tool

combo.py in this folder is the runner. It resolves each stage to the sibling trick in the bag (or a command on PATH), pipes stdout→stdin down the chain, and propagates the first non-zero exit. Flags: --list (tricks by shape), --dry-run (resolve the routine without running it), --input FILE (read the head of the pipe from a file), --verbose (echo each stage as it runs).