blu (Jul 14 2026 at 15:16): blu (Jul 14 2026 at 15:16):I have a little proof-of-concept prototype CLI tool for "a friendly generic frontend for determinate computing", after the braindump here. Disclaimer, I used an LLM for this prototype and plan on going back with finer combs later.
Github: https://github.com/thebrandonlucas/kai
Here's a quick article on the why and basic overview: https://blu.cx/posts/articles/2026-07-13-kai-friendly-frontend/.
I attached a little demo video too.
In a nutshell, it's meant to allow a generic set of actions common to any determinate system (i.e. nix or guix) to be performed while being able to swap the backend "blueprint". Another primary goal is to make the main things people like to do with determinate systems super easy, which in my opinion is a primary reason people don't use them.
There's only two commands, shell for dev shells and build for building a simple machine image with a preset of packages on it.
Also, thanks @Luke Boswell for the roc-platform packages which I'm currently experimenting with porting over (I got the shell command working in this branch. My initial design was more focused on getting the CLI integrated and working but it's effectful and I love the pure, portable generic EDSL you built. More on that soon!
kai.mp4
Last updated: Jul 23 2026 at 13:15 UTC