# Usage

Examples assume `$OLLIE` is set to the ollie mount point (default: `$HOME/mnt/ollie`).
Scripts under `s/`, `b/`, and `u/` are available directly via the mounted filesystem
after running `mk && mk scripts`.

## Interactive shell

`s/sh` is an interactive shell for prompting a session. It resumes the most recent
session for the current working directory by default, or creates a new one if none exists.

```sh
exec $OLLIE/s/sh                                       # resume or create session for pwd
exec $OLLIE/s/sh -new                                  # always start a fresh session
exec $OLLIE/s/sh -new -model qwen3:8b                  # fresh session with model override
exec $OLLIE/s/sh -session 1744276689123456789-2b986c   # attach to a specific session
```

At the `> ` prompt:

| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| `<text>` | Submit prompt; response streams to terminal |
| `/q <text>` | Enqueue prompt for later execution |
| `/<cmd>` | Send to session ctl (e.g. `/compact`, `/clear`, `/model qwen3:8b`) |
| `/kill` | Kill the session and exit |
| Ctrl-C | Interrupt a running turn (or exit if idle) |

`s/sh` tracks the last session per working directory in `~/.config/ollie/last-session`,
so switching directories and re-running `s/sh` resumes the right context automatically.

## Batch jobs

`b/` provides ephemeral one-shot agent runs — a single prompt, a single result, no
persistent session state.

### b/job

Submit a prompt, wait for completion, print the result:

```sh
$OLLIE/b/job "Summarize this repo"
cat main.go | $OLLIE/b/job "explain this file"
$OLLIE/b/job -parallel 4 -keep "Write a haiku"
$OLLIE/b/job -backend ollama -model qwen3:8b "Explain this" < main.go
```

With `-parallel N`, N jobs run concurrently and results are separated by `=== {id} ===` headers.

### b/q

Foreground one-shot query; thin wrapper around `b/job`:

```sh
$OLLIE/b/q "what is 2+2?"
echo "what is causing this?" | $OLLIE/b/q
```

### b/sched

Submit a background job and return immediately; prints the `b/{id}` path:

```sh
$OLLIE/b/sched "summarize the recent git log"
# /home/lkn/mnt/ollie/b/1744276689123456789-0
```

Poll for completion:

```sh
path=$($OLLIE/b/sched "write a limerick about Go")
until [ "$(cat $path/status)" = "done" ]; do sleep 0.1; done
cat $path/result
```

Fan out with `-parallel N` and collect results:

```sh
paths=$($OLLIE/b/sched -parallel 4 "draft a blog intro" < brief.txt)
for p in $paths; do
    until [ "$(cat $p/status 2>/dev/null)" = "done" ]; do sleep 0.1; done
    cat $p/result
    rm -r $p
done
```

### Raw b/ access

```sh
cat $OLLIE/b/new                           # show the spec template
printf 'cwd=%s\n---\nSummarize this.\n' "$PWD" > $OLLIE/b/new
cat $OLLIE/b/<job-id>/status               # running | done | failed: <reason>
cat $OLLIE/b/<job-id>/result
rm -r $OLLIE/b/<job-id>                    # cancel and remove
```

Valid spec keys: `name` (auto-generated if omitted), `cwd` (required), `agent`,
`backend`, `model`, `output`, `parallel`.

## AI pipelines

`b/q` and `b/job` write to stdout and compose naturally with Unix pipes. When both args
and stdin are present, args are treated as the instruction and stdin as the content:

```sh
echo "write a haiku about filesystems" | $OLLIE/b/q | wc -w
cat error.log | $OLLIE/b/q "what is causing this?" | $OLLIE/b/q "suggest a fix"
$OLLIE/b/q "list 5 blog post ideas" | grep -v "^$" | head -3 | $OLLIE/b/q "expand the best one"
```

`u/optimize` is a worked example — it generates N candidate prompts in parallel via
`b/q -parallel N`, then judges them with a second `b/q` call to return the best:

```sh
$OLLIE/u/optimize -n 3 -cm qwen/qwen3-8b -jm anthropic/claude-opus-4-6 "explain recursion"
```

Progress goes to stderr; pipe the optimized prompt with content into a subsequent call:

```sh
prompt=$($OLLIE/u/optimize "translate this to Spanish" 2>/dev/null)
cat document.txt | $OLLIE/b/q "$prompt"
```

## Alternative front-ends

The `s/sh` shell and `b/*` scripts are the lowest-level interface to ollie. Two higher-level front-ends are available:

- **[ollie-tui](https://github.com/lneely/ollie-tui)** — terminal UI with a readline loop, split input, and output rendering. The reference interactive front-end.
- **[ollie-el](https://github.com/lneely/ollie-el)** — Emacs front-end with a chat buffer, prompt composition, interrupt handling, and session management.

Both speak directly to the ollie-9p filesystem — no separate protocol. See each repo's README for installation and usage.