clank

v0.1.0

Minimal unix-style inference harness. Prompt and context in on argv/stdin, answer on stdout, diagnostics on stderr, verdict in the exit code. Sibling binary clank-jev routes and gates. Not chat.

Install

Package clank-cli-app → binaries clank / clank-jev (package ≠ binary). Never cargo install clank (unrelated crates.io crate).

cargo install clank-cli-app --locked   # -> ~/.cargo/bin/clank and clank-jev

Fallback (pinable):

cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/makefunstuff/clank --tag v0.1.0

Prebuilt archives (linux x86_64, macOS arm64/x86_64) are on the v0.1.0 release.

30s smoke

After install, point at your OpenAI-compatible server and prove the pipe:

export CLANK_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1
export CLANK_MODEL=$(curl -s "$CLANK_BASE_URL/models" | jq -r '.data[0].id')
clank -m 'reply with exactly: pong'    # -> pong, exit 0

Harness cost

2026-09-22 · opencode-go/glm-5.3-flash · tools off · prompt → pong. Pipe vs agent CLI on the same model, not “fastest AI.” Agent harness tax still shows with --no-tools.

Method and caveats: docs/history/clank-vs-agents-2026-09-22.md.

Docs