📘 AI Shell: Examples

Real-world examples demonstrating the power of AI-augmented shell scripting when done safely and responsibly.

---

🎯 Example 1: Dynamic Log Analyzer

Prompt:

Write a POSIX shell script that takes a log file path as input and: 1. Counts error lines. 2. Shows top 5 IP addresses involved in errors. 3. Outputs a JSON summary.

AI-Generated Script:

#!/bin/sh
set -eu

logfile="$1"

if [ ! -f "$logfile" ]; then
    echo '{"error": "File not found"}'
    exit 1
fi

error_count=$(grep -c "ERROR" "$logfile")
top_ips=$(grep "ERROR" "$logfile" | grep -oE '[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -5)

# Build JSON manually (safe for small payloads)
printf '{\n  "error_count": %d,\n  "top_ips": [\n' "$error_count"
echo "$top_ips" | while read -r count ip; do
    printf '    {"ip": "%s", "count": %d},\n' "$ip" "$count"
done | sed '$ s/,$//'
printf '  ]\n}\n'

Safety Review:

✅ POSIX-compliant ✅ Handles missing file ✅ No hardcoded paths ✅ Safe grep/uniq usage

---

🎯 Example 2: Automated Backup Script with Rotation

Prompt:

Write a POSIX-compliant backup script that: - Takes a directory to backup and a destination. - Compresses it with tar. - Keeps only the last 7 backups. - Logs to stdout in JSON format.

AI-Generated Script:

#!/bin/sh
set -eu

src_dir="$1"
dest_dir="$2"

if [ ! -d "$src_dir" ]; then
    echo '{"status": "error", "message": "Source directory does not exist"}'
    exit 1
fi

mkdir -p "$dest_dir"

timestamp=$(date -u +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
backup_name="backup_$timestamp.tar.gz"
backup_path="$dest_dir/$backup_name"

# Create backup
if tar -czf "$backup_path" -C "$(dirname "$src_dir")" "$(basename "$src_dir")"; then
    echo "{\"status\": \"success\", \"backup\": \"$backup_path\"}"
else
    echo "{\"status\": \"error\", \"message\": \"Backup failed\"}"
    exit 1
fi

# Rotate backups
ls -t "$dest_dir"/backup_*.tar.gz 2>/dev/null | tail -n +8 | xargs -r rm --

Safety Review:

✅ POSIX date usage ✅ Safe tar with -C ✅ Backup rotation ✅ JSON logging

---

🎯 Example 3: AI-Assisted Docker Healthcheck

Prompt:

Write a healthcheck script for a Docker container running a web service. It should: 1. Check if the process is running. 2. Check if port 8080 is open. 3. Return 0 if healthy, 1 otherwise.

AI-Generated Script:

#!/bin/sh
set -e

# Check if main process is running
if ! pgrep -f "webserver" >/dev/null; then
    echo "Web server process not found"
    exit 1
fi

# Check if port is open
if ! nc -z localhost 8080 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "Port 8080 is not open"
    exit 1
fi

echo "Healthcheck passed"
exit 0

Safety Review:

✅ Uses pgrep (widely available) ✅ Uses nc (common in containers) ✅ Clear error messages ✅ Safe exit codes

---

🧪 Example 4: AI-Guided System Update (via Tool Calling)

AI Conversation Flow:

1. AI Prompt: "Check if system updates are available." → Tool Call: {"cmd": "apt list --upgradable 2>/dev/null | grep -v Listing"}

2. Executor Returns:

   curl/stable 7.81.0-1 amd64 [upgradable from: 7.74.0-1]
   

3. AI Prompt: "Install the updates safely." → Tool Call: {"cmd": "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y"}

4. Executor Runs Command

5. AI Reports: "System updated successfully."

---

🧾 Summary

These examples show: ✅ How to prompt for safe, structured output ✅ How to integrate with tool calling ✅ How to handle errors gracefully ✅ How to make scripts portable and idempotent

---

🧾 See Also

• AI Shell: Prompt Engineering
• Patterns: Logging and Telemetry
• Recipes: Backup and Rotation