---
title: Agents
description: How an AI agent uses ThinkThen through its shell tool, with --json for the details or --check for a yes-or-no exit code, and reads these pages as Markdown.
goal: The reader sets up an AI agent to call the thinkthen command from its shell and to read the docs as Markdown.
reader: A developer whose AI agent can run shell commands, or the agent itself
kind: how-to
verified: 2026-11-03
---

# Agents

An AI agent that can run shell commands uses ThinkThen the way a person does: it pipes in the text, asks a question, and reads the answer or the exit code. `--json` gives it the details, and `--check` gives it a yes or no it can branch on.

```sh
echo 'I was charged twice for one invoice.' |
  thinkthen decide --json \
    'Does the customer request a refund?' |
  jq -c '{status, answer, probability}'
```

Output

```text
{"status":"answered","answer":true,"probability":0.7}
```


The agent gets one short line: the status, the answer and the chance of yes. `jq -c` keeps only those fields, so the agent reads a line rather than a page.

## Branch on a yes or no

With `--check`, the answer is also the exit code, which most shell tools hand back to the agent with the output:

```sh
echo 'Where is my parcel?' |
  thinkthen decide --check \
    'Does the customer request a refund?'
```

Output

```text
false
```


No exits 1 here. A failed call has a code of its own, with the error on standard error. [Exit codes](/command-line/exit-codes/) lists every code.

## Let the agent learn the command

`thinkthen --help` lists the ten functions, and `thinkthen decide --help` shows a working example, every option, the settings it reads and the exit codes. Each function's help also names the address of its page here, so the agent can read more.

When the text sits in a shell variable, `--text "$message"` passes it without a pipe. Many messages and files go through a pipe or file names, as [File types](/command-line/file-types/) shows.

## Read these pages as Markdown

Every page on this site is also served as Markdown: drop the last `/` of its address and add `.md`. This page is at `https://thinkthen.dev/command-line/agents.md`. `https://thinkthen.dev/llms.txt` lists every page with one line on each, and `https://thinkthen.dev/llms-full.txt` holds every page in one file.

To set an agent up, add two lines to the instructions it reads at the start of each task:

```text
Use the thinkthen command for questions about text.
Its docs are at https://thinkthen.dev/llms.txt.
```

## No MCP server

ThinkThen has no MCP server. An agent with a shell tool needs none: the command is the whole interface, and its help and these pages tell the agent how to call it.

## Next

[decide](/functions/decide/) shows each answer a yes-or-no question can give.