Actions

Actions are the verbs of a pipeline. If a pipeline is a recipe and steps are the cooking instructions, actions are the techniques: "chop", "sauté", "blend". They're what actually gets done.

Every step has an action field that says what to do:

- name: summarize
  action: ai         # the action
  prompt: "Summarize: {{ input.text }}"

The action type determines what fields the step accepts and what outputs it produces.

Available actions

JigSpec ships with a small set of core actions. Here's the full catalog:

ai Implemented — Send prompts, run agents, extract structured data, classify input. The workhorse action. See AI Action.

code Planned — Inline JavaScript/TypeScript — the escape hatch for arbitrary logic. See Code Action.

The ai action covers most pipeline needs. It's a single action with four modes of operation — the mode is determined by which fields you set.

Extensibility

Actions are designed to be extensible. Future versions of JigSpec may add actions for HTTP requests, human approval gates, sub-pipeline composition, and more. The action registry is open — implementations can register custom actions under their own namespace.

Start with ai

For most pipelines, ai is all you need. The four modes — prompt, agent, extract, classify — cover the vast majority of AI workflow patterns. Only reach for code when you need arbitrary logic.