SOS and structured shells

Two layers

SOS (Standardized Operations Syntax), developed in open-shell-org, addresses how flags and options are spelled and discovered — clarity and consistency at the CLI surface.

Structured shells address how data moves between programs — typed pipelines instead of scraping stdout text.

These are complementary:

  • A SOS-compliant tool can still emit byte streams for maximum portability.

  • A Nushell-tailored tool can still adopt SOS flag conventions for human-friendly options.

  • Neither replaces the other.

Certification vs host requirement

SOS certification remains OpenShellOrg’s flag-syntax track. Requiring Nushell (via nu-require or equivalent) is a separate, optional product decision for tools that need structured pipelines. Mixing the two is encouraged when it helps users; conflating them is not.