# zigman

The official Zig language reference, cached locally and rendered as clean markdown in your terminal.

status

surface static binary

scope language reference, not stdlib

built for humans, shell pipes, and coding agents

## install

    curl -fsSL https://nate.tngl.io/zigman/install.sh | sh

macOS and Linux, aarch64 and x86_64. Installs to `$ZIGMAN_INSTALL` or `~/.local/bin`.

lookup

Type any part of a section name. One match renders the section; many matches render a candidate list.

cache

Fetches the single-page Zig langref once, then reads from `$XDG_CACHE_HOME` or `~/.cache`.

skill

Ships a cross-client `SKILL.md` so agents know when to read Zig semantics instead of guessing.

## use

    zigman comptime
    zigman error
    zigman -o comptime
    zigman -l
    zigman -V 0.15.1 comptime

## contracts

command | behavior
--- | ---
`zigman <query>` | render one matching section as markdown
`zigman -l` | list the whole table of contents
`zigman -o` | open the matching langref anchor in a browser
`zigman --no-pager` | raw deterministic output for tools

agent loop

Give a weak local model a Zig task and the `zigman` tool. Score the final file with `zig test`. When the tool helps, keep the pattern. When it fails, improve the lookup surface.

- objective oracle: the compiler
- quality signal: tool-call trace
- goal: measurable lift over a bare model

>read the official Zig language reference `R` >read the agent setup prompt `P` >read the practical zigman workflow guide `G` >read the llms.txt index for agents `L` >fetch the canonical zigman skill `SK` >view the source on tangled `S` >aesthetic adapted from Sacred Computer / SRCL `C` >inspect the install script `I`
build from source

    git clone https://tangled.org/zzstoatzz.io/zigman
    cd zigman
    zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe

shell completion

    eval "$(zigman --completions zsh)"
    eval "$(zigman --completions bash)"
    zigman --completions fish | source

options and paging

    -l, --list           list section names instead of rendering
    -o, --open           open the section in your browser
    -V, --version <ver>  langref version to read
    -r, --refresh        bypass the cache and refetch
        --no-pager       do not page terminal output
    -h, --help           show help