Utilities

Standalone helpers that don’t belong to the build journey but are handy to know: file encryption, password generation and hashing, form-control detection in images, templating, localization, and synthetic data. Each is small and self-contained.

kis encrypt

What it is. Encrypts a file with AES-256-CBC.

kis encrypt -i secret.txt -o secret.enc -k "my passphrase"

• -i/--in, -o/--out, -k/--pass. Pairs with decrypt.

Caution

Passing the passphrase via -k puts it in your shell history and the process list. For anything sensitive, read it from an environment variable or a file rather than typing it literally on the command line.

kis decrypt

What it is. Decrypts a file produced by encrypt (AES-256-CBC).

kis decrypt -i secret.enc -o secret.txt -k "my passphrase"

• Same -i/--in, -o/--out, -k/--pass flags as encrypt.

kis password

What it is. Generates passwords and passphrases, and hashes them with Argon2 for storage.

When to reach for it. Seeding a credential, or producing the hash a service stores rather than inventing your own hashing.

kis password generate                       # a six-word passphrase
kis password generate -m random -n 24       # 24 random characters
kis password generate -c 5 --json           # five of them, as JSON
kis password argon2 'correct horse'         # hash for storage
kis password verify --hash '$argon2id$...' 'correct horse'
kis password gen-argon2                     # generate and hash in one call

Subcommand	What it does
generate	A password or passphrase
argon2 [password]	Hash a password for storage
verify --hash <stored> [password]	Check a password against a stored hash
gen-argon2	Generate and hash in one call

generate flags:

Flag	Default	Meaning
-m, --method	words	words, random, pronounceable, pin, hex, base64, base58
-c, --count	1	How many to generate
-n, --length	varies	Length in characters, for the character methods
-w, --words	6, or 3 for pronounceable	Words or chunks
-s, --separator	-	Between words
--case	lower	lower, upper, title, camel, random
--digits, --symbols	0	Append this many, for words and pronounceable
--json	off	Emit JSON

argon2 and gen-argon2 take the cost parameters: --memory (KiB, or 64MiB, 1GiB), -t, --time, -p, --parallelism, --hash-length, --salt-length. Leave them alone unless you have measured on the hardware that will verify.

Caution

A password given as an argument lands in your shell history and the process list. Omit it and the command reads from a prompt or from standard input.

kis image

What it is. Pixel-level detection of form controls in an image: checkboxes and radio buttons, with their states, as JSON.

When to reach for it. Reading a scanned or photographed form where the control state is in the pixels rather than in any text layer. It pairs with the document and OCR commands, which give you the text.

kis image checkbox scan.png                    # states as JSON on stdout
kis image radiobutton scan.png -o out.json     # to a file
kis image checkbox scan.png --annotate         # also writes scan.png.controls.png

--annotate outlines what was found: green for checked, red for unchecked, which is the fastest way to see why a detection went the way it did.

Flag	Default	Meaning
-o, --output	stdout	Output file
--annotate	off	Write <input>.controls.png with detections outlined
--min-size, --max-size	10, 100	Control side or diameter, in pixels
--min-confidence	0.5	Drop detections below this
--fill-threshold	0.07 checkbox, 0.12 radio	Interior ink ratio at or above which a control counts as set

radiobutton additionally takes --max-stroke-ratio (default 0.15), which rejects rings whose stroke is thick relative to their diameter, and --no-isolation, which keeps ring candidates that have ink on both sides. The isolation check is what stops letters inside a word being read as radio buttons, so turn it off only when a form legitimately places controls tight against text.

kis liquid

What it is. Renders a Liquid template with variables from a file and/or the command line.

When to reach for it. Generating config, emails, or any text file from a template.

kis liquid -t template.liquid -v vars.yaml -o output.txt
kis liquid -t email.liquid -c name=Ajith -c plan=pro -o email.html

• -t/--template, -v/--varFile (YAML), -c/--vars (inline key=value), -o/--outputfile.

kis i18n

What it is. Consumes kis.ai i18n files and produces FTL (Fluent) localization files. Point it at your product’s i18n folder.

kis i18n -d ./i18n

That’s the whole command, -d/--dir defaults to the current folder.

kis synthetic

What it is. Generates synthetic (fake) data, integers, floats, words, sentences, and templated/synonym variants.

When to reach for it. Seeding tests, demos, or load fixtures. Set the quantity with -c/--count.

kis synthetic int -c 5
kis synthetic float32 -c 3
kis synthetic word -c 10
kis synthetic sentence -c 2
kis synthetic supportedcollection          # list available data collections

Templated and synonym variants also exist: fuzzyword, sentencewithtemplate, fuzzysentence, synonymsentence, fuzzysynonymsentence.

That’s the full kis surface. Head back to the Introduction for the command map, or jump to any command from the sidebar.