Show HN: I replaced every function in a codebase with English – it still works

Convert any codebase into plain English that an LLM can execute. Ship of Theseus for code.

8 points by kulesh 214 days ago tril.cc 6 comments

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Tril converts every function in a repo into plain English descriptions, then runs and tests them — using an LLM as the interpreter instead of a runtime.

The concept: programming languages exist because machines couldn't understand human intent. LLMs can. So what happens if you remove the code entirely and just... describe what each function should do?

The tool replaces functions one by one, runs your test suite after each swap to confirm nothing breaks, and outputs a .md file. Then `tril run` spins up an HTTP server that sends each function's English description to Claude and returns the result.

Tested on a unit converter (JS) and a 625-line Python CLI tool — tests passed, results matched to 6 decimal places (fortunately).

This is mainly a thought experiment: can any code become plain natural language? Will it still work? Let's find out!

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