diff --git a/bin/prat b/bin/prat
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..ddcb3d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/prat
@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+set -e
+
+argv0="$0"
+argv1="$1"
+argv2="$2"
+
+dep() {
+	! command -v "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 \
+		&& printf "%s: Missing dependency for this operation with type %s: %s\n" \
+			"$argv0" "$argv2" "$1" 1>&2 \
+			&& exit 1 \
+		|| return 0
+}
+
+deps() {
+	while [ -n "$1" ]; do
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2015
+		command -v "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 \
+			&& printf "%s" "$1" && return 0 \
+			|| true
+	done
+	return 1
+}
+
+error() {
+	printf "%s: Programmer error. Please report.\n" "$argv0" 1>&2
+	exit 1 || return 1
+}
+
+# this will alias GNU and busybox lses to the functionality of 9 ls
+# - this is a stupid hack and GNU and busybox lses should do this
+# by default
+# shellcheck disable=SC2015
+ls --version >/dev/null 2>&1 || ls -x >/dev/null 2>&1 \
+	&& alias ls="ls -1A ." \
+	|| alias ls="ls ."
+
+usage() {
+	printf "Usage: %s {c,cf,d,df} [type]\n" "$argv0" 1>&2
+	exit 1
+}
+
+unsupported() {
+	printf "%s: Unknown/unsupported type %s for this operation\n" "$argv0" "$argv2" 1>&2
+	exit 1
+}
+
+[ -z "$3" ] || usage
+
+case "$argv1" in
+c)
+	case "$argv2" in
+	gzip)
+		dep gzip
+		gzip -c
+		# -c - output to standard output
+		;;
+	xzip)
+		dep xz
+		xzip -c
+		# -c - output to standard output
+		;;
+	*) unsupported ;;
+	esac ;;
+d)
+	case "$argv2" in
+	gzip)
+		dep gzip
+		gzip -cd
+		# -c - output to standard output
+		# -d - decompress
+		;;
+	lzip)
+		# should be improved but is decent
+		method=$(deps lzip 7z)
+		[ -n "$method" ] || dep 7z
+		case $method in
+		7z)
+			7z x -bd -si -so -tlzip
+			# x - extract
+			# -bd - disable percentage indicator
+			# -si - read from standard input
+			# -so - output to standard output
+			# -tlzip - type: lzip
+			;;
+		lzip)
+			lzip -cd
+			# -c - output to standard output
+			# -d - decompress
+			;;
+		*)
+			error
+			;;
+		esac ;;
+	tar)
+		dep tar
+		tar -xO
+		# -x - extract
+		# -O - output to standard output
+		;;
+	xzip)
+		dep xz
+		xz -cd
+		# -c - output to standard output
+		# -d - decompress
+		;;
+	*) unsupported ;;
+	esac ;;
+cf)
+	case "$argv2" in
+	*) unsupported ;;
+	esac ;;
+df)
+	case "$argv2" in
+	tar)
+		dep tar
+		tar -x
+		;;
+	unrar)
+		# UNTESTED
+		unrar x - "$3"
+		# x - extract
+		# - - stop parsing switches
+		;;
+	zip)
+		# unzip can't extract files that start with a dash as far as I
+		# can tell, so we have to use 7z(1)
+		dep 7z
+		7z x -bd -o. -si -tzip >/dev/null
+		# x - extract
+		# -bd - disable percentage indicator
+		# -o. - output to current dir
+		# -si - read from standard input
+		# -tzip - type: zip
+		;;
+	*) unsupported ;;
+	esac ;;
+*) usage ;;
+esac
diff --git a/man/packrat.md b/man/packrat.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6870d9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/packrat.md
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# packrat
+
+Packrat is a centralization of programs' various command syntaxes for compressing and decompressing archives.
+It's written in POSIX shell script (tested with dash) and the UI is very opinionated.
+
+## Usage
+
+`prat {c,d,cf,df} [type]`
+
+### {c,d,cf,df}
+
+- c - compress
+- d - decompress
+- cf - compress folder
+- df - decompress folder
+
+Packrat takes input from standard input and spews output to standard output, except for folder operations,
+where it instead compresses all files in the current directory to standard output and always decompresses all files from standard input to the current directory.
+There is no way to change this.
+
+### supported types & dependencies
+
+type     | compression   | decompression | folder compression | folder decompression
+:---     | :---          | :---          | :---          | :---
+**gzip** | `gzip`        | `gzip`        | not supported | not supported
+**lzip** | not supported | `7z` or `lzip` | not supported | not supported
+**tar**  | not supported | `tar`         | not supported | `tar`
+**xzip** | `xz`          | `xz`          | not supported | not supported
+**zip**  | not supported | not supported | not supported | `7z`
+
+### example usage
+
+```
+$ pwd
+/home/user/place_where_i_unzip_files/
+$ prat d gzip <file.tar.lz.gz | prat d lzip | prat df tar
+$ ls
+file.tar.lz.gz
+thing_that_was_also_in_the_archive.lol
+thing_that_was_in_the_archive.ext
+```