The latest articles on DEV Community by Mithilesh Parmar (@rmpsyllium). https://dev.to/rmpsyllium https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4205659%2F4408dd02-1180-4372-9687-ec7f62f32794.png https://dev.to/rmpsyllium en Mithilesh Parmar Sun, 25 Oct 2026 02:46:35 +0000 https://dev.to/rmpsyllium/i-left-software-to-run-a-psyllium-mill-so-i-shipped-a-pip-package-for-ingredient-buyers-5b47 https://dev.to/rmpsyllium/i-left-software-to-run-a-psyllium-mill-so-i-shipped-a-pip-package-for-ingredient-buyers-5b47 <p>I'm a software engineer by background. This year I started RM Psyllium, a psyllium husk mill in Sidhpur, Gujarat, the region where most of the world's Plantago ovata is grown.</p> <p>The first thing I noticed on the trade side: buyers ask the same handful of questions on every inquiry. Which grade? What mesh? What should be on the COA? How do I ask for a quote that a supplier can actually price?</p> <p>Engineers have a habit for repeated questions. We write a tool. So I wrote a tiny one.<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>pip <span class="nb">install </span>psyllium psyllium grades <span class="c"># purity grades and what each is used for</span> psyllium checklist <span class="c"># what to ask a supplier for on every lot</span> psyllium quote <span class="c"># what to include in a price request</span> psyllium certs <span class="c"># certifications to look for</span> psyllium about <span class="c"># who made this</span> </code></pre> </div> <p>Zero dependencies, Python 3.7+, MIT licence. It's about 3 KB.</p> <h2> Why a CLI for an agricultural product? </h2> <p><strong>1. The domain is under-documented.</strong> Psyllium husk (also sold as isabgol or ispaghula) goes into fiber supplements, gluten-free bread, plant-based meat binders and pharma laxatives. Yet the practical buying knowledge lives in email threads and in the heads of a few traders. Putting it in a versioned package makes it citable and correctable.</p> <p><strong>2. Grades are a lookup problem.</strong> Husk is sold from 95% to 99% purity, and powder by mesh size. Formulators mostly need a quick table, not a sales call.</p> <p><strong>3. Checklists beat memory.</strong> The checklist command prints what a buyer should request on every lot: purity, swell volume, moisture, ash, microbiology, heavy metals, pesticide residues and the lab that tested it. Missing one line on a COA is how a container gets held at customs.</p> <h2> What I learned shipping it </h2> <ul> <li>Packaging a 100-line script for PyPI still takes an afternoon: pyproject.toml, an entry point, a README that renders, and 2FA on the account.</li> <li>Naming matters. <code>psyllium</code> was free, which says something about how little tooling exists in this space.</li> <li>Plain text output is the right UI here. People paste it straight into a spec sheet or an email.</li> </ul> <h2> What's next </h2> <p>I'd like to add a landed-cost helper (FOB price plus freight, duty and insurance to a destination port) and a COA parser that flags out-of-spec values. If you work in food tech, supplements or procurement software and want to contribute, the package is on PyPI: <a href="https://pypi.org/project/psyllium/" rel="noopener noreferrer">pypi.org/project/psyllium</a></p> <p>More about the mill: <a href="https://rmpsyllium.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">rmpsyllium.com</a></p> python cli opensource supplychain