buildlang

Systems language with typed capability effects and native C output.

cargo install buildlang

BuildLang compiles .bld source to native binaries through a C backend, emits HLSL and GLSL for shader work, and carries experimental SPIR-V, LLVM IR, WebAssembly, Rust, x86-64, and ARM64 backends. The type system pairs Hindley-Milner inference with typed algebraic effects and an opt-in experimental #[linear] attribute for no-cloning values. The buildc CLI covers build, run, test, repl, fmt, pkg, watch, and doctor, plus a bundled LSP server with completion, hover, diagnostics, and go-to-definition.

Landing page | Build ecosystem | VS Code extension | grammar

See it work, step by step

The animated explainer shows an undeclared file read being rejected, a policy profile that denies it, a check receipt catching an edit, HLSL from a fragment function, and a heat-equation receipt that verifies while a forged one fails. Its source is docs/explainer/index.html.

Highlights

• Typed capability effects. Ambient access is part of a function's type. Calling read_file requires ~ FileSystem in the signature, tcp_connect requires ~ Network, an extern call requires ~ Foreign, and compile-time macros like include_str! and env! are gated the same way. The checker tracks effects through function values, closures, struct fields, control flow, and async blocks, so a callback cannot hide one. See docs/EFFECTS_GUIDE.md.
• Native binaries through C. The C backend is the production execution path: buildc run compiles to C, invokes your system C compiler (gcc, clang, or MSVC), and runs the result. One command, one binary.
• Two-way C FFI. extern "C" link "sqlite3" header "<sqlite3.h>" calls a third-party C-ABI library and links it in one build; extern "C" fn exports a BuildLang function with a stable symbol, and buildc build --emit header writes the matching .h for C and C++ consumers. --emit staticlib builds a static library a C or C++ host links, with #[repr(C)] structs defined in the header.
• Shader output. #[fragment] functions compile directly to HLSL (for ReShade and DirectX) or GLSL (for OpenGL and Vulkan). See docs/SHADER_GUIDE.md.
• GPU compute (experimental). #[compute] kernels compile to dispatchable SPIR-V validated by spirv-val, and a build with --features gpu adds buildc run --gpu, which dispatches the kernel on a physical Vulkan device and cross-checks the readback against the CPU scalar loop. Workgroup shared memory and barriers are supported.
• Experimental linear types. An opt-in #[linear] attribute marks a struct or enum as no-cloning: a value should be moved at most once, the shared foundation of qubit, no-double-spend, and resource-handle disciplines. The check is not yet complete: some escapes still compile. See docs/LINEAR-TYPES.md for what it catches.
• Full toolchain in one binary. bundles build, run, check, test, repl, fmt, lint, pkg, watch, doctor, an LSP server, MIR and BDF utilities, and receipt tooling. No separate installs.

Install

From crates.io (installs the buildc binary, version 1.10.0):

cargo install buildlang

The standard library is compiled into buildc. When no stdlib/ directory is found beside the binary, buildc writes its copy to a versioned directory under the system temp directory and uses that; BUILDLANG_STDLIB overrides it. buildc doctor reports which one is in use. (1.5.0 and earlier shipped without it and needed BUILDLANG_STDLIB pointed at a clone.)

Previously published as quantalang; that crate is deprecated and points here. Use buildlang / buildc.

Or build from the repository source:

cd compiler
cargo build --release

Add compiler/target/release/buildc (buildc.exe on Windows) to your PATH, then verify the local toolchain (C compiler, stdlib, optional backend tools):

buildc doctor

Quick start

Create hello.bld. println! is a Console capability, so main declares the effect:

fn main() ~ Console {
    println!("Hello from BuildLang!");
}

Compile and run through the C backend:

buildc run hello.bld
# Hello from BuildLang!

The repository ships tested quickstart programs:

buildc run examples/quickstart/hello.bld
buildc run examples/quickstart/ledger.bld          # prints: balance: 115
buildc run examples/quickstart/effects_greeting.bld
buildc examples/quickstart/vignette_shader.bld --target hlsl -o vignette.hlsl

Or emit C and build it yourself:

buildc hello.bld -o hello.c
cc hello.c -o hello && ./hello

Worked example: effects and a policy gate

buildc check lists the effects a program uses and can enforce a policy over them. Check the hello program against the built-in console-only profile and print a receipt:

buildc check examples/quickstart/hello.bld --profile console-only --receipt -

Output (excerpt, verified against buildc 1.2.0):

Type checking... OK

No errors found in 'examples/quickstart/hello.bld'
{
  "schema": "buildlang-check-receipt/v1",
  "compiler_version": "1.2.0",
  "status": "passed",
  "declared_effects": { "main": ["Console"] },
  ...
}

If the program also read a file, the check would fail until main declared ~ FileSystem and the policy allowed it. Built-in profiles: pure, console-only, offline, ci-review, and strict-accountability (buildc policy list). Save a receipt to a file and check it later with buildc receipt verify receipt.json --expect-profile ci-review. If the source changed since, verify fails and says why.

The buildc CLI

Command	Purpose
buildc <file>	Compile a file; -o, --target, --stdio-mode native|portable-lf, -O 0-3, -g
buildc run <file>	Compile and run via the C backend; --stdio-mode native|portable-lf, --emit-receipt, --invariant, --units, --gpu
buildc build [path]	Build a project; --emit c|header|staticlib|exe, --release, --target, --stdio-mode native|portable-lf, --keep-c
buildc check <file>	Type-check; --error-format json, --receipt, --policy, --profile, --expect-profile-digest
buildc explain [code]	Explain a diagnostic code such as BL0403, or list every code
buildc test [dir]	Run .bld programs against .expected files
buildc fmt / buildc lint	Format (--check, --write) and lint source
buildc repl	Interactive session
buildc lsp	Bundled LSP server (completion, hover, diagnostics with the same codes as check, go-to-definition, semantic tokens)
buildc mcp	The compiler as MCP tools over stdio: check and explain; it never runs programs
buildc watch [path]	Recompile on change (--target spirv|c)
buildc pkg	Package manager (init, add, resolve, search)
buildc mir emit|load	Emit or load the versioned buildlang.mir/v0 JSON interlingua
buildc bdf	Build Data Format: , , , envelope bridges

Agents: start with skills/buildlang/SKILL.md or llms.txt.

Full flags: buildc --help and buildc <command> --help. The command reference with expected output lives in USAGE.md.

Backends

Target	Flag	Output	Status
C	--target c (default)	.c / executable	Production
HLSL	--target hlsl	.hlsl	Working
GLSL	--target glsl	.glsl	Working
SPIR-V	--target spirv	.spv	Experimental (compute kernels validate under spirv-val)
LLVM IR	--target llvm	.ll	Experimental
WASM	--target wasm	.wasm	Experimental
Rust	--target rust	.rs	Experimental (subset, validated with rustc)
x86-64	--target x86-64	.o	Experimental
ARM64	--target arm64	.o	Experimental

buildc corpus verify runs an 8-program corpus through the C backend and compares its output.

The generated C runtime defaults to native stdio behavior. On Windows, native C stdio translates \n written through stdout or stderr to CRLF. Use --stdio-mode portable-lf on the C backend when you need the same LF bytes on every platform. Other targets reject the flag.

Numeric output receipts

buildc run --emit-receipt <path> --invariant <name> records a numeric program's stdout as a series, checks an invariant over it, and writes a JSON receipt. buildc receipt verify re-runs the program and compares. Eight invariants are built in: energy-monotone, conservation, bounded, energy-identity, relation, conserved-band, non-negative, and cross_backend_columns_agree. --units m/s normalizes a declared SI unit before the receipt is written.

buildc run examples/heat_equation_energy.bld --emit-receipt receipt.json   --invariant energy-monotone --problem 1d-heat-equation-energy
buildc receipt verify receipt.json

# the 30-kernel example corpus, each passing kernel paired with one that must fail
buildc receipt corpus examples/scientific-corpus.json

Receipts cover deterministic, exact-probabilistic, seeded stochastic, Monte Carlo (--mc-estimator, --mc-samples, --mc-interval) and budgeted search (--budget-steps, --budget-consumed) programs, plus a mode that runs one kernel through the C and Rust backends and checks they agree. buildc receipt chain bundles several receipts into one file. A receipt covers one run of the compiled program. A program that uses the Model capability cannot get one. With --stdio-mode portable-lf the mode is stored in the receipt and used again on verify.

docs/FIVE-MODES-TOUR.md runs every mode one command at a time. Schema and flags: docs/SCIENTIFIC-RECEIPT.md and docs/DIMENSIONAL-ANALYSIS.md.

buildc receipt verify also reads two receipt kinds written by other tools: model boundary receipts (buildlang-model-boundary-receipt/v0) from a model harness shim, and Flywheel tool-call receipts (flywheel.tool-call-receipt/v1).

Status

BuildLang 1.10.0. The C backend, effect checking, HLSL and GLSL output, and receipts are the supported core. SPIR-V, LLVM IR, WASM, Rust, x86-64, ARM64, GPU dispatch and #[linear] types are experimental. Release test results are in STATUS.md and changes in CHANGELOG.md.

Documentation and ecosystem

• docs/INTRODUCTION.md: what BuildLang is and your first ten minutes
• USAGE.md: full command reference with verified output
• docs/GETTING_STARTED.md: tutorial from install to shaders
• docs/EFFECTS_GUIDE.md: the capability-effect system
• docs/LINEAR-TYPES.md: linear types
• DESIGN.md and ARCHITECTURE.md: pipeline and rationale
• Peers: build-universe, buildlang-vscode, buildlang-tmLanguage

Contributor checks before changing public behavior: cargo test and cargo fmt --check from compiler/, buildc doctor, and buildc corpus verify. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

Text: CC BY 4.0. Code: AGPL-3.0-only.

The paper in papers/ is licensed CC BY 4.0, the same licence its Zenodo deposit records. Share and adapt it with credit to Zain Dana Harper; the terms are in LICENSE-TEXT.

The compiler, toolchain and their documentation are under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 only (AGPL-3.0-only). You may use, study, change and share them. If you run a changed version as a network service, you must offer its users the source of that version. See LICENSE.

Releases up to and including 1.8.0 were published under the BuildLang Fair-Source License v1.0 and keep it. AGPL-3.0-only applies from the next release.

Generated output

The code BuildLang generates from your source may be shipped inside your programs and games, under terms of your choosing. This covers the generated C, the C header built into it, and the other code buildc generates, such as HLSL and GLSL. AGPL-3.0-only covers the compiler and toolchain. As an additional permission under section 7 of that licence, its terms do not extend to output that buildc generates, including the parts of the compiler's runtime and header it copies into that output. This statement sits beside LICENSE and does not change its text.