Vox

A high-performance, data-flow friendly programming language.

Documentation · Language Guide · Specification · Runtime Protocol

What is Vox?

Vox is an experimental language for programs that need concise scripting, predictable execution, and efficient integration with long-lived host runtimes. It is designed around reusable packages, executable scripts, explicit host integration, and optimization paths for both interpreted and compiled execution.

The project is currently built as a Rust workspace. The compiler, runtime, REPL, LSP server, and Rust .voxlib authoring SDK are developed together in this repository.

Current Scope

The Vox Ecosystem currently includes:

• A beautifully designed programming language with strong static typing, type inference, and modern fluent syntax.
• A runtime for interpreting and executing compiled Vox code;
• A full-featured compiler suite for parsing, semantic analysis, MIR lowering, optimization, and WASM backend;
• A REPL that can run with an embedded runtime or attach to a shared runtime for debugging;
• A feature-rich LSP server for IDE integration, providing diagnostics, hover, go-to-definition, etc.;
• Rust integration crates for authoring external .voxlib packages, more languages coming soon.

The Vox language is still under active development. Expect changes to the public surface while Vox is in alpha.

Quick Start

Clone the repository and build the workspace:

git clone https://github.com/RayZh-hs/Vox.git
cd Vox
cargo check --workspace

Run the REPL with an embedded runtime:

cargo run -p vox-repl

Or start a shared runtime and attach a REPL session to it:

cargo run -p vox-runtime -- --listen 127.0.0.1:4545
cargo run -p vox-repl -- --connect 127.0.0.1:4545

To attach to a named or existing remote session, append @name or @id:

cargo run -p vox-repl -- --connect 127.0.0.1:4545@shared --new

Documentation

The main documentation is published with GitHub Pages:

• Vox Documentation
• Language Guide
• Language Specification
• Compiler Notes
• Runtime Notes
• Runtime Protocol
• LSP Notes
• Rust Integration

The source for the book lives in docs/. To build or preview it locally:

mdbook build docs
mdbook serve docs

Testing

Run the compiler test suite:

cargo test

Workspace Layout

• crates/vox-core: shared language data model, types, MIR, builtins, and host registry.
• crates/vox-compiler: frontend (parsing, semantic analysis), MIR lowering, optimization, and WASM backend. Exports a CLI binary (vox-compiler) for compiling .vox sources to .voxlib libraries.
• crates/vox-runtime: long-lived runtime with MIR and WASM executors, tree-walk interpreter, package mounting, artifact storage, and runtime protocol server. Exports a binary for running a shared runtime server.
• crates/vox-repl: interactive REPL shell for evaluating Vox code, with line editing, completions, and type inspection.
• crates/vox-lsp: language server providing diagnostics, hover, go-to-definition, and best-effort matching.
• integrations/rust/crates/voxlib-sdk: Rust SDK for defining external Vox libraries with structs, functions, and traits.
• integrations/rust/crates/voxlib-macros: procedural macros (VoxExport, vox_fn) used by the Rust SDK.

License

Vox is licensed by either:

• MIT
• Apache-2.0

At your option.