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AILANG: AI-First Programming Language

Welcome to the official documentation for AILANG, an experimental programming language designed from the ground up for AI-assisted software development.

New to AILANG? Read our Vision to understand why AILANG exists and what makes it different from other programming languages.

What is AILANG?​

AILANG is a pure functional programming language that makes AI assistance a first-class citizen. It features:

  • Pure Functional Programming: Immutable data and explicit effects
  • Algebraic Effects System: Track and control side effects in the type system
  • Type Classes: Num, Eq, Ord, Show with dictionary-passing semantics
  • Pattern Matching: Algebraic data types with exhaustiveness checking
  • Auto-Import Prelude: Zero imports needed for type classes and comparisons
  • AI-Optimized Design: Generate structured execution traces for model training

Quick Example​

-- Module with effects (v0.3.0)
module examples/hello

import std/io (println)
import std/net (httpGet)

-- Recursive factorial function
export func factorial(n: int) -> int {
  if n <= 1 then 1 else n * factorial(n - 1)
}

-- Function with multiple effects
export func main() -> () ! {IO, Net} {
  println("Factorial of 5 is:");
  println(show(factorial(5)));

  let response = httpGet("https://api.example.com/data");
  println(response)
}

Run with: ailang run --caps IO,Net --entry main examples/hello.ail

Getting Started​

For AI Agents​

For Human Developers​

Current Status: v0.3.8 (October 2025)​

AILANG v0.3.8 is now available with multi-line ADT parser fixes and operator lowering improvements! Check the implementation status for complete details.

Working Features (v0.3.8)​

  • Recursion - Self-recursion, mutual recursion, with stack overflow protection
  • Block Expressions - Multi-statement blocks with proper scoping
  • Records - Record literals, field access, subsumption
  • Type System - Hindley-Milner inference with type classes (Num, Eq, Ord, Show)
  • Pattern Matching - Constructors, tuples, lists, wildcards, guards
  • Module System - Cross-module imports, entrypoint execution
  • Effect System - IO, FS, Clock, Net with capability-based security
    • Clock Effect: Monotonic time, sleep, deterministic mode
    • Net Effect: HTTP GET/POST with DNS rebinding prevention, IP blocking
  • REPL - Full type checking, command history, tab completion
  • Lambda Calculus - First-class functions, closures, currying

Coming in v0.4 "Deterministic Tooling"​

  • Deterministic Normalization - ailang normalize for canonical code formatting
  • Automated Import Suggestions - ailang suggest-imports fixes missing imports
  • Deterministic Code Repair - ailang apply for automated fixes
  • Total Recursion Combinators - fold, unfold, iterateN for functional completeness
  • Runtime Reflection - reflectType, reflectEffect for AI self-debugging (v0.4.1+)
  • Training Data Export - --emit-trace for execution traces (v0.4.2+)

See our Vision for the full roadmap and measurable success criteria.

Documentation Structure​

  • Examples - Interactive code examples with explanations
  • Guides - Tutorials and how-to guides
  • Reference - Language specification and API docs
  • Playground - Try AILANG in your browser

Contributing​

AILANG is open source and welcomes contributions! Visit our GitHub repository to:

  • Report issues
  • Submit pull requests
  • Join design discussions
  • Review the roadmap

Design Philosophy​

AILANG is built on several key principles:

  1. Explicit Over Implicit: All effects and dependencies are visible in types
  2. Correctness by Construction: Make invalid states unrepresentable
  3. AI-Friendly: Every language feature considers AI tooling needs
  4. Deterministic: Same input always produces same output
  5. Traceable: Complete execution history for debugging and training

Read the full Vision to understand why AILANG is designed for AIs first, humans second, and see empirical benchmarks showing 49% improvement in AI code generation success rates.

Resources​

AILANG is an experimental language under active development. APIs and syntax may change.