camp

A general-purpose, strictly-typed functional programming language with algebraic effects, compiling to WASM/WASI.

Status: Early development. Full pipeline implemented: lexing, parsing, canonicalization, type checking (Level inference + row unification), effect safety enforcement, effect lowering, closure conversion, CPS transform, Perceus RC insertion, and WASM/WASI code generation. 117 unit tests + 101 e2e snapshot tests passing.

Design Decisions

Aspect	Decision	Rationale
Evaluation	Strict (eager)	Predictable performance, pairs well with effects
Type System	Strict, principal inference	Sound and decidable
Effects	Koka-style algebraic	Composable, lexically scoped handlers
Memory	Perceus RC	Deterministic, no GC, path to native
Target	WASM/WASI	Portable, near-native performance
Implementation	Odin	Fast compilation, optimal for compilers

Building

Requires Odin.

odin build src -collection:camp=src -out:camp

Running

camp build <file.camp>    # Compile a Camp source file to .wasm
camp check <file.camp>    # Type-check (and run unused analysis) without codegen
camp fmt [paths...]       # Format source files in place (defaults to .); --check, --stdin
camp test [paths...]      # Run tests; --filter <substr>, --verbose
camp lsp                  # Start the language server (stdio)

Example

echo 'main! = || -> I64 { 42 }' > hello.camp
camp build hello.camp     # Produces hello.wasm
wasmer run hello.wasm   # Exits with code 42

Testing

odin test src             # Unit tests
just test                 # Build and run all tests (unit + e2e + tree-sitter)
just test-e2e             # E2E snapshot tests only
just update-snapshots     # Regenerate e2e snapshots after intentional output changes

Project Structure

src/                  Compiler (Odin)
tests/e2e/            E2E snapshot tests
tree-sitter/          Tree-sitter grammar
docs/                 Syntax recipe (authoritative), diagnostics catalog, stdlib design notes
justfile              Build and test commands

Docs

Doc	Purpose
language-spec.md	Authoritative syntax reference
diagnostics-catalog.md	Compiler error codes and messages
stdlib-design-notes.md	Stdlib API design rationale

See AGENTS.md for AI assistant guidelines.