TorbScript

One language, every layer. A single-language ecosystem.

A functional-first, multi-paradigm scripting language with value semantics. It runs interpreted and compiles to native executables, and it is its own configuration format.

• CONCEPT.md - the language
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md - how it is implemented, and the state of it
• examples/tour - the language in thirteen files
• docs/site/agents.md - the Agent Skills that teach an AI agent TorbScript, and the one line that installs them into Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Copilot and others
• SECURITY.md - how to report a vulnerability, and which versions get security fixes
• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md - the Contributor Covenant, and where to report unacceptable behavior

Directory	Contains
compiler/	The toolchain, written in TorbScript
std/	The standard library, one package per directory (std/core, std/fs, ...; std/prelude re-exports)
runtime/	The C runtime every compiled binary links against (runtime/README.md)
examples/	Tour and example projects
skills/	The Agent Skills of the language, written from docs/ by torb docs skill (docs/site/agents.md)
tests/	The conformance suite and the language smoke programs (tests/conformance/README.md)
brand/	The logo, the icons and the design tokens (brand/README.md, docs/design/BRAND.md)
playground/	The playground of torb.dev/play: torb built as WebAssembly, and the page's script (docs/tooling/the-playground.md)

Building

The compiler is written in TorbScript and compiles itself, so a checkout needs two things: a C compiler ($TORB_CC, or clang, gcc, cc in that order) and a seed - a torb that already exists. The seed is not in git, because it is a build artifact of an earlier commit rather than a fact about this one.

seed/torb[.exe]     a binary for this platform: a release download, or one built by a `torb` you already have
seed/program.c      the portable seed: the compiler as one C file, which builds anywhere a C compiler does

Put one of the two in place and build:

sh tools/bootstrap.sh          # seed -> build/bootstrap/torb -> build/release/torb

Two steps and not one: the seed compiles the current sources, that binary compiles them again, and the two program.c are compared byte for byte. build/release/torb is the compiler that comes out.

A release publishes both artifacts, so a checkout downloads the binary for its platform, or program.c for a platform that has none. Between releases the seed is whatever torb was built last:

torb build ./compiler --output ./seed/torb           # a binary seed for this platform
torb build ./compiler --emit-c --output ./seed/torb  # seed/program.c, the portable one

Once build/release/torb is there:

sh tools/gates.sh a            # the gates of every round (compiler/CONTRIBUTING.md)
sh runtime/build.sh            # the C runtime and its own tests