ark-lang/ark

---

ark-lang/ark.json

{
  "createdAt": "2014-12-02T21:32:52Z",
  "defaultBranch": "master",
  "description": "A compiled systems programming language written in Go using the LLVM framework",
  "fullName": "ark-lang/ark",
  "homepage": "https://ark-lang.github.io/",
  "language": "Go",
  "name": "ark",
  "pushedAt": "2019-05-29T14:05:43Z",
  "stargazersCount": 679,
  "topics": [],
  "updatedAt": "2025-10-21T20:31:06Z",
  "url": "https://github.com/ark-lang/ark"
}

Ark [][1]

[1] !: https://travis-ci.org/ark-lang/ark “Build Status”

[Ark]!(//www.ark-lang.org) is a systems programming language focused on being practical and pragmatic. We want a language that is simple, easy to write, yet powerful enough to create readable, performant and concise code for any problem

On the right is a gif of an example program [ark-gl]!(//github.com/ark-lang/ark-gl) written in Ark using OpenGL and GLFW.

Index

• [Getting Involved]!(#getting-involved)
• [Example]!(#example)
• [Installing]!(#installing)
  • [Dependencies]!(#dependencies)
  • [Building]!(#building)
  • [Compiling Ark code]!(#compiling-ark-code)

Getting Involved

Check out the [contributing guide]!(/CONTRIBUTING.md), there’s a lot of information there to give you ideas of how you can help out.

Example

Ark is still a work in progress, this code sample reflects what Ark can do currently, though the way you write the following will likely change in the near future.

More examples can be found [here]!(/examples).

// binding to printf
[c] func printf(fmt: ^u8, ...);

pub func main(argc: int, argv: ^^u8) -> int {
    // accessed via the C module
    C::printf(c"Running %s\n", ^argv);

    // mutable i, type inferred
    mut i := 0;

    for i < 5 {
        C::printf(c"%d\n", i);

        i += 1;
    }
    return 0;
}

Installing

Installing Ark is simple, you’ll need a few dependencies before you get started:

Dependencies

• Go installed and $GOPATH setup - [Instructions on setting up GOPATH]!(//golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH)
• For building LLVM bindings:
  • Subversion
  • A C++ Compiler
  • CMake installed
  • libedit-dev installed

Building

Once you have your dependencies setup, building ark from scratch is done by running the following commands:

$ git clone https://github.com/ark-lang/go-llvm.git $GOPATH/src/github.com/ark-lang/go-llvm
$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/ark-lang/go-llvm
$ ./build.sh
$ go get github.com/ark-lang/ark/...

The ark binary will be built in $GOPATH/bin. To use the compiler, make sure $GOPATH/bin is in your $PATH.

Compiling Ark code

Currently the module system Ark uses is a work in progress. As of writing this, each ark file represents a module. A module has a child-module “C” which contains all of the C functions and other bindings you may write.

Given the following project structure:

src/
  - entities/
    - entity.ark
    - player.ark
  - main.ark

To compile this, you would pass through the file which contains the main entry point (main function) to your program, which is conventionally named “main.ark”.

Since our main file is in another folder, we need to set the src folder as an include directory so that the compiler doesn’t think it’s a module. We use the -I flag for this:

ark build -I src src/main.ark --loglevel=debug

This should compile your code, and produce an executable called “main”, which you can then run.

For more information on the module system and how it works, refer to the “Modules and Dependencies” section in the Ark reference.

For more information on program flags, refer to the “Program Input”, section in the Ark reference.