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Getting Started

Set up the Ora development environment and try the current implementation.

Ora is an experimental project and NOT ready for production use. Syntax and features change frequently.

Prerequisites​

  • Zig 0.15.x
  • Git (for submodules)

Installation​

Clone and Build​

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/oralang/Ora.git
cd Ora

# Initialize submodules (includes sensei-ir)
git submodule update --init --recursive

# Build the compiler
zig build

# Run tests to verify installation
zig build test

Verify Installation​

# View CLI help and available commands
./zig-out/bin/ora --help

# Compile an example contract
./zig-out/bin/ora ora-example/smoke.ora

# Format Ora source code
./zig-out/bin/ora fmt contract.ora

# Analyze storage access patterns
./zig-out/bin/ora --analyze-state ora-example/smoke.ora

# Generate MLIR intermediate representation
./zig-out/bin/ora --emit-mlir ora-example/smoke.ora

Try Your First Contract (current syntax)​

contract SimpleStorage {
    storage var value: u256;

    pub fn set(new_value: u256) {
        value = new_value;
    }

    pub fn get() -> u256 {
        return value;
    }
}

Parse and inspect:

./zig-out/bin/ora parse simple_test.ora

Format your code:

# Format a file in-place
./zig-out/bin/ora fmt simple_test.ora

# Check if code is formatted (useful for CI)
./zig-out/bin/ora fmt --check simple_test.ora

# Show diff of formatting changes
./zig-out/bin/ora fmt --diff simple_test.ora

# Output formatted code to stdout
./zig-out/bin/ora fmt --stdout simple_test.ora

📖 For complete formatter documentation, see Code Formatter

Current Implementation Status​

✅ What Works: (79% success rate - 76/96 examples)

  • Contract parsing and AST generation
  • Complete type checking and semantic analysis
  • Storage, memory, and transient storage operations
  • Switch statements (expression and statement forms)
  • Struct declarations, instantiation, and field operations
  • Enum declarations with explicit values
  • Arithmetic operations (add, sub, mul, div, rem, power)
  • Control flow (if/else, switch)
  • Map operations (get/store)
  • Memory operations (mload, mstore, mload8, mstore8)
  • MLIR lowering with 81 operations
  • Code formatter (ora fmt) - Canonical, deterministic code formatting

🚧 In Development:

  • Complete sensei-ir (SIR) lowering and EVM code generation
  • Advanced for-loop syntax
  • Standard library
  • Formal verification (requires/ensures full implementation)

Exploring Examples​

Use repo fixtures and examples to explore:

  • Semantics fixtures: tests/fixtures/semantics/{valid,invalid}
  • Parser fixtures: tests/fixtures/parser/{...}
  • Example snippets: ora-example/ (reference language constructs; some may be experimental)

Development Tips​

  • Run the full suite: zig build test
  • For quick inspection, prefer ora lex|parse|ast on small files
  • Grammar references: GRAMMAR.bnf, GRAMMAR.ebnf

Building Variants​

# Clean build
zig build clean && zig build

# Debug build
zig build -Doptimize=Debug

# Release build
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast

Current Limitations​

Not Yet Available:

  • Standard library (in development)
  • Complete Yul code generation
  • Advanced for-loop capture syntax
  • Full formal verification

Important Notes:

  • Syntax may change before ASUKA release
  • Not ready for production use
  • Some examples demonstrate planned features
  • See roadmap for development timeline