mino

A tiny, embeddable Lisp in pure ANSI C.

Drop it into a C or C++ application and gain a programmable extension layer. The standalone executable is a convenience for development; the embedding API is the product.

Requires only an ANSI C compiler and make. No external dependencies.

make
./mino

make is the bootstrap step only — it generates the bundled-source headers and compiles the binary from a clean checkout. Every other build, test, and tooling task runs through the binary itself:

./mino task            # list available tasks
./mino task build      # incremental rebuild (used during development)
./mino task test       # run the test suite
./mino task build-asan # ASan-instrumented build

Maintainer toolchain

make + an ANSI C compiler is the one, canonical build path — for embedders, from-source builds, and CI. Building or embedding mino never needs anything else.

Developing mino is different: cutting a release, regenerating stencils, or running the reproducible QA lanes requires a pinned zig cc (a bundled Clang with cross-compilation support). Maintainer-only tasks that need it include:

• ./mino task gen-stencils-all — regenerate the committed copy-and-patch JIT stencil byte tables for every target from one host, reproducibly. The bytes are checked in, so normal builds never invoke this.
• ./mino task cross-build — cross-compile the Linux (musl-static, amd64/arm64) and Windows release binaries from one host. macOS stays a native build (Zig bundles no macOS SDK).
• ./mino task sanitize-zig / lint-zig / analyze-zig — reproducible UBSan+TSan, a curated strict-warning lens, and an advisory static-analyzer report.

Run ./mino task doctor to check your toolchain. The pinned Zig version and the full task list are in docs/MAINTAINER_TOOLCHAIN.md. These tasks hard-fail without the pinned zig; every embedder-facing path is unaffected.

Documentation: mino-lang.org

Versioning

Pre-1.0.0: semantic versioning applies informally. Any minor version bump (0.X) may contain breaking changes to the embedding API, the language, or the standalone binary. Every break is called out under the corresponding version heading in CHANGELOG.md so embedders can audit the delta before upgrading. Patch versions (0.X.Y) are reserved for bug fixes and non-breaking additions.

Post-1.0.0: strict SemVer 2.0.0. Breaking changes happen only at major bumps; minor bumps add API; patch bumps fix bugs.

The ABI freeze is scheduled for the v1.0 cycle; until then, src/mino.h continues to carry evolving-API language.

License

MIT