lair: a lightweight build system

September 16, 2025 · View on GitHub

EXAMPLE

$ cd example

$ ./install

$ ./lair
Hello, World!

See the example project for more detail.

ABOUT

lair provides conventions for automating common computer tasks.

REQUIREMENTS

  • a UNIX-like environment, e.g. WSL

LICENSE

FreeBSD

MAJOR FEATURES

Composability

Historically, many build systems rely on bespoke shell scripts, with all the hazards inherent in shell languages.

In contrast, lair uses the predictable Proc API. This enables a safe, expressive domain specific language to maintain build systems of any complexity.

Focus

lair is quiet by default, presenting only the logs of your commands. This reduces log noise, saving time and cloud costs.

Portability

We don't believe in vendor locking for software development tools.

lair runs on a wide variety of platforms, including macOS, Linux, other UNIX kin, and Windows. This helps to promote a higher degree of portability for your applications.

lair is operating system agnostic, programming language agnostic, and build system agnostic. In fact, we recommend delegating many tasks from lair to project-specific build systems!

Speed

lair is designed for low overhead, so that the bulk of the CPU time is reserved for executing your build commands. Spend the extra time developing your projects, or just grabbing a cup of coffee.

Flexibility

Extend your lairs to fit your project needs. Execute tasks in parallel. Design your tasks like make .PHONY: by default. The sky's the limit!

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