Chuks v0.0.2 — Hello, World

Mar 7, 2026

We’re excited to announce Chuks v0.0.2 — the first public release of the Chuks programming language.

Chuks is a modern, statically-typed backend language built for real-world services. It ships with two execution modes, a built-in HTTP server, and everything you need to start building APIs today.

What’s in This Release

Dual Execution: VM and AOT Compiler

Chuks has two ways to run your code:

chuks run — Interprets your code in a stack-based bytecode VM. Fast startup, great for development.
chuks build — Compiles your Chuks code ahead-of-time to a native binary. Production-ready performance.

Both modes execute the same language with the same semantics.

function main() {
    println("Hello from Chuks!")
}

Core Language

The language ships with a rich feature set from day one:

Types: int, float, string, bool, any, typed arrays []T, typed maps map[K]V, nullable T?, union types T | U
Classes: constructors, inheritance, interfaces, abstract classes, generics, access modifiers
Functions: closures, arrow functions, default parameters, variadic arguments
Control flow: if/else, for, while, switch/case, try/catch/finally
Concurrency: async/await, spawn for lightweight concurrent tasks, Task.all(), channels, structured concurrency with Context

Built-in HTTP Server

A high-performance networking stack built for production workloads:

import { createServer } from "std/http"

function main() {
    var app = createServer()

    app.get("/", (req, res) => {
        res.json({ message: "Hello from Chuks!" })
    })

    app.listen(3000)
}

Standard Library

28 modules ship out of the box: HTTP server & client, JSON, file system, crypto, JWT, database drivers (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL), logging, validation, regex, UUID, dotenv, and more.

Developer Tools

REPL — Interactive development with chuks repl
Project scaffolding — chuks new creates a ready-to-go project with the correct structure
VS Code extension — Syntax highlighting, code completion, hover docs

Install Script

Get started with a single command:

curl -fsSL https://chuks.org/install.sh | bash

Downloads the correct binary for your platform (macOS, Linux, Windows) and sets up your PATH automatically.

What’s Next

This is just the beginning. The foundation is solid — now we build on it.