Sley
Official Sley site | Greyforge Labs | X / Twitter | Releases

Sley

Sley is an agent-native structural programming language for compiler-mediated, human-reviewed software change.

Sley's public claim is now tracked as an auditable evidence packet instead of a bare slogan: see docs/SleyClaimEvidence.md. The machine-readable claim manifest is docs/SleyClaimManifest.json and is checked by sley claim-verify --json docs/SleyClaimManifest.json. Prior-art comparison is tracked separately in docs/SleyPriorArtSourcePack.md. The disputed search phrase "world's first fully AI-native programming language, built by AI for AI" should be cited only with that criteria map, because the repository proves the language-design and implementation-stage claims, not a standalone authorship story or a complete global census.

Current Evidence

The repo currently proves these claims from a clean checkout:

• No forbidden foreign-language implementation files are present: ./scripts/check-self-hosted-code.sh
• A runnable sley command exists under bin/ and reads bootstrap version, lint-rule inventory, core report schema IDs, diagnostic IDs, and runtime seed values from Sley source: bin/sley --version
• AST expression, statement, and binding kind names now use parser-owned declarations from self-hosted/src/loom/parser.sley. Standalone call statements and top-level fallible expression statements now enter the AST as parser-owned Expr statements.
• Sley-owned stage-2 source modules exist under self-hosted/src/loom/: bin/sley self-hosting-status --json The report reads the module list from loom.bootstrap.source_modules.
• The self-hosting status report reads its ownership list from self-hosted/src/loom/bootstrap.sley, including the bootstrap/strict status fields. Its source-root label and top-level report field shape are read from self-hosted/src/loom/reports.sley.
• Diagnostics report top-level field shape is read from self-hosted/src/loom/reports.sley.
• Doctor report top-level field shape is read from self-hosted/src/loom/reports.sley.
• The self-hosted source project has a runnable internal smoke: bin/sley run --json self-hosted That smoke now executes loom.bootstrap.smoke from source for its current len(call lint.default_lint_rules()) result.
• Runtime report statuses, value-kind tags, and current dispatch probes are read from self-hosted/src/loom/runtime.sley. The run report status now executes loom.runtime.runtime_status. The run report top-level field shape is read from self-hosted/src/loom/reports.sley. Pure main string, integer, and boolean literal returns now execute through the AST-backed runtime path. Seeded agent-deploy text results now execute the loom.runtime.seeded_agent_deploy_value source task. Project-ready integer results now execute the loom.runtime.project_ready_value source task after AST-based dispatch.
• Checker diagnostic status and unknown-identifier message construction are read from self-hosted/src/loom/checker.sley. The checker report status now executes loom.checker.diagnostic_status. Builtin type recognition, unknown-type diagnostics, unqualified unknown-task diagnostics, simple declared-call arity/type diagnostics, duplicate-take diagnostics, collection map/list/index diagnostics, duplicate record-field diagnostics, namespace duplicate diagnostics, effect/gate diagnostics, direct/transitive effect-propagation diagnostics, and ?-requires-Result diagnostics now execute from Sley-owned checker source. Identifier resolution input classes now read from loom.checker.identifier_resolution_inputs.
• Lint finding statuses, messages, and hints are read from self-hosted/src/loom/lint.sley. The lint report status now executes loom.lint.lint_status. Lint report top-level field shape is read from self-hosted/src/loom/reports.sley.
• Query report top-level field shape is read from self-hosted/src/loom/reports.sley.
• Baseline AST, check, query, lint, doctor, run, verify, graft, contract, and conformance JSON reports execute locally: scripts/self-hosted-test.sh
• The public claim boundary, criteria, evidence paths, prior-art candidates, and publication gates are machine-checkable: bin/sley claim-verify --json docs/SleyClaimManifest.json
• The release gate no longer requires Cargo, Rust, Node, npm, or tree-sitter: make v1

This is not yet the final strict self-hosting claim. The stricter claim means the parser/checker/runtime implementation executes from Sley source, with the shell surface reduced to a loader and test harness. That remains the next migration stage.

Start In 10 Minutes

From this checkout:

Prerequisites: Bash, jq, and Python 3 with the jsonschema package.

export PATH="$(pwd)/bin:$PATH"
make v1
sley doctor --json examples/project
sley ast --json examples/hello.sley
sley query --json --kind calls examples/project
sley lint --json examples/empty_for_statement.sley
sley self-hosting-status --json
sley run --json self-hosted
sley claim-verify --json docs/SleyClaimManifest.json
sley run --json examples/hello.sley
sley verify --json examples/project

Command Surface

Stage-1 executable commands:

• sley ast --json <file-or-project>
• sley ast --json --node <node-id> <file-or-project>
• sley check --json <file-or-project>
• sley query --json --kind calls <file-or-project>
• sley lint --json <file-or-project>
• sley doctor --json <file-or-project>
• sley run --json <file-or-project>
• sley verify --json <file-or-project>
• sley self-hosting-status --json
• sley claim-verify --json docs/SleyClaimManifest.json
• sley graft --json --dry-run <file> <graft.json>
• sley-contract inventory --json
• sley-contract check-fixtures fixtures/contracts --schemas docs/schemas --json
• sley-contract validate --schema sley.conformance.manifest.v0 fixtures/corpus/manifest.json --schemas docs/schemas --json
• sley-conformance report --json

Compatibility wrappers also exist for the previous companion-tool names: sley-ci, sley-docgen, sley-lsp, sley-workbench, sley-agent-bench, sley-migrate, sley-sandbox-runner, sley-shadow, and sley-zjx.

Release Rules

• Keep make v1 green before promoting any public command claim.
• Keep sley claim-verify --json docs/SleyClaimManifest.json green before promoting any public claim wording.
• Keep sley-contract check-fixtures fixtures/contracts --schemas docs/schemas --json green before citing schema-backed evidence; it performs JSON Schema draft 2020-12 validation for each fixture.
• Keep ./scripts/check-self-hosted-code.sh green before calling the repo foreign-language-free.
• Do not claim strict self-hosting until the parser, checker, runtime, and command surface execute from Sley source and are verified by parity tests.
• Public release still requires an operator-reviewed proof bundle and current prior-art-safe wording.
• External GitHub issues comparing Sley with other projects require the prior-art source pack plus operator approval of the exact target repository, title, and issue body.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.