Quick start

Installing

The fastest way to try the language is to install nothing: the playground runs the real compiler in your browser.

For a binary:

cargo install aura-lang

Or download a build for your platform from Releases — Linux (gnu and static musl), macOS (Intel and Apple silicon) and Windows, each with a .sha256. On x86_64 Linux prefer the musl build: it is static, so it has no glibc floor.

In GitHub Actions:

- uses: aura-config/setup-aura@v1
- run: aura check deploy.aura --strict

To build from source instead:

git clone https://github.com/aura-config/aura-lang && cd aura-lang
cargo build --release
# the binary: target/release/aura

Your first manifest

Create hello.aura:

app_name = "hello"
port     = 8080

service:
  name:     app_name
  url:      "http://localhost:#{port}"
  replicas: 2
end

$ aura eval hello.aura
{
  "service": {
    "name": "hello",
    "url": "http://localhost:8080",
    "replicas": 2
  }
}

Notice that app_name and port — declared with = — did not reach the JSON: they are private computations. Only properties (name:) and blocks are exported. The next chapter goes into that.

The three commands you need daily

aura eval app.aura            # evaluate → JSON on stdout
aura check app.aura --strict  # check without evaluating (a linter; for CI)
aura fmt app.aura             # canonicalise the layout

Structure without the pain

Aura has no significant indentation — this is where YAML scar tissue heals. Structure comes from line breaks and an explicit end:

server:
  http:
    port: 8080
    timeouts:
      read: "30s".parse_duration()
    end
  end
end

Indentation is for humans only. aura fmt canonicalises it automatically and is guaranteed not to change meaning: the token stream before and after is identical.