Getting Started

This guide walks you through installing Mako, creating a project, and running your first program. By the end you will have a working development loop.

Install Mako

From a source checkout (requires cargo/rustc and clang):

make install

This places the mako binary in ~/.local/bin/ and runtime headers in ~/.local/share/mako/runtime. Ensure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH.

Verify the installation:

mako version
# mako version mako0.1.0 darwin/arm64

mako version -v
# includes the git commit hash

Create a project

Mako provides scaffolding for three project shapes:

# Simple application
mako init hello --name hello

# Backend API service (includes HTTP handler scaffold)
mako init mysvc --backend

# Multi-package workspace (lib + app)
mako init myws --workspace

Each creates a directory with mako.toml and a main.mko entry point.

Project structure

After mako init hello --name hello:

hello/
  mako.toml        # package manifest (name, version, dependencies)
  main.mko         # entry point — must contain fn main()

The mako.toml looks like:

name = "hello"
version = "0.1.0"

Write your first program

Open hello/main.mko:

fn main() {
    print("hello from mako")
    print_int(fib(10))
}

fn fib(n: int) -> int {
    if n <= 1 {
        return n
    }
    return fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2)
}

The development loop

From inside the hello/ directory:

# Typecheck without compiling (fast feedback)
mako check main.mko

# Compile and run in one step
mako run main.mko

# Build a binary (name comes from mako.toml)
mako build main.mko

# Run the binary directly
./hello

Passing arguments to your program

mako run main.mko -- arg1 arg2

Inside the program, use argc(), arg_get(i), or args() to read them.

Key commands

Command	Purpose
`mako check file.mko`	Typecheck (incremental, fast)
`mako run file.mko`	Compile and execute
`mako build file.mko`	Produce a binary
`mako build --release file.mko`	Optimized production binary
`mako build -j 8 file.mko`	Parallel compilation
`mako test path/`	Run tests
`mako fmt file.mko`	Format source code
`mako version`	Print version and platform

Running from source (no install)

If you have not installed yet, run directly from the compiler source tree:

cargo run --release -- check examples/hello.mko
cargo run --release -- run examples/hello.mko

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
`MAKO_RUNTIME`	Override runtime header location
`MAKO_JOBS`	Default parallel job count (same as `-j`)

Next steps

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