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Brummel 82d42f1b6b docs(design): mark project RETIRED (paused) at the ledger spine 
Owner decision, 2026-06-03: pause AILang. Status banner at the top of
design/INDEX.md (the sole addressable spine), so any reader — human or
agent — sees the state before the framing.

The differentiating thesis (a language purpose-built for LLM authorship
makes LLM authors measurably more correct) did not find support in the
project's own cross-model measurements
(experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/format-findings.md):

- the optimal surface is model-relative — depth-annotated parens help a
  3B-active model (6/8 -> 7/8) but HURT a frontier model (7/8 -> 6/8,
  Llama-3.1-405B hallucinates structure it does not need);
- a compiler-in-the-loop is not an equaliser — agentic Qwen collapses
  into generation repetition before a single valid tree exists, so the
  oracle never engages;
- for a frontier author, AILang is at best neutral vs. a familiar
  language given a scan-plus-iterate workflow, not an edge.

The hallucination-robustness pillar (content-addressed symbols) was
separately falsified and removed (#66).

What survives, and why this is a pause not a deletion: the language is a
sound small ML/effect design, and the measurement harness is the most
durable output. main HEAD, git history, and the design ledger are
untouched; reversible if a new framing makes the remaining work
worthwhile.
2026-06-03 11:29:20 +02:00

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AILang Design — Index

Status: RETIRED (paused) as of 2026-06-03. No further compiler or language work is planned for now. The project's differentiating thesis — that a language purpose-built for LLM authorship makes LLM authors measurably more correct — did not find empirical support in the project's own cross-model measurements: the optimal surface is model-relative (a redundant-structure crutch helps a small model and hurts a frontier one), a compiler-in-the-loop is not an equaliser, and for a frontier author AILang is at best neutral versus a familiar language given a scan. The hallucination-robustness pillar (content-addressed symbols) was separately falsified and removed (#66). Evidence corpus: experiments/2026-05-12-cross-model-authoring/format-findings.md. The language design below remains a sound small ML/effect language and the measurement harness remains the project's most durable output; the git history and the design/ ledger stand as the record. This is a pause, not a deletion — reversible if a new framing makes the remaining work worthwhile.

The sole addressable entry point. Every contract and model is reached from here. A contract is a prescriptive, test-linked invariant; a model is a whitepaper narrative. ratifying-test names the green test that proves a contract still holds. link is polymorphic: a design/ file, or the authoritative source //! header when the code is the single source of truth.

Project framing

Goal

AILang is a programming language for LLM authors. It compiles to LLVM IR. Performance: native, no GC for the MVP.

Optimised for:

  • Machine readability over human ergonomics. The source is structured.
  • Local reasoning. Every definition carries its full type and effects.
  • Provability. Pure core language, explicit effects, optional refinements.
  • Robustness against hallucinations. Symbols are hashable; tools can verify existence without spending context window.

Project ecosystem

AILang is not just a language but an ecosystem. The language on its own is only valuable when its surroundings make it usable, checkable, and extensible for its target user (LLM authors). The repo therefore contains several equally important components — none of them optional, all of them evolving in lockstep with the language:

  • Language core (crates/ailang-core, crates/ailang-check, crates/ailang-codegen): AST, type system, codegen.
  • Surface forms (crates/ailang-surface, crates/ailang-prose): the LLM-facing renderings of a module. ailang-surface is the lossless Form-A printer/parser — the canonical authoring surface, with a round-trip property parse ∘ print = id gating every release. ailang-prose is the lossy Form-B projection — human-readable prose for review and edit, with no parser; re-integration goes through the LLM-mediator round-trip documented in docs/PROSE_ROUNDTRIP.md.
  • CLI (crates/ail): toolchain for tooling consumers — manifest, describe, deps, check, build, parse, render, prose, merge-prose, etc., preferably with --json for machine consumption.
  • Examples (examples/): canonical .ail.json programs. They are specification anchors, not demos — the E2E suite hangs off them.
  • Skills (~/dev/skills/ plugin, wired in via .claude/dev-cycle-profile.yml): specialised disciplines (brainstorm, planner, implement, audit, debug, fieldtest, docwriter, boss) plus the agent rosters they dispatch. They form the project's development methodology; the plugin is versioned separately, the per-project profile is in-tree.
  • Design ledger (design/): design/INDEX.md (this file — the sole addressable spine for canonical state), design/contracts/ (test-linked invariants), design/models/ (onboarding whitepapers).
  • Docs (docs/): specs/ (per-milestone design specs), plans/ (per-iteration implementation plans). Project history lives in git log; the forward queue lives in the Gitea issue backlog (http://192.168.178.103:3000/Brummel/AILang/issues).
  • Tests: unit tests per crate plus E2E in crates/ail/tests/e2e.rs. Every new compiler path needs a test, otherwise the feature does not count as done.

Project language: English

All in-tree content is written in English: source code (identifiers, comments, string literals, CLI help), design documents, agent prompts, READMEs, commit messages, examples, and CLAUDE.md. The live conversation between user and me stays German for ergonomic reasons; everything that lands in git is English. This keeps diffs and tooling output uniform and matches the audience for AILang (LLM authors), for whom English is the default.

Contracts

id consumer / lifetime ratifying-test link
feature-acceptance brainstorm-gate / stable CLAUDE.md design/contracts/0004-feature-acceptance.md
authoring-surface LLM author / stable crates/ailang-surface/tests/round_trip.rs design/contracts/0001-authoring-surface.md
roundtrip-invariant every release / stable crates/ailang-surface/tests/round_trip.rs design/contracts/0009-roundtrip-invariant.md
language-constraints LLM author / stable crates/ailang-core/src/ast.rs (no thunk/ref/IORef node — by construction) design/contracts/0015-language-constraints.md
memory-model LLM author / stable crates/ailang-check/src/uniqueness.rs + linearity.rs (in-source mod tests) design/contracts/0008-memory-model.md
data-model LLM author / stable crates/ailang-core/tests/design_schema_drift.rs design/contracts/0002-data-model.md
mangling codegen / stable crates/ail/tests/eq_ord_e2e.rs crates/ailang-codegen/src/lib.rs //!
env-construction codegen / stable crates/ailang-check/tests/duplicate_ctor_pin.rs crates/ailang-codegen/src/lib.rs //!
qualified-xref check→codegen / stable crates/ail/tests/codegen_import_map_fallback_pin.rs crates/ailang-check/src/lower_to_mir.rs (classify_callee) + design/contracts/0018-check-codegen-boundary.md
frozen-value-layout embedding ABI / one-way-frozen crates/ailang-codegen/tests/embed_record_layout_pin.rs design/contracts/0006-frozen-value-layout.md + runtime/rc.c §layout
float-semantics LLM author / stable crates/ail/tests/eq_float_noinstance.rs design/contracts/0005-float-semantics.md
typeclasses LLM author / stable crates/ail/tests/show_no_instance_e2e.rs design/contracts/0013-typeclasses.md
method-dispatch LLM author / stable crates/ail/tests/show_no_instance_e2e.rs design/contracts/0016-method-dispatch.md
prelude-classes LLM author / stable crates/ail/tests/show_no_instance_e2e.rs design/contracts/0017-prelude-classes.md
str-abi runtime ABI / stable crates/ail/tests/e2e.rs (Str path) design/contracts/0011-str-abi.md + runtime/str.c §heap-Str
tail-calls codegen / stable crates/ailang-check/src/lib.rs (in-source tail_call_in_non_tail_position_is_rejected) design/contracts/0012-tail-calls.md
honesty-rule architect+grounding / stable crates/ailang-core/tests/docs_honesty_pin.rs design/contracts/0007-honesty-rule.md
embedding-abi embedding host / stable crates/ailang-codegen/tests/embed_record_layout_pin.rs design/contracts/0003-embedding-abi.md
scope-boundaries architect+author / stable crates/ailang-core/tests/effect_doc_honesty_pin.rs design/contracts/0010-scope-boundaries.md
verification architect / stable crates/ail/tests/ir_snapshot.rs (+ round_trip, hash_pin, e2e) design/contracts/0014-verification.md
check-codegen-boundary architect / stable crates/ailang-check/tests/lower_to_mir_ty.rs (callee_classification_builtin_and_static) design/contracts/0018-check-codegen-boundary.md

Models

id consumer / lifetime link
rc-uniqueness onboarding / evolves design/models/0004-rc-uniqueness.md
typeclasses onboarding / evolves design/models/0005-typeclasses.md
effects onboarding / evolves design/models/0002-effects.md
authoring-surface onboarding / evolves design/models/0001-authoring-surface.md
prose-projection onboarding / evolves design/models/0006-prose-projection.md
pipeline onboarding / evolves design/models/0003-pipeline.md
kernel-extensions onboarding / evolves (mechanisms milestone closed 2026-05-28; ratified end-to-end by the ailang-kernel/src/raw_buf base extension; series library extension step-1 shipped via ailang-kernel/src/series, SoA step-2 #62 pending) design/models/0007-kernel-extensions.md
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