Second tranche of the contracts-against-code audit. Two threads, both applied conservatively under the over-correction guards in docs_honesty_pin.rs (the self-labelled tiebreaker in 0008 and the Diverge-reserved anchor in 0010 are deliberate honest content and were left untouched; design rationale that explains a present-state design principle — semantic-locality, the reuse-as-wrapper reasons — was also preserved). Honesty-rule (0007): demote clear change/deletion narration to present tense. - 0008: drop "they were promoted from ... to ... Recorded here so"; strip the "Iter A"/"Iter B" iteration labels (the descriptive titles carry the meaning); drop "(no longer a carve-out)". - 0001: "were rewired to use ... was deleted at the same time" -> present tense. (The substance was already correct: `pretty.rs` holds only the diagnostic helpers; an audit agent had misread the line as "pretty.rs was deleted" — the file exists, the printer code does not.) - 0012: drop "Per the tail-call survey of existing fixtures" and "Migration of existing fixtures is partial" -> present-state description of which corpus fixtures carry the tail marker. Ratifier integrity: a contract that names a test which does not ratify it is itself a form of the dishonesty this ledger forbids. - 0014 named `bench/architect_sweeps.sh`, which sweeps honesty-anchors and ratifies none of the six verification mechanisms; and claim 5 cited `tests/expected/`, which never existed (git log empty). Point claim 5 at the real golden mechanism (`crates/ail/tests/snapshots/` via `ir_snapshot.rs`) and the footer at each mechanism's actual test. - 0015's four constraints are guaranteed by absence (no thunk/`ref`/ `IORef` node, non-recursive `let`); the named uniqueness in-source tests only count RC consumes, never the constraints. State the by-construction guarantee and point the ratifier at `ast.rs` (the single source of truth for which nodes exist). - INDEX ratifying-test column updated for both to match. All ledger pins green (docs_honesty_pin, design_index_pin incl. every_contract_names_a_resolvable_ratifying_test, effect_doc_honesty_pin, carve_out_inventory); architect honesty sweep clean. Deferred, recommend-only: 0016-method-dispatch carries no invariant absent from 0013 (merge candidate), but a contract-file merge touches INDEX, the retired-counter convention, and cross-refs — a structural call left for explicit direction. Minor history phrasing in 0008's Type::Con.name hash-shift paragraph (§"FnDef.suppress") also left.
7.8 KiB
AILang Design — Index
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-surfaceis the lossless Form-A printer/parser — the canonical authoring surface, with a round-trip propertyparse ∘ print = idgating every release.ailang-proseis 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 indocs/PROSE_ROUNDTRIP.md. - CLI (
crates/ail): toolchain for tooling consumers —manifest,describe,deps,check,build,parse,render,prose,merge-prose, etc., preferably with--jsonfor machine consumption. - Examples (
examples/): canonical.ail.jsonprograms. 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 ingit 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 milestone pending) |
design/models/0007-kernel-extensions.md |