Getting Started

Installation

The quickest way is the install script, which fetches a prebuilt binary:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leinonen/golisp-language/main/install.sh | sh

Or build from source — GoLisp requires Go 1.25.5 or later:

go install github.com/leinonen/golisp-language/cmd/glisp@latest

Verify it works:

glisp version

Create a file named hello.glsp:

(ns main)

(defn main [] -> void
  (println "Hello, World!"))

Run it:

glisp run hello.glsp

Build a binary:

glisp build hello.glsp
./hello

Command	What it does
`glisp run file.glsp`	Compile and run, no output files
`glisp run --watch file.glsp`	Re-run on every save
`glisp file.glsp`	Run directly (also works via a `#!/usr/bin/env glisp` shebang)
`glisp build file.glsp`	Compile to a binary
`glisp build dir/`	Compile all `.glsp` files in a directory
`glisp fmt file.glsp`	Format in-place
`glisp compile file.glsp`	Emit the generated `.go` file
`glisp print file.glsp`	Print generated Go to stdout
`glisp macroexpand file.glsp`	Print the file with macros expanded
`glisp test file.glsp`	Run test blocks
`glisp doc [name]`	Show documentation for a built-in

Single-file programs need no setup — just a .glsp file with (ns main) and a main function.

For multi-file projects, create a directory:

myapp/
  main.glsp
  handlers.glsp
  models.glsp

Build the whole directory:

glisp build myapp/

For projects with external dependencies, add a glisp.mod file (see Modules).