richiemcilroy / Tov

# Tov
A programming language for coding agents. Tov reads like TypeScript, so your agent can already write it, and when the agent gets something wrong the compiler hands back the edit that fixes it. What comes out is one native binary, faster than Rust's on our benchmarks and in a fraction of the memory Bun uses (the numbers).
To start, paste the prompt on tov.sh into your agent. It installs Tov and reads tov.sh/llms.txt, which is the language written up for agents. To install it yourself, run `curl -fsSL https://tov.sh/install.sh | sh`. That builds Tov from source, so it needs git and a C compiler.
Code that looks like TypeScript behaves like TypeScript, or doesn't compile. Bun's and Node's APIs are there (`Bun.serve`, `fetch`, `node:fs`, `async`/`await`), and so are npm packages: an app written for Bun runs on Tov unchanged. What Tov leaves out is what makes programs hard to follow. There's no `any`, `null` or `==`, a call that can fail is marked `try`, integer overflow stops the program, and arrays and records are values, so nothing changes behind the agent's back. Errors have a code, and where the fix is clear, `tov check --json` returns the exact edit and says whether it's safe to apply as it is.
A program compiles in about 42 ms (Rust: 98). A web server serves 242,000 requests a second on one core in 1.6 MB of memory, against 216,000 in 4.4 MB for Rust's axum and 111,000 in 17 MB for Bun (macOS, M4 Max).
The landing page, site/, is a Tov program: `cd site && tov dev`.
## Status
Tov is early, and it changes every day. It's at version 0.0.1.
| Works today | Not yet |
|---|---|
| Command-line programs and web servers | Windows |
| Records, unions, generics, classes, interfaces, checked errors | A package manager of its own (install packages with npm or Bun) |
| `async`/`await`, promises, timers | Tuples, enums and some other TypeScript features (spec) |
| `fetch()` over HTTP and HTTPS, with streaming, compression and proxies | TLS sockets (`tls.connect`) and worker threads for npm packages |
| Bun's server API (`Bun.serve`, routes, `Request`, `Response`) | `Promise.allSettled`/`any`, `.then`/`.catch` |
| A Node-style standard library (`fs`, `path`, `process`) | |
| npm packages, including Node-API native addons, and Bun apps | |
| macOS (arm64) and Linux | |
## How an agent works with Tov
An agent writes TypeScript:
 [code] 
Tov says what's wrong and how to fix it, for people:
 [code] 
and for tools (`tov check --json`, trimmed):
 [code] 
A `safe` fix can be applied as it is, and `tov explain T0831` describes any code. With the fix applied, `tov build hello.tov` writes a 152 KB binary.
To get an agent started, give it tov.sh/llms.txt. It's docs/spec.md, which lists only what differs from TypeScript, with a short guide to the commands in front.
## Example
 [code] 
## Getting started
You need Rust 1.95 or newer (to build the compiler) and a C compiler (`clang` or `gcc`).
 [code] 
The command line works like Bun's: `tov ` runs a program and passe