Quickstart

This walkthrough gets you from an installed runtime to a real .kel file with functions, locals, and output. If kelvra --version does not work yet, follow Install Kelvra first.

First Program

Create a file named hello.kel:

fn applyTwice(f fn(i32) i32, value i32) i32 {
  return f(f(value))
}

var addOne = fn(x i32) => x + 1

print(applyTwice(addOne, 40))

Run it:

kelvra run hello.kel

What This Shows

• Named function declarations
• Function types in parameter position
• Local type inference with var
• Expression-bodied lambdas
• print(...) output through the runtime

Next Sample

Kelvra already supports structs, methods, and inferred locals:

type Counter struct {
  value i32

  fn reset() {
    this.value = 0
  }
}

fn buildCounter() Counter {
  var counter = Counter()
  counter.reset()
  return counter
}

var current = buildCounter()
print(current.value)

Use real examples

The repository already contains runnable samples under examples/ and many focused language cases under tests/. When you are documenting a new feature, prefer pulling a sample from one of those locations instead of inventing a separate docs-only snippet.

Where To Go Next

1. Read Values and Bindings and Control Flow for the core language model.
2. Read Collections, Functions and Closures, and Types and Inheritance for the day-to-day language surface.
3. Read Modules and Imports and Using Native Packages when the program stops being single-file.
4. Read CLI and Debug Flags and VS Code and LSP when you want the surrounding tooling.