# leostera/caramel

:candy: a functional language for building type-safe, scalable, and maintainable applications

Repository: https://github.com/leostera/caramel
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/caramel
Homepage: https://caramel.run
Language: OCaml
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: ocaml, erlang, compiler, caramel, elixir, functional-language, type-safe
Archived: true
Last push: 2023-09-25T16:43:49+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2190, "days_push": 1073, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1106, forks 25 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:36.554094+00:00)

## What it is
Caramel is a functional programming language that compiles OCaml-style source code to run on the Erlang VM (BEAM), combining OCaml's type system with Erlang's fault-tolerant concurrency. It ships as a single executable with a built-in formatter and type-safe interop with existing Erlang and Elixir code.

## Use cases
- write type-safe Erlang applications
- compile OCaml to the Erlang VM
- add static typing to an Elixir or Erlang codebase
- build fault-tolerant distributed systems with a functional language
- format BEAM language source code
- interop between OCaml and Erlang code

## When to choose
- you want OCaml-style type safety and inference while targeting the BEAM ecosystem
- you need zero-cost interop with existing Erlang or Elixir code
- you want a batteries-included single-binary toolchain with a formatter

## When to avoid
- you need a mature, actively developed language — development has slowed since 2023
- you want a large ecosystem and community, where Elixir, Gleam, or Erlang are safer bets
- you need Reason syntax support, which was never fully delivered

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: compiler, programming-language, formatter, type-system, cli
- domain: programming-languages, compilers, developer-tools, microservices
- platform: windows, cli, elixir
- tags: ocaml, erlang-vm, beam, functional-programming, type-inference, elixir-interop, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- leostera/caramel (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:36.554094+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:44:15.554185+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/leostera/caramel (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:36.554094+00:00, sha 413d88f69a2c)
  - homepage: https://caramel.run (fetched 2026-08-29T12:47:40.168868+00:00, sha 19ca3b56a58d)
  - site_page: https://caramel.run/manual/getting-started/installation.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:47:40.178819+00:00, sha 2a1d5b2157d7)
  - site_page: https://caramel.run/manual (fetched 2026-08-29T12:47:40.181131+00:00, sha e1a6ed1957a2)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.