koka-lang/koka

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: no_license

Adoption not part of the score

4046 stars · 219 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

Koka is a strongly typed functional programming language with a polymorphic effect type system and algebraic effect handlers, developed as a research language. Its compiler and interpreter compile Koka programs directly to C without a garbage collector using the Perceus reference-counting method.

Use cases

• experiment with algebraic effects and handlers
• learn a functional language with effect types
• compile functional programs to C without a GC runtime
• study advanced type systems and effect inference
• build async/await or exception abstractions as user libraries

When to choose

• you want to explore or research effect handlers and effect typing
• you need precise control over memory via reference counting without a runtime
• you are doing programming-language research or teaching

When to avoid

• you need a production-ready language with mature ecosystem and libraries
• you need guaranteed long-term stability for a commercial project
• your team requires mainstream tooling and hiring pool

Facets

cli-tool · maturity experimental

compiler interpreter programming-language type-system programming-languages compilers windows cpp cli algebraic-effects effect-handlers functional-language perceus reference-counting research-language algorithms linux macos

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="koka-lang/koka")