# luau-lang/luau

A small, fast, and embeddable programming language based on Lua with a gradual type system.

Repository: https://github.com/luau-lang/luau
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/luau
Homepage: https://luau.org
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: lua, programming-language, scripting-language
Last push: 2026-08-26T17:48:00+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2910, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 12, "gap_med": 7.0, "n_releases_24m": 95}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5805, forks 622 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:29.831120+00:00)

## What it is
Luau is a fast, small, gradually typed scripting language derived from Lua 5.1, designed to be embedded in applications with a sandboxed runtime and Lua-compatible C API. It ships with a REPL/runner CLI and a static analysis tool (luau-analyze) for type checking and linting.

## Use cases
- embed a scripting language in a game or application
- write typed Lua scripts with type inference
- run untrusted user scripts safely in a sandbox
- lint and type-check Lua-like codebases
- script Roblox game logic
- replace Lua 5.1 with a faster, safer runtime

## When to choose
- you need an embeddable, sandboxed scripting language with gradual typing
- you want Lua 5.1 compatibility with better performance and type safety
- you are building Roblox experiences or games adopting Luau

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose standalone systems language
- you require full compatibility with newer Lua versions like 5.4
- you need a large standard library out of the box

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: programming-language, interpreter, compiler, linter, type-system
- domain: programming-languages, developer-tools
- platform: cpp, cross-platform, cli
- tags: lua, scripting-language, gradual-typing, embeddable, roblox, type-inference, sandboxing, game-development

## Member repositories
- luau-lang/luau (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:29.831120+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 2026-08-30T08:09:56.645137+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/luau-lang/luau (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:29.831120+00:00, sha d9eb876495e1)
  - homepage: https://luau.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:47.657707+00:00, sha 7c31a226eafe)
  - site_page: https://luau.org/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T08:47:47.679196+00:00, sha 2e5e97eeca0d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.