# edubart/nelua-lang

Minimal, efficient, statically-typed and meta-programmable systems programming language heavily inspired by Lua, which compiles to C and native code.

Repository: https://github.com/edubart/nelua-lang
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/nelua-lang
Homepage: https://nelua.io
Language: Lua
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: nelua, programming-language, language, compiler, lua, luajit, metaprogramming, efficient, minimal, statically-typed, c
Last push: 2025-06-24T19:25:28+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 35/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 28, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3231, "days_push": 435, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2415, forks 86 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:50.234242+00:00)

## What it is
Nelua is a minimal, statically-typed, meta-programmable systems programming language inspired by Lua that compiles to C and native code. It targets performance-sensitive applications such as game engines and real-time systems, with compile-time metaprogramming implemented in Lua.

## Use cases
- write a systems programming language with Lua-like syntax
- compile Lua-flavored code to efficient C and native binaries
- build performance-sensitive games or real-time applications
- do compile-time metaprogramming to generate classes and generics
- write low-level code with manual memory management and pointers
- replace C with a simpler statically typed language

## When to choose
- you know Lua and want C-level performance with familiar syntax
- you need optional garbage collection and manual memory control
- you want powerful compile-time metaprogramming via Lua preprocessor code
- you are building games or real-time software where interpreter overhead is unacceptable

## When to avoid
- you need a stable, production-ready language - Nelua is in alpha
- you rely on Lua features not yet implemented like closures, exceptions, or dynamic tables
- you need broad ecosystem, package managers, or library support
- you want a language with large community and long-term guarantees

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: experimental
- function: programming-language, compiler, cli
- domain: programming-languages, compilers, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli, cpp
- tags: nelua, lua-inspired, statically-typed, systems-programming, compiles-to-c, metaprogramming, aot-compilation, alpha, game-development, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- edubart/nelua-lang (main) score 35

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:50.234242+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 2026-08-30T02:33:11.263524+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/edubart/nelua-lang (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:50.234242+00:00, sha cc133ddb1ba0)
  - homepage: https://nelua.io (fetched 2026-08-29T10:13:49.933298+00:00, sha a1939796a903)
  - site_page: https://nelua.io/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T10:13:49.936006+00:00, sha 92d382b430c9)
  - site_page: https://nelua.io/installing (fetched 2026-08-29T10:13:49.937660+00:00, sha 71b975eae4a3)
  - site_page: https://nelua.io/faq (fetched 2026-08-29T10:13:49.939409+00:00, sha f4314017978b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.