# ngs-lang/ngs

Next Generation Shell (NGS)

Repository: https://github.com/ngs-lang/ngs
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/ngs
Homepage: https://ngs-lang.org/
Language: C
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: programming-language, shell
Last push: 2026-08-15T09:23:53+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 97, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4723, "days_push": 18, "days_rel": 515, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1521, forks 49 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:57.873348+00:00)

## What it is
Next Generation Shell (NGS) is a modern programming language and shell designed specifically for DevOps tasks, combining a bash-like syntax for running external programs with ergonomic exit-code handling, output parsing, and functional data manipulation. It includes a standard library, multimethod-based dispatch, declarative AWS primitives, and installs via Homebrew, Snap, Docker, or a curl script.

## Use cases
- write devops scripts with better error handling than bash
- parse and manipulate JSON from command output in a shell script
- run and manage external processes ergonomically
- automate AWS resource management from the command line
- replace bash for complex system automation tasks
- script with functional primitives like map and filter over structured data

## When to choose
- you need a shell language with structured data handling and JSON parsing built in
- you write DevOps automation scripts that outgrow bash's ergonomics
- you want multimethod dispatch and a real type system in a scripting shell
- you manage AWS resources and want declarative primitives from scripts

## When to avoid
- you need a POSIX-compliant shell for portable system scripts
- your team only knows bash and cannot adopt a niche language
- you need a mature interactive shell with full CLI features - the CLI is still under development
- you require a large ecosystem of libraries and community packages

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: programming-language, interpreter, cli, developer-tools, workflow-automation
- domain: programming-languages, cloud-computing
- platform: cli, cross-platform
- tags: shell, devops-language, scripting, aws, multimethods, alternative-shell, command-line, devops, automation, linux, macos, docker

## Member repositories
- ngs-lang/ngs (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:57.873348+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 2026-08-30T04:31:52.514455+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ngs-lang/ngs (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:57.873348+00:00, sha fb6bbda39807)
  - homepage: https://ngs-lang.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T11:34:56.261881+00:00, sha a8300ff5e216)
  - site_page: https://ngs-lang.org/doc/latest/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:34:56.272396+00:00, sha b73f348b41c5)
  - site_page: https://ngs-lang.org/doc/latest/man/ngslang.1.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:34:56.274434+00:00, sha bd416a169882)
  - site_page: https://ngs-lang.org/doc/latest/man/ngsstyle.1.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:34:56.278414+00:00, sha 6342a818c4c7)
  - site_page: https://ngs-lang.org/doc/latest/generated/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:34:56.280266+00:00, sha 349eb0afcbde)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.