# ponylang/ponyc

Pony is an open-source, actor-model, capabilities-secure, high performance programming language

Repository: https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/ponyc
Homepage: http://www.ponylang.io
Language: Pony
License: BSD-2-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: pony-language, pony-source, ponyc, programming-language, actor-model, ponylang
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:57:05+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 99/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 98, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5041, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 12, "gap_med": 7, "n_releases_24m": 32}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6173, forks 438 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:37.145638+00:00)

## What it is
ponyc is the compiler for Pony, an open-source, object-oriented, actor-model, capabilities-secure, high-performance programming language that is ahead-of-time compiled to native code. It enforces type safety, memory safety, and data-race and deadlock freedom at compile time, and ships with pony-doc for generating API documentation.

## Use cases
- compile pony programs to native binaries
- write concurrent code without locks or data races
- learn an actor-model programming language
- build high-performance systems with memory safety guarantees
- call C libraries from a safe language
- generate API documentation for pony packages

## When to choose
- you need compile-time guarantees of data-race and deadlock freedom for concurrent programs
- you want AOT-compiled native performance with memory safety and no garbage-collector pauses concerns
- you need safe native interop with C libraries
- you want to explore or contribute to an actor-model language

## When to avoid
- you need a stable 1.0 language - Pony is pre-1.0 with regular breaking changes
- you need incremental compilation or fast builds on large codebases - Pony compiles whole programs
- you need WebAssembly support - it is not practically supported
- you rely on a large ecosystem, corporate backing, or extensive third-party libraries
- you target Windows 10 or Linux kernels older than 5.3

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: programming-language, compiler, concurrency, type-system, documentation
- domain: programming-languages, compilers, developer-tools, microservices
- platform: windows, bsd, cross-platform, cli
- tags: pony, actor-model, capabilities-security, data-race-free, memory-safe, aot-compiled, c-interop, ponyc, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- ponylang/ponyc (main) score 99

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:37.145638+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 2026-08-29T17:47:27.016494+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:37.145638+00:00, sha 51d17cde740b)
  - homepage: http://www.ponylang.io (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.473630+00:00, sha 17e0ae8248c3)
  - site_page: https://www.ponylang.io/learn/installing-pony (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.478097+00:00, sha 9c0d30a00ba3)
  - site_page: https://www.ponylang.io/use/documentation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.479797+00:00, sha 859ace65f87d)
  - site_page: https://www.ponylang.io/contribute/project-documentation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.481534+00:00, sha 040d12185123)
  - site_page: https://www.ponylang.io/faq/about-pony (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.484850+00:00, sha 463013600b25)
  - site_page: https://www.ponylang.io/faq (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.476365+00:00, sha 96f43da759f0)
  - site_page: https://www.ponylang.io/contribute/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.483199+00:00, sha cf7c58dd3ea8)
  - site_page: https://www.ponylang.io/faq/code (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.486574+00:00, sha 9a4e33fd5000)
  - site_page: https://www.ponylang.io/faq/compiling (fetched 2026-08-29T08:44:21.488352+00:00, sha e60d7115d836)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.