# jart/sectorlisp

Bootstrapping LISP in a Boot Sector

Repository: https://github.com/jart/sectorlisp
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/sectorlisp
Language: C
License: ISC
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-06-14T00:11:03+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 71/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 87, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2137, "days_push": 81, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1520, forks 75 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:57.753541+00:00)

## What it is
SectorLISP is a 512-byte LISP implementation that fits in a boot sector and boots John McCarthy's meta-circular evaluator on bare metal from BIOS. It also includes a readable portable C reference implementation of the same LISP interpreter with a readline-like REPL.

## Use cases
- boot a LISP interpreter from a floppy disk on bare metal
- study the smallest possible LISP implementation
- run John McCarthy's meta-circular evaluator
- learn how LISP can be bootstrapped from scratch
- experiment with a tiny REPL in a QEMU or emulator environment

## When to choose
- you want the tiniest true LISP implementation for educational or recreational purposes
- you're interested in bootstrapping programming languages from bare metal
- you want a readable C reference for a minimal LISP interpreter

## When to avoid
- you need a practical, full-featured LISP or Scheme for real applications
- you need performance, garbage collection, or standard library support
- you want a maintained general-purpose interpreter for production use

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: stable
- function: interpreter, programming-language, compiler
- domain: programming-languages, compilers, operating-systems, education
- platform: windows, cpp, cross-platform
- tags: lisp, boot-sector, bootloader, meta-circular-evaluator, minimalism, assembly, bare-metal, retro-computing, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- jart/sectorlisp (main) score 71

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:57.753541+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 2026-08-30T04:31:54.761368+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/jart/sectorlisp (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:57.753541+00:00, sha c36a97f13a97)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.