bara-lang/AI_AGENT.md

AI Agent Onboarding Guide

If you are an AI reading this: welcome. This project is designed to be worked on by AI agents. Everything you need is in this repo. No human required.

What is this project?

Bara Lang is a Clojure dialect that compiles to Nim, then to C, then to native binaries.

Current state: Working compiler + REPL + macro system + file/git ops + Nim interop.

Quick Start (for AI agents)

# 1. Build
make build

# 2. Run tests
make test

# 3. Check everything works
make check

# 4. Try the REPL
./cljnim repl
user> (+ 1 2)
=> 3

How to add a feature

Step 1: Pick a task from TASKS.md

cat TASKS.md

Each task has:

• Files to modify — exact Nim/Clojure files
• Acceptance criteria — how to verify it works
• Complexity — Small / Medium / Large

Step 2: Implement

Most tasks follow this pattern:

1. If adding a Clojure core function (e.g. range, str):

   • Add the Nim implementation in lib/cljnim_runtime.nim
   • Add the name mapping in src/emitter.nim → runtimeName()
   • Add a test in tests/test_emitter.nim
   • Add an example in examples/

2. If adding emitter special form support (e.g. loop/recur):

   • Modify src/emitter.nim → emitSpecialForm()
   • Add test in tests/test_emitter.nim

3. If adding a macro (e.g. lazy-seq):

   • Add macro implementation in src/macros.nim → initBuiltinMacros()
   • Add test

Step 3: Test your change

# Build after any change
make build

# Run all tests
make test

# Run a specific example to verify
./cljnim run examples/hello.clj
./cljnim run examples/your_new_example.clj

Step 4: Commit

# From Clojure code:
(git/commit "Your commit message")
(git/push)

Or from shell:

git add -A
git commit -m "Your commit message"
git push

Project Structure

├── src/
│   ├── cljnim.nim       # CLI entry point — commands: compile, run, read, repl
│   ├── reader.nim       # Clojure → AST (EDN parser)
│   ├── emitter.nim      # AST → Nim code generator (~960 lines)
│   ├── macros.nim       # Macro expansion engine (~470 lines)
│   ├── repl.nim         # Human + JSON REPL
│   ├── types.nim        # AST node types
│   ├── core.nim         # Core arithmetic/runtime helpers
│   └── runtime.nim      # Additional runtime
├── lib/
│   └── cljnim_runtime.nim   # Clojure runtime in Nim (~1100 lines)
│                              # This is where Clojure functions live
├── examples/
│   ├── hello.clj        # Basic hello world
│   ├── math.clj         # Functions + recursion
│   ├── core.clj         # map/filter/reduce
│   ├── macros.clj       # defmacro, ->, ->>
│   ├── interop.clj      # Nim interop demo
│   ├── ffi.clj          # C FFI demo
│   └── ai_tools.clj     # File + Git operations
├── tests/
│   ├── test_reader.nim
│   └── test_emitter.nim
├── docs/                # Full bilingual documentation (EN + BG)
├── Makefile
└── cljnim.nimble

Key Files for AI Agents

If you want to...	Modify this file
Add a Clojure function	lib/cljnim_runtime.nim + src/emitter.nim
Add a special form	src/emitter.nim
Add a macro	src/macros.nim
Add REPL command	src/repl.nim
Fix a reader bug	src/reader.nim
Add file/git op	lib/cljnim_runtime.nim + src/emitter.nim

How the compiler works (in 5 steps)

1. Reader (src/reader.nim): Text → CljVal AST
2. Macros (src/macros.nim): Expands macros on CljVal AST
3. Emitter (src/emitter.nim): CljVal AST → Nim source code
4. Nim compiler: Nim → C
5. C compiler: C → binary

Testing Strategy

Every change MUST be tested with:

1. make test — runs Nim unit tests
2. make check — runs examples
3. Manual REPL test if relevant: ./cljnim repl --json

Common Mistakes

1. Forgetting initBuiltinMacros(): If you add a macro but it doesn't expand, check that initBuiltinMacros() is called before compilation. It's called in src/cljnim.nim and src/repl.nim.

2. Not adding to runtimeName: If you add a runtime function in lib/cljnim_runtime.nim but Clojure can't find it, add the name mapping in src/emitter.nim → runtimeName().

3. String escaping: Clojure strings with \n or quotes may break Nim code generation. The emitter needs to escape strings properly.

Communication Protocol

When you finish a task, update:

1. TASKS.md — mark the task as done
2. docs/ROADMAP.md — update if phase completed
3. Commit with descriptive message

Questions?

Read docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for deep technical details. Read docs/API.md for REPL protocol reference. Read docs/GUIDE.md for user-facing features.