Development Setup

Prerequisites

Rust 1.94 or later
Node.js 18+ (for TypeScript runtime tests)
Go 1.21+ (for Go runtime tests)

Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/vexil-lang/vexil
cd vexil
cargo build --workspace

Run tests

# All Rust tests (~500)
cargo test --workspace

# Core compiler only
cargo test -p vexil-lang

# Rust codegen + golden + compliance tests
cargo test -p vexil-codegen-rust

# TypeScript codegen + golden tests
cargo test -p vexil-codegen-ts

# TypeScript runtime tests (120)
cd packages/runtime-ts && npx vitest run

Linting and formatting

# Must be clean (CI enforces this)
cargo clippy --workspace -- -D warnings

# Format all code
cargo fmt --all

# Check format without modifying
cargo fmt --all -- --check

Golden files

Codegen tests compare output against golden files. To update after intentional changes:

UPDATE_GOLDEN=1 cargo test -p vexil-codegen-rust
UPDATE_GOLDEN=1 cargo test -p vexil-codegen-ts

Benchmarks

cargo bench -p vexil-bench

Pre-commit hook

The repo has a pre-commit hook that runs cargo fmt --all and re-stages formatted files. Commits are always formatted. Set VEXIL_NO_FMT=1 to bypass.

Git workflow

Trunk-based development: small fixes go directly on main
Milestone-sized features use feature/<name> branches merged via PR
Always git pull origin main before starting work
CI/release workflow changes must go on a branch

Vexil Documentation