Documentation

Learn Intent, from the idea to the draft syntax.

This is an early documentation stub. It captures the mental model and the current draft syntax while the language and compiler are still taking shape.

Core concepts

Intent has a small vocabulary. These are the terms you will see throughout the docs and examples.

Mission: A unit of intent: a goal, its inputs and outputs, and its guarantees.
Goal: The outcome a mission is meant to achieve, in plain language.
Requires: What must be true or available before the mission runs.
Input / Output: The typed values a mission consumes and produces.
Guarantees: Properties that must always hold when the mission completes.
Never: Forbidden behavior the implementation must never exhibit.
Constraints: Bounds and limits, such as a token time-to-live.
Target: A language the mission should compile toward, e.g. TypeScript.
Verify: The checks (types, tests, scans) that prove the guarantees hold.
Architecture: Services, APIs, events, data, dependencies, and ownership.

The Mission block

A Mission is the core unit of intent. It names a goal, declares what it requires, lists the guarantees that must hold, and names the targets it should compile toward.

CreateInvoice.intent

1Mission CreateInvoice
2
3Goal
4  Generate an invoice from approved orders
5
6Requires
7  Customer
8  ApprovedOrders
9
10Input
11  customer: Customer
12  orders: List<Order>
13
14Output
15  invoice: Invoice
16
17Guarantees
18  invoice.total is never negative
19  duplicate invoices are not created
20  every invoice is auditable
21
22Never
23  create invoice for unapproved order
24  expose payment token in logs
25
26Target
27  TypeScript
28  Python
29  DotNet
30
31Verify
32  unit tests
33  duplicate prevention test
34  audit trail test
35  security scan

Contracts & guarantees

Guarantees are not tests bolted on afterward. They are part of the program. Each guarantee is a property the implementation must never violate, and the one Intent aims to verify for you across every target.

• Guarantees read as plain, checkable statements.
• They travel with the Mission, not in a separate suite.
• Verification can be satisfied by types, tests, runtime checks, or proofs.

Targets

A single Mission can target multiple languages. The meaning stays the same; the generated implementation adapts to each target's idioms. Planned early targets include TypeScript, Python, and .NET.

Status & stability

Intent has no released compiler or CLI yet. This documentation describes the intended model and draft syntax. Nothing here is stable, and everything is subject to change before v1.

Want to follow along? Join the waitlist or check the roadmap.