Topazdocs
About Topaz

Roadmap

The trajectory from today’s Lispex command through first-class applications, complete-profile integration, and compiler quality.

This roadmap presents the Topaz product sequence and boundaries.

Now

  • This manual covers topaz-5.20. The installed self-hosted compiler is the default for every supported current-language route.
  • The 5.20 line closes the compiler quality program that ran through 5.19. The Stage 0 Rust compiler and the self-hosted Topaz compiler were audited and refactored source by source, and the checked-in compiler artifacts are now stage-neutral and verified by the public verify.sh. What that verification does and does not establish is stated on the Toolchain Status page.
  • The installed topaz lispex embed run command evaluates a Lispex request with the exact Lispex 1.20 evaluator built into the Topaz binary. It has finite limits and explicit refusal, and offers no selector, discovery, download, callback, import, or fallback path.
  • The Rust compiler remains selectable for comparison, recovery, and compatibility.
  • The compiler, runtime, npm package, artifacts, documentation, and Playground share one product identity. Native, Python, browser, HTTP, local-data, and binary-media application paths remain supported.
  • Releases are built from an exact source revision and published with SHA-256 checksums. Anyone can rebuild and verify the compiler from the public source snapshot with the included verify.sh. The snapshot repository is named on the Toolchain Status page.
  • The installed native topaz executable includes the local stdio MCP server and its isolated no-capability worker at topaz mcp serve.

Next priorities

  1. Applications on 5.20. Development continues in the products that run on Topaz. New language work is not scheduled, and fixes land as patch releases on the 5.20 line when a product needs them.
  2. Verification that a stranger can run. Reproducible builds are proven on Linux x86_64. Other targets are reported as measured or unmeasured, never assumed. Extending the measured set is the next verification step.

Evidence boundaries

Verification records document exact inputs, tools, environments, profiles, resource limits, and observed results. Special forms, control behavior, values, failures, transcripts, diagnostics, resources, host boundaries, and compiler observation layers remain independently selectable.

The installed evaluator records its documented command, component, profile, inputs, resource limits, outputs, and platforms. LIT, the Lispex test and integration surface, records regression behavior across direct execution, generated Rust, generated Python, and Web routes from one source lineage. It remains separate from Topaz output backends. Completed self-hosting and application milestones are available in History.

Research

  • Expand differential and fuzzing tools that identify areas where code generators misinterpret the language.
  • Consider model checking or mechanized proofs when backed by a concrete artifact and a reproducible method.
  • Revisit direct WebAssembly compilation when justified by a measured product blocker. Keep broad optimizer work, async syntax, recoverable faults, grapheme APIs, user-defined templates, general host FFI, and new syntax outside the current scope.