Quantum

Declarative web apps in XML, with AI and RAG built into the language. No build chain, no JavaScript, no frontend framework.

Quantum is a full-stack framework whose language is markup. State, database queries, forms, LLM calls and retrieval-augmented generation are all tags — not libraries you wire together. It takes its philosophy from ColdFusion and Adobe Flex: the markup is the app.

⚠️ Pre-1.0, and honest about it. See Stability — the table there reflects what has actually been executed end-to-end, not what is aspirational.

The part that isn't like the others

Retrieval-augmented generation, as a language construct:

<q:component name="DocsBot">
  <q:knowledge name="docs" model="phi3" embedModel="nomic-embed-text">
    <q:source type="directory" path="./docs/" pattern="*.md" />
  </q:knowledge>

  <q:llm name="answer" model="phi3" knowledge="docs" minRelevance="0.79">
    <q:message role="user">{form.question}</q:message>
  </q:llm>

  <p>{answer}</p>
  <q:loop type="array" items="{answer_result.sources}" var="s">
    <p>[{s.n}] {s.name}</p>
  </q:loop>
</q:component>

That indexes a directory, embeds it, stores the vectors, retrieves the relevant chunks and asks the model to answer from them, citing each one — in the markup. When no chunk is relevant enough, the model is not asked at all. There is no Python file behind it.

An agent with its own tools, same idea:

<q:agent name="calc" model="phi3" maxIterations="4">
  <q:instruction>Use the add tool, then answer.</q:instruction>

  <q:tool name="add" description="Add two numbers">
    <q:param name="a" type="number" required="true" />
    <q:param name="b" type="number" required="true" />
    <q:function name="doAdd">
      <q:set name="sum" value="{a + b}" type="number" />
      <q:return value="{sum}" />
    </q:function>
  </q:tool>

  <q:execute task="What is 17 plus 25?" />
</q:agent>

The tool body is Quantum, not Python. The reasoning loop, the tool call and the type coercion of the model's arguments are the runtime's job.

The rest of the language

<q:component name="Orders">
  <q:query name="orders" datasource="db">
    SELECT id, customer, total FROM orders WHERE total > :min
    <q:param name="min" value="100" type="decimal" />
  </q:query>

  <table>
    <q:loop query="orders">
      <tr><td>{orders.customer}</td><td>{orders.total}</td></tr>
    </q:loop>
  </table>
</q:component>

Save it as components/orders.q, run quantum start, and it is served at http://localhost:8080/orders.

q:query refuses to run SQL with an undeclared :param — parameterised queries are enforced by the parser, not by discipline.

Also core: q:set with session. / application. / request. scopes, q:if, q:function, q:action for form handling, q:data for CSV/JSON/XML import, q:import / q:slot for composition.

Quick start

Requirements: Python 3.12+ and pip.

pip install quantum-framework

Create hello.q:

<q:component name="HelloWorld" xmlns:q="https://quantum.lang/ns">
  <q:return value="Hello World!" />
</q:component>

quantum run hello.q

[EXEC] Executing component: HelloWorld
[SUCCESS] Result: Hello World!

For a web app, put .q files in components/ and run quantum start (components/index.q is served at /). quantum stop stops it.

For the AI examples you also need an Ollama server and the RAG extra:

pip install "quantum-framework[rag]"
ollama pull phi3 && ollama pull nomic-embed-text
export QUANTUM_LLM_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434

Declare datasources in quantum.config.yaml (next to components/) and q:query works with nothing else running — SQLite needs no extra; PostgreSQL and MySQL drivers come with pip install "quantum-framework[db]":

datasources:
  db:
    driver: sqlite
    database: ./data/app.db

CLI

From source

To work on Quantum itself:

git clone https://github.com/danielgregorio/quantum.git
cd quantum
pip install -e ".[dev]"
quantum run examples/hello.q

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the test suite and the architecture.

Documentation

Full docs at danielgregorio.github.io/quantum:

• Getting Started · Installation · Quick Start
• Components · State · Loops · Conditionals
• Queries · Functions

Releases and their notes are on the GitHub Releases page.

Stability

Support levels are defined in SUPPORT_TIERS.md. Short version:

A functional audit in 2026-09 found that several of these surfaces had never been run end-to-end despite being documented as complete. They were fixed or re-labelled, and feature status is now verified by execution rather than asserted by hand.

Pre-1.0: APIs may change between minor versions.

Project layout

quantum/
├── quantum/
│   ├── core/        # Parser & AST (registry-based, modular)
│   ├── runtime/     # Execution engine, web server, renderer
│   └── cli/         # Command-line entry point
├── examples/        # runnable .q examples
├── tests/           # pytest suite (~3.8k tests)
├── scripts/         # dev tools
└── docs/            # VitePress documentation

Adding a tag is one parser + one executor + a registry entry — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Contributing

Read CONTRIBUTING.md for dev setup and how the modular parser/executor architecture works. By participating you agree to the Code of Conduct.

Found a security issue? Follow SECURITY.md — do not open a public issue.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.