Spork

Spork is a Lisp hosted on CPython. It compiles to Python AST, interoperates directly with Python libraries, and adds macros, expression-oriented syntax, immutable collections, and project tooling.

Highlights

Direct access to Python modules and objects—no FFI layer or separate VM.
Lisp macros and homoiconic syntax.
Persistent vectors, maps, sets, and related types from spork-pds.
Pattern matching, destructuring, async/await, protocols, decorators, and Python type annotations.
Source-mapped tracebacks that point back to .spork files.
A REPL, nREPL server, LSP server, and project commands in one CLI.

Spork supports CPython 3.10 through 3.14, including free-threaded CPython 3.14.

Installation

Install the CLI in an isolated environment with pipx:

pipx install spork-lang

Use pip when adding Spork to an existing Python environment:

python -m pip install spork-lang

On Linux, macOS, or WSL, the installer script is also available:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spork-it/spork-lang/refs/heads/main/install.sh | sh

Quick start

Start the REPL:

$ spork
Spork REPL - A Lisp for Python
user> (+ 1 2 3)
6
user> (doall (map inc [1 2 3]))
[2 3 4]

Or create hello.spork:

(defn greet [name]
  (fmt "Hello, {}!" name))

(print (greet "Spork"))

Run it with:

$ spork hello.spork
Hello, Spork!

Spork collections are immutable and structurally shared:

(def original {:name "Spork" :version 1})
(def updated (assoc original :version 2))

(print original) ; {:name 'Spork' :version 1}
(print updated)  ; {:name 'Spork' :version 2}

Python interoperability

Import Python modules and call them directly:

(ns example
  (:require [std.json :as json])
  (:import [pathlib :refer [Path]]))

(def path (Path "data.json"))
(print (json.dumps {:path (str path)}))

To import .spork modules from Python, import spork once to install its import hook:

import spork
from my_spork_module import greet

print(greet("Python"))

Spork exposes the separately distributed persistent collections under the spork.pds namespace:

from spork.pds import vec

original = vec(1, 2, 3)
updated = original.conj(4)

See the spork-pds documentation for its Python API, design, and benchmarks.

Projects

Create and run a project:

spork new my-project
cd my-project
spork sync
spork run

A spork.it manifest defines metadata, dependencies, source paths, and the entry point. Libraries can also declare a unified :api; Spork then generates idiomatic package-level Spork and Python APIs, version metadata, generic .pyi stubs, and py.typed from one annotated implementation namespace.

Common commands include:

Command	Purpose
`spork repl`	Start a project-aware REPL
`spork add` / `spork remove`	Edit dependencies in the nearest `spork.it`
`spork sync`	Create the project environment and install dependencies
`spork run`	Run the configured entry point
`spork test`	Run declared Spork and Python tests
`spork build`	Compile sources to Python in `.spork-out/`
`spork dist`	Build a wheel and source distribution
`spork lsp`	Start the language server

Run spork --help for the complete CLI reference.

Documentation

Development

git clone https://github.com/spork-it/spork-lang.git
cd spork-lang
make venv
make test
.venv/bin/python -m pytest

Use make help for development, packaging, and cleanup targets.

License

MIT

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