ForgeIL Has Been Self-Hosting Since May. Nobody Found It Yet.
It got quiet here for a month. Not because the project stalled, but because life moved.
I moved aboard my ketch, Deep Blue, now anchored in Rostock. A new band started rehearsing at a spot near the Admiralbrücke in Kreuzberg, we even found a proper rehearsal room now. Friends, a new city for some of it, a different rhythm. Good kind of busy.
But here is the thing I noticed once I surfaced again: ForgeIL has been sitting there, self-hosting, since the Sprint 4 post in May. 62 tests passing. The SMS compiler compiling itself to LLVM IR. And in a month, basically nobody picked it up.
That is not a complaint. It is just true, and it bugs me a little. Not because I need the attention, but because the thing is actually useful and almost nobody knows it exists yet.
So this post is not a new technical milestone. It is a reminder, and an invitation.
What ForgeIL Actually Is
ForgeIL is the language family behind the Forge ecosystem at CrowdWare. Two parts, one intention:
- SML (Simple Markup Language) describes structure. UI layout, app shape, content.
- SMS (Simple Multiplatform Script) describes behavior. Logic, compiled ahead of time through LLVM to native code.
No virtual machine. No garbage collector. Events resolve at compile time, not through a runtime dispatcher, which is part of why SMS event dispatch measured at 4.6 nanoseconds in earlier benchmarks, ahead of C++, C# and Kotlin Native, with only Kotlin JVM's JIT still ahead.
And as of Sprint 4, the compiler compiles itself. Lexer, parser and LLVM IR emitter, all written in SMS, all proven self-hosting. No C++ toolchain required to keep developing SMS itself anymore.
Why That Matters More Than It Sounds
A self-hosting compiler is a small thing to read about and a real threshold to cross. It means the language is no longer just describing other programs, it can fully describe and rebuild itself. That is the point where a language stops being a personal project and starts being able to outlive its author.
This is built under CWUP, the workflow I use across the whole stack: Claude as architect, Codex as coder, Claude back for review. Each sprint specified, implemented, checked, before the next one starts. If you are curious how far AI-assisted development can responsibly go on something as precise as a compiler, this is a working example, not a pitch.
And underneath all of it sits one constraint that never gets compromised: Ahimsa, do no harm to any living being. No telemetry by design, no dark patterns, no lock-in. Dual licensed, GPL3 for the community, commercial for those who need it, same model Qt has used for years.
The Actual Ask
I am not looking for employees or a funding round. I am looking for people who read "self-hosting compiler that compiles itself through LLVM, in a language with zero-cost UI events" and feel a small pull toward it.
If that is you, here is where to start:
- The code lives at codeberg.org/CrowdWare
- Look at the ForgeIL repo for the language docs and the self-hosting compiler source
- Try compiling something small, break something, open an issue, ask a question, anything
You do not need permission to poke around in open source. You need a reason to. Maybe this is it.
Aho 🌱
ForgeIL is the language layer of Forge 4D, a cross-platform app framework built around SML and SMS, native compiled, targeting Android ARM today with more platforms ahead. Dual licensed GPL3/commercial. Everything developed in the open.
Top comments (0)