Sigil 0.1.0

January 9, 2026release

The first public release of Sigil, a practical Scheme for building standalone applications.

NOTE: Sigil is still highly experimental and changing fast, but don't let that stop you from trying it out and providing feedback!

Highlights

Standalone executables: Bundle your application with all dependencies into a single binary (~1-2MB base size)
Fast startup: Bytecode VM with incremental garbage collection
Hygienic macros: Full syntax-rules with syntax-case support
Batteries included: JSON, HTTP client/server, sockets, process management, and more

Core Runtime (sigil-lib)

The foundation: bytecode VM, S-expression reader, incremental mark-sweep GC, and native bindings for I/O, filesystem, networking, and process management.

Standard Library (sigil-stdlib)

Nearly complete R7RS base with practical extensions:

(sigil core) - Pattern matching, records, delimited continuations, array/dict utilities
(sigil math) - Trigonometric, exponential, and bitwise operations
(sigil string) - String manipulation utilities
(sigil path) - Cross-platform path handling
(sigil fs) - Filesystem operations
(sigil io) - Extended I/O primitives
(sigil process) - Process spawning and pipes
(sigil time) - Date/time operations
(sigil exceptions) - Exception handling
(scheme *) - R7RS compatibility modules

Build System (sigil-build)

Package-based workspace architecture with:

Dependency resolution across workspace packages
Multiple build configurations (dev, debug, release)
Executable bundling with embedded bytecode archives

CLI Tools (sigil-cli)

Development workflow commands:

sigil build - Compile packages and dependencies
sigil bundle - Create standalone executables
sigil test - Run test suites
sigil repl - Interactive development
sigil format - Code formatting
sigil changes - Release management
sigil cli - Install and manage Sigil installations

Libraries

Package	Description
sigil-json	JSON parsing and serialization
sigil-http	HTTP/1.1 client and server with TLS support
sigil-socket	TCP/UDP networking
sigil-websocket	WebSocket client and server
sigil-sqlite	SQLite database bindings
sigil-git	Git repository operations
sigil-repl	Interactive REPL with readline
sigil-nrepl	Network REPL for editor integration
sigil-test	Test framework with assertions
sigil-format	S-expression code formatter
sigil-markdown	Markdown parsing with frontmatter
sigil-sxml	SXML document construction
sigil-ansi	Terminal colors and formatting
sigil-args	Command-line argument parsing
sigil-hooks	Extensible hook system
sigil-mcp	Model Context Protocol server
sigil-jwt	JWT token encoding and verification
sigil-docs	Documentation generation
sigil-web	Web application framework
sigil-publish	Static site generation pipeline
sigil-irc	IRC client
sigil-css	CSS generation from Sigil code

Note: Library APIs may change between minor releases until 1.0. Core modules (sigil-lib, sigil-stdlib) aim for stability.

Platform Support

Platform	Architecture	Status
Linux	x86_64, aarch64	Primary development platform
macOS	arm64, x86_64	Builds and runs, not yet extensively tested
Windows	x86_64	Builds and runs, not yet extensively tested
FreeBSD	x86_64	Cross-compiles, not yet tested on real hardware
OpenBSD	x86_64	Cross-compiles, not yet tested on real hardware
NetBSD	x86_64	Cross-compiles, not yet tested on real hardware
Web/WASM	-	Runs in browser via Emscripten

Known Limitations

R7RS Small coverage is not yet complete; full compliance planned for a future release
Limited SRFI coverage

Getting Started

See the Getting Started guide for installation and first steps.