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Style Guide

Canonical source: docs/style-guide.md

Goals

  • One concern per file
  • Intent-obvious naming
  • Use mod.sfn for public API surfaces

Repository Layout

compiler/          # The self-hosted compiler
  src/             # Compiler source (.sfn)
  tests/           # Unit, integration, and e2e tests
runtime/           # Runtime libraries
  prelude.sfn      # Sailfin-native prelude
  native/          # C runtime (pre-1.0)
docs/              # Language documentation
examples/          # Example programs
scripts/           # Build and release tooling
tools/             # Developer tooling

File Naming

  • snake_case for all files: http_client.sfn, effect_checker.sfn
  • Role suffixes: *_utils.sfn, *_checker.sfn, *_lowering.sfn, *_ir.sfn, *_semantics.sfn
  • mod.sfn for module public API re-exports

Sailfin Code Style

  • CamelCase for types: UserProfile, HttpResponse
  • snake_case for functions and variables: fetch_data, user_count
  • UPPER_SNAKE_CASE for constants: MAX_RETRIES
  • Effect annotations on same line: fn save(data: String) ![io] {
  • Doc comments with ///

Import Conventions

  • Relative imports within a module folder
  • Cross-domain imports via mod.sfn

Documentation Updates

When changing language behavior, update in order:

  1. docs/status.md — What ships today
  2. docs/spec.md — Language reference
  3. docs/roadmap.md — If it affects planned work