Quirl documentation
Learn the shell, typed data runtime, Lua SDK, plugin platform, and the engineering decisions behind Quirl.
Quirl is a Rust shell that keeps your Bash and Zsh muscle memory working natively, adds an explicit typed data mode for structured pipelines, and standardizes configuration, scripts, prompts, completions, and trusted plugins on one sandboxed Lua 5.4 SDK.
Pre-release documentation
Quirl 0.1 is an unreleased Unix candidate implementation and a fast-moving prototype. Some interfaces will change before the first tagged release. Linux and macOS are the supported interactive targets; Windows is best-effort portability work. Historical benchmark records apply only to their named artifacts, not to this candidate.
Release evidence status — current. The record for measured candidate
23fd5d36907fc816bdafd9aa3c2dcb3afb69feb5and artifact9a893a5f1a0b49d62712f331c88966113d910d94efa9651dc4feffe9fd55b637is current exact-candidate evidence. Human review on named Linux and macOS terminals, remote-PTY review, and real-terminal demo review remain incomplete.
Start here
Install from source
Build the current candidate implementation with the pinned Rust toolchain.
Your first session
Move from familiar commands to typed data and back again.
Understand the language
Read the complete product and language specification.
Extend with Lua
Use one bounded SDK for scripts, configuration, and plugins.
What is documented
These docs distinguish current user workflows and runtime contracts from long-term design, historical research, and exact-artifact release evidence. Authored guides sit beside complete source documents so nothing important is hidden behind a summary.