Mochi is a small, statically typed programming language

4 days ago 2

Mochi is a small, statically typed programming language built for clarity, safety, and expressiveness — whether you're writing tools, processing real-time data, or powering intelligent agents.

Mochi is:

  • Agent-friendly: structured, safe, and embeddable
  • Declarative and functional, with clean, expressive syntax
  • Fast and portable: zero-dependency single binary
  • Testable by design with built-in test and expect blocks

Simple enough to explore in minutes. Powerful enough to build something real.

To run Mochi in a container, you’ll need to have Docker installed. Make sure Docker is running before using any container-based commands.

Also, to use Mochi inside tools like Claude or VS Code Agent Mode, you may need a local LLM (like llama.cpp).

You can run Mochi in three different ways:

Prebuilt Binary (Native Recommended)

Just grab the binary and run:

  1. Download the latest release from Releases
  2. Make it executable:
chmod +x mochi mochi run examples/hello.mochi mochi cheatsheet

It’s a single binary — no dependencies, no setup.

Use Docker to run Mochi without installing anything:

docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/mochilang/mochi run examples/hello.mochi docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/mochilang/mochi serve

Want to use it like a native CLI? Set an alias:

alias mochi="docker run -i --rm -v $PWD:/app -w /app ghcr.io/mochilang/mochi"

Then use it anywhere:

mochi run examples/hello.mochi mochi test examples/math.mochi mochi build examples/hello.mochi -o hello mochi cheatsheet

To hack on the language or contribute:

git clone https://github.com/mochilang/mochi cd mochi make install # install Deno for TypeScript tests make build make test

This installs mochi into ~/bin and runs the full test suite.

Usage with Visual Studio Code

There is a VS Code extension under tools/vscode that bundles the Mochi language syntax. Run npm install and npm run package in that folder to build mochi.vsix for local installation.

You can also run Mochi as an MCP server inside VS Code’s agent mode.

The easiest way is to use a .vscode/mcp.json config file in your project:

{ "servers": { "mochi": { "command": "docker", "args": [ "run", "-i", "--rm", "ghcr.io/mochilang/mochi" ] } } }

Or, to configure it globally:

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+P → Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)
  2. Add:
{ "mcp": { "servers": { "mochi": { "command": "docker", "args": [ "run", "-i", "--rm", "ghcr.io/mochilang/mochi" ] } } } }

To enable LLM tools or runtime settings, add inputs or environment variables as needed.

Now when you toggle "Agent Mode" in Copilot Chat, Mochi will start automatically.

Usage with Claude Desktop

Mochi is MCP-compatible and works out of the box with Claude Desktop.

Here’s an example config using llama.cpp locally:

{ "mcpServers": { "mochi": { "command": "docker", "args": [ "run", "-i", "--rm", "ghcr.io/mochilang/mochi" ], "env": { "MOCHI_AGENT": "Claude", "LLM_PROVIDER": "llama.cpp", "LLM_DSN": "http://localhost:11434/v1", "LLM_MODEL": "llama3-8b-instruct.Q5_K_M.gguf" } } } }

Or with the native binary:

{ "mcpServers": { "mochi": { "command": "/path/to/mochi", "args": ["serve"] } } }

Mochi provides a clean and fast CLI:

Usage: mochi [--version] <command> [args] Commands: run Run a Mochi source file test Run test blocks build Compile to binary or other languages init Initialize a new module get Download module dependencies repl Start interactive REPL llm Send prompt to LLM infer Infer externs from a package serve Start MCP server cheatsheet Print language reference

Examples:

mochi run examples/hello.mochi mochi test examples/math.mochi mochi build examples/hello.mochi -o hello mochi build --target py examples/hello.mochi -o hello.py mochi init mymodule mochi get mochi llm "hello" mochi infer go fmt mochi cheatsheet

Send this to Claude or run it in your shell:

let π = 3.14 fun area(r: float): float { return π * r * r } print(area(10.0)) test "π" { expect π == 3.14 expect area(10.0) == 314.0 } let 🍡 = "🍡૮₍ ˃ ⤙ ˂ ₎ა" print(🍡)

It will output:

Mochi is expressive, safe, and joyful.

let name = "Mochi" var count = 1

Immutable by default. Use var for mutable bindings.

if count > 0 { print("positive") } else { print("non-positive") } for i in 0..3 { print(i) } var j = 0 while j < 3 { print(j) j = j + 1 }

Use for to iterate over ranges or collections. A while loop continues running until its condition becomes false.

fun double(x: int): int { return x * 2 } let square = fun(x: int): int => x * x
let user = {"name": "Ana", "age": 22} let tags = {"a", "b", "c"} let nums = [1, 2, 3] print(user["name"]) print(tags) print(nums[1])

Strings behave like read‐only lists of characters. They can be indexed and iterated just like a list:

let text = "hello" print(text[1]) // "e" for ch in text { print(ch) }

Query lists with SQL-like syntax using from, where, sort by, skip, take and select. Datasets can also be loaded from external files.

type Person { name: string age: int } let people = load "people.yaml" as Person let adults = from p in people where p.age >= 18 select { name: p.name, age: p.age } for a in adults { print(a.name, "is", a.age) } save adults to "adults.json"

Combine records from multiple lists using different join types.

Inner join keeps only matching pairs:

let result = from o in orders join from c in customers on o.customerId == c.id select { orderId: o.id, customer: c.name }

Cross join pairs every item from both lists:

let pairs = from o in orders from c in customers select { order: o.id, customer: c.name }

Left join keeps all left items even if the right side has no match:

let ordersWithCustomer = from o in orders left join c in customers on o.customerId == c.id select { orderId: o.id, customer: c }

Right join keeps all right items even if the left side has no match:

let customersWithOrder = from c in customers right join o in orders on o.customerId == c.id select { customerName: c.name, order: o }
test "math" { expect 2 + 2 == 4 expect 5 > 3 }

Invoke large language models directly from Mochi using the generate block. Models can be configured globally with a model block and referenced by name.

let poem = generate text { prompt: "Write a haiku about spring" } print(poem) model quick { provider: "openai" name: "gpt-3.5-turbo" } let fancy = generate text { model: "quick" prompt: "Write a haiku about spring" } print(fancy) type Person { name: string age: int email: string } let p = generate Person { prompt: "Generate a fictional software engineer" } print(p.name) let vec = generate embedding { text: "hello world" normalize: true } print(len(vec))

You can also expose Mochi functions as tools for the LLM to call:

fun getWeather(location: string): string { if location == "Paris" { return "sunny with a gentle breeze" } return "weather data unavailable" } fun calc(expression: string): string { if expression == "2 + 2" { return "4" } return "error" } let result = generate text { prompt: "What's the weather like in Paris and what's 2 + 2?", tools: [ getWeather { description: "Returns the current weather for a given city" }, calc { description: "Evaluates a simple math expression" } ] } print(result)

Retrieve JSON over HTTP with the new fetch expression. Results are automatically decoded into the expected type. Use with to supply options such as the HTTP method, headers, or request body.

type Todo { userId: int id: int title: string completed: bool } let todo = fetch "https://example.com/todos/1" as Todo let created: Todo = fetch "https://example.com/todos" with { method: "POST", headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" }, body: todo }

Mochi now supports union types declared with the | syntax as well as inline methods defined inside type blocks.

type Tree = Leaf | Node(left: Tree, value: int, right: Tree) fun sum(t: Tree): int { return match t { Leaf => 0 Node(l, v, r) => sum(l) + v + sum(r) } } type Circle { radius: float fun area(): float { return 3.14 * radius * radius } }

Organize reusable code with packages. Each directory forms a package. Declare the package name at the top of each file and mark exported names with export.

package mathutils export fun add(a: int, b: int): int { return a + b }

Import packages in other files:

import "mathutils" print(mathutils.add(2, 3)) import "mathutils" as mu print(mu.add(2, 3))

Declare streams of structured events and handle them with agents. Use emit to send events to a stream.

stream Sensor { id: string, temperature: float } on Sensor as s { print(s.id, s.temperature) } emit Sensor { id: "sensor-1", temperature: 22.5 }

Agents can also maintain persistent state and expose intent functions that can be called like methods or via the MCP server.

agent Monitor { var count: int = 0 on Sensor as s { count = count + 1 } intent status(): string { return "events = " + str(count) } } let m = Monitor {} emit Sensor { id: "sensor-2", temperature: 30.0 } print(m.status())

Foreign Function Interface

Use the import keyword to access libraries from other languages. Declare extern variables and functions to call them directly. If an alias is not specified with as, the final path component will be used as the module name.

import go "math" as math extern fun math.Sqrt(x: float): float print(math.Sqrt(16.0))

When running mochi serve, the following tools are available:

Tool Description
mochi_eval Run a program and return output
mochi_cheatsheet Return language reference

These tools integrate with Claude, Open Interpreter, and others.

Explore the examples/ directory:

  • v0.1/hello.mochi
  • v0.2/list.mochi
  • v0.3/generate.mochi
  • v0.3/generate-struct.mochi
  • v0.3/generate-model.mochi
  • v0.3/tools.mochi
  • v0.3/types.mochi
  • v0.3/fetch.mochi
  • v0.3/fetch-post.mochi
  • v0.4/stream.mochi

Edit one or start fresh. It’s all yours.

Run:

Results are saved in BENCHMARK.md.

Mochi is open source and happy to have your contributions.

git clone https://github.com/mochilang/mochi cd mochi make install # install Deno for TypeScript tests make build make test

Helpful commands:

  • make fmt – format code
  • make lint – run linter
  • make bench – run benchmarks
  • make update-golden – update test snapshots

PRs and issues welcome!

Mochi is open source under the MIT License. © 2025 Mochi — Your agent’s favorite language.

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