Faber is a package-oriented programming language with a Latin behavioural vocabulary, a small regular grammar, and a type-first static type system. Source is compiled through the Radix compiler to reviewable Rust and native binaries. Its defining architectural property is that meaning lives in a semantic core — the HIR (high-level intermediate representation) — rather than in any particular rendering.
The name derives from the Latin word for maker or craftsman. The compiler is named Radix, from the Latin root. The language is developed by Ian Zepp and released under the MIT license.
Download Faber 1.1.1
Current release: Faber 1.1.1 (tag faber-v1.1.1). Prebuilt CLI archives
for macOS and Linux; extract the faber-v1.1.1- binary
and put it on your PATH.
| Platform | Archive | Checksum |
|---|---|---|
| macOS arm64 (Apple Silicon) | faber-v1.1.1-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | sha256 |
| Linux x64 (glibc) | faber-v1.1.1-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | sha256 |
Quick install (macOS arm64 example):
curl -fsSL -o faber.tgz \
https://github.com/faberlang/releases/releases/download/faber-v1.1.1/faber-v1.1.1-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
curl -fsSL -o faber.tgz.sha256 \
https://github.com/faberlang/releases/releases/download/faber-v1.1.1/faber-v1.1.1-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz.sha256
expected=$(awk '{print $1}' faber.tgz.sha256)
actual=$(shasum -a 256 faber.tgz | awk '{print $1}')
test "$actual" = "$expected"
tar -xzf faber.tgz
sudo mv faber-v1.1.1-aarch64-apple-darwin/faber /usr/local/bin/
faber --versionAll release notes and assets: github.com/faberlang/releases · faber-v1.1.1. Step-by-step: Install guide.
| Paradigm | Package-oriented; semantic staging |
| Typing | Static, type-first; nullable via T ∪ nihil |
| Glyphs | ← → ∴ ≡ ∪ ⇥ |
| Designed by | Ian Zepp |
| First appeared | 2024 |
| Compiler | Radix (Rust) |
| Lanes | Application (HIR) · Systems (MIR) |
| Primary target | Rust → native binary |
| Reader locales | 7 shipped (la, ar, hi, vi, th-TH, zh-Hans, zh-Hant) |
| Standard library | Norma (norma:*) |
| License | MIT |
Start here
| Path | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| Install | Human | Download, PATH, first faber check |
| Quick tour | Human | Language shape in five minutes |
| Examples | Human + agent | Real packages: CLI apps, mailspace, GPU, corpus |
/llms.txt | Agent | Machine index — start here if you are a model |
| Agent guide | Agent | How to learn Faber and ship a package |
| Agent skills | Agent | Focused skill guides (install, language, examples, …) |
Overview
Faber is designed around a core insight: the intermediate representation is the truth, and no target or human-language surface is privileged. A Faber program written in Latin keywords can be rendered into Thai, Arabic, or Chinese keywords through the same mechanism that renders it into Rust, Go, or WebAssembly — because the HIR is the authority and every output is a rendering of it.
The language makes three deliberate signal choices that work together:
- Type-first declarations — shape reads toward binding:
textus nomen,
not nomen: textus.
- Latin behavioural words — declarations, statements, and lifecycle:
functio, genus, fixum, redde, si.
- Structural glyphs — value flow and type joints:
←(bind),→
(return type), ∴ (compact branch), ≡ (equality), ∪ (union).
The result is source with stable grammatical shape that can be reviewed, transformed, and lowered without losing the reader's sense of intent.
Documentation
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| History | Development timeline, influences, and release history |
| Features | Reader locale, compilation lanes, Latin vocabulary, glyph system, design principles |
| Syntax | Complete reference: types, functions, control flow, errors, generics, collections |
| Tooling | Radix compiler pipeline, Faber CLI, codegen targets, scripting |
| Ecosystem | Norma, Cista, Triga, coreutils, AI Workbench, corpus |
| Corpus | Keyword and construct pages generated from the public corpus |
| References | EBNF grammar, design documents, repositories |
Quick example
A simple function demonstrating key Faber patterns — type-first parameters, glyph return type, nullable union, Latin control words:
functio divide(numerus a, numerus b) → numerus ∪ nihil {
si b ≡ 0 ∴ redde nihil
redde a / b
}Live rendering
The divide function above is rendered in the Latin pack by default. The compiler can render the same program in seven reader locales — Thai, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Vietnamese — each remapping keywords and types to that language while glyphs and identifiers remain unchanged. This is not a translation layer applied to the page; it is the same mechanism the compiler uses to produce localized source.
See the reader locale documentation for the full discussion.
Repositories
| Repo | Role |
|---|---|
| faberlang/faber | Public user CLI |
| faberlang/releases | Tagged CLI release assets |
| faberlang/faber-runtime | Runtime types for generated Rust |
| faberlang/norma | Standard library source |
| faberlang/cista | Package-store CLI/lib |
| faberlang/triga | Graphics / geometry library |
| faberlang/examples | Corpus, tracks, application packages |
| faberlang/faberlang.dev | This documentation site |