W Wax

Install Wax.

Wax is in preview and breaking changes are likely. See the state of the preview →

Download
curl -fsS https://waxlang.dev/install.sh -o wax-install.sh
Inspect
less wax-install.sh
Run
bash wax-install.sh

Install a specific version: bash wax-install.sh --version 1.2.3.

Installs wax, the waxc compiler, the waxdbg Inspector, and the runtime.

Everything lives under ~/.wax. The installer adds its commands to your shell's PATH, asking first when it can reach your terminal. Run it again to update, or use the command above to pin a version. wax uninstall removes the toolchain and the shell entry it added.

Supported platforms

  • macOS on Apple silicon (arm64)
  • Linux on x86-64 or ARM64
  • Windows on x86-64 or ARM64

Intel Macs are not supported yet. Preview macOS builds are not yet Apple notarized.

Just give me the binary.

Grab a tarball, unpack it, do what you want with it.

  • Finding the current release…

The tools are in bin/.

wax uninstall won't work, other than that have fun. The digest is there if you want to check it.

Scripting it? The installer reads this index, and so can you. Swap stable for a version to pin one.

curl -fsS https://packages.waxlang.dev/v1/releases/stable/index-v1.txt

Note for the preview: Wax's native code generation works pretty well, but it is less stable than the C backend. If you run into trouble, try --backend c. It needs a C compiler: Wax finds one on your PATH, or you can name the one you want. Please report what the native backend did so we can fix it fast.

Create your first Wax app.

Wax ships with a warehouse sample app. Its robot collects a load and starts toward the delivery point. A blocked aisle forces it into the next aisle. The run takes eight frames and stops when delivery completes.

warehouse

wax new warehouse --example warehouse

cd warehouse

wax run --record first-run.wxs

[LOG] Delivered in 8 frames. Position: (3, 3). Battery: 68. Reroutes: 1.

Recording: first-run.wxs

Open Inspector and choose first-run.wxs. Compare frames 2 and 3 to explain the detour.

Learn Wax.

Follow the tutorial for a guided introduction, or go straight to the documentation.

Follow the tutorial Read the docs

Share what you build.

Join the Discord