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Show HN: I made a Clojure-like language in Go, boots in 7ms
A high-performance, lightweight, and embeddable Clojure-like language alternative to JVM Clojure and Babashka, suitable for CLIs, web servers, data processing, and systems programming.
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A high-performance, lightweight, and embeddable Clojure-like language alternative to JVM Clojure and Babashka, suitable for CLIs, web servers, data processing, and systems programming.
Let-go addresses critical performance and deployment pain points associated with JVM-based languages: slow cold boot times and large runtime footprints. Its Go implementation yields a 7ms boot time and 10MB static binary, offering a compelling advantage for serverless functions, microservices, and CLI tools where rapid startup is paramount. The ability to embed within Go programs and its suitability for systems programming expands its utility beyond typical scripting. While not a full Clojure replacement, its compatibility and nREPL support lower the barrier for Clojure developers seeking Go's performance characteristics. This targets a niche but growing demand for high-performance, low-overhead language runtimes in modern cloud-native architectures.
Let-go is a Clojure-like language (~90% compatible with JVM Clojure) written in pure Go. It ships as a ~10MB static binary and cold boots in ~7ms - that's about 50x faster than JVM and 3x faster than Babashka. It has decent throughput on algorithmic workloads - within ballpark of the GraalVM-backed sci.I started this project in 2021 as an elaborate practical joke: I wanted to have an excuse for writing Clojure while pretending to write Go.Jokes aside, it turned out to be pretty decent: it feels like real Clojure, it has an nREPL server (supported in Calva, CIDER, etc.), it's easily embeddable in your Go programs (funcs, structs and channels cross the boundary without fuss). It's good for writing CLIs, web servers, data processing scripts and even doing some systems programming - I used it to write a deamonless container runtime. Oh, and it runs on Plan9.Under the hood there is a fairly simple compiler and a stack VM, both handcrafted specifically for running Clojure-like code. The compiler can work in AOT mode producing portable bytecode blobs and standalone binaries (runtime+bytecode).This is not a drop-in replacement for Clojure in general - it does not load JARs, it does not have all Java APIs and it most probably won't run your exiting Clojure projects without modifications. At least not at the moment.Take it for a spin, tell me what you think. Issues and PRs are welcome!
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I made a Clojure-like language in Go, boots in 7ms is analyzed by our AI as: A high-performance, lightweight, and embeddable Clojure-like language alternative to JVM Clojure and Babashka, suitable for CLIs, web servers, data processing, and systems programming.. It focuses on Let-go addresses critical performance and deployment pain points associated with JVM-based languages: slow cold boot times and large runtime footpr...
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The initial public indexing or launch date for I made a Clojure-like language in Go, boots in 7ms within our tracked developer communities was recorded on May 10, 2026.
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I made a Clojure-like language in Go, boots in 7ms has achieved measurable traction, logging over 113 traction score and facilitating 37 recorded discussions or engagements.
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Based on metadata extraction, I made a Clojure-like language in Go, boots in 7ms is categorized under topics such as: Clojure-like language, pure Go, static binary, cold boots.
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How does the creator describe I made a Clojure-like language in Go, boots in 7ms?
The original author or development team describes the product as follows: "Let-go is a Clojure-like language (~90% compatible with JVM Clojure) written in pure Go. It ships as a ~10MB static binary and cold boots in ~7ms - that's about 50x faster than JVM and 3x faster th..."
Community Voice & Feedback
Micro nit: it says 7ms cold start and then 6ms just few lines lower.. maybe it gets faster as you read README
Nice! I recently played around with a Lisp syntax for Go semantics: https://codeberg.org/veqq/JoeAs far as JVM-free Clojure, Janet is really nice. I've been using it in production for a while: https://janet-lang.org/
I am finding i need "Rails" but i like single binary deployment of Go and fast/low resource usage like Go.Is it possible for now?
absolutely sick of reading through obviously AI-slopped READMEs. it's your project, take a little pride and tell me why i should like it quickly instead of asking your agent to rattle off a list of features -- it's severely boring & offputting.
PR most welcome for https://github.com/chr15m/awesome-clojure-likes
Try out this Wasm browser REPL https://gloathub.org/repl/Gloat is a Glojure AOT automation tool.
I worked with James Hamlin to get Glojure AOT going last summer and have been moving it forward since. I've also been working with marcingas (nooga) to get Gloat/Glojure/let-go all cooperating.
I worked with James Hamlin to get Glojure AOT going last summer and have been moving it forward since. I've also been working with marcingas (nooga) to get Gloat/Glojure/let-go all cooperating.
This is the kind of clojure port that I always was looking for. Mostly because I thought go's core library and channels abstractions hits a simpler/nicer base API which would with the core & async apis (not to mention scratches my big beautiful binary itch)Thanks for your work will definitely check it out again once I get over renewed love for cpp (26)Edit how did glojure go under my radar also a great project from the looks
do you know about Glojure?https://github.com/glojurelang/glojure
You should see how fast libc gets mmaped() into the VM and the first instr runs :)
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