Wado
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The Wado Programming Language Wado

Type-safe, high-level WebAssembly.

Type-safe like Rust, familiar like TypeScript, compiled to clean Wasm. Wasm in plain sight.

A First Look

#!/usr/bin/env wado run
// Hello World in Wado

use { println, Stdout } from "core:cli";

export fn run() with Stdout {
    println("Hello, world!");
}

A few lines, but a lot is on display: a shebang for one-file scripts, ES module–style imports from a namespaced standard library (core:cli), an export entrypoint into the wasi:cli/command world, and — the surprising part — a with Stdout clause that puts the side effect in the function's type.

It compiles to a small, self-contained .wasm — nothing ships alongside it.

See it on something real: a tour of Wado through an HTTP service walks a single-file httpbin clone, feature by feature.

Why Wado

Wado targets exactly one platform: WebAssembly's Component Model and WASI. That focus shapes the whole language — its type system is the Component Model's, down to the split into variant, enum, and flags.

Get Started

Grab the latest prebuilt binary and verify it. The archive name is derived from uname, so this block works as-is on macOS (Apple Silicon) and Linux (x86_64, aarch64) — copy the whole thing: 

BASE=https://github.com/wado-lang/wado/releases/latest/download
ASSET="wado-$(uname -s | tr A-Z a-z)-$(uname -m).tar.gz"

curl -fsSLO "$BASE/$ASSET"

# Verify the checksum and the build provenance (needs the GitHub CLI).
if command -v shasum >/dev/null; then
  curl -fsSL "$BASE/SHA256SUMS.txt" | shasum -a 256 --ignore-missing -c -
else
  curl -fsSL "$BASE/SHA256SUMS.txt" | sha256sum --ignore-missing -c -
fi
gh attestation verify --repo wado-lang/wado "$ASSET"

tar xzf "$ASSET"
mkdir -p ~/bin
install -m 755 "${ASSET%.tar.gz}/wado" ~/bin/wado

This installs wado into ~/bin — make sure that directory is on your PATH.

Then write a program and run it:

cat > hello.wado <<'EOF'
#!/usr/bin/env wado run
use { println, Stdout } from "core:cli";

export fn run() with Stdout {
    println("Hello, world!");
}
EOF

wado run hello.wado

Also available: Windows builds on the release page, cargo install --git https://github.com/wado-lang/wado wado-cli to build from source, and a VS Code extension under wado-vscode/.

Status & Roadmap

Wado is experimental, but the core language — static typing, generics, closures, traits, pattern matching, the effect system — works, and it's already usable for its original purpose: embedding small, type-safe Wasm modules where binary size matters. Its design points further out, though; three things in the broader Wasm ecosystem need to land first:

When these land, Wado's era begins.

Resources