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N# Quick Start

NO XML. NO BULLSHIT. JUST CODE.

Install​

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schneidenbach/nsharplang/main/scripts/install.sh | bash && . "$HOME/.nsharp/env"
nlc doctor

Create Your First Project​

nlc new MyApp
cd MyApp

Your project has:

MyApp/
├── NuGet.config
├── global.json
├── project.yml
└── Program.nl

Build and Run​

nlc build
nlc run

Output:

Hello, N#!

How It Works​

  1. nlc build reads project.yml
  2. nlc resolves project, framework, and NuGet references natively
  3. The compiler emits IL directly for the project assembly
  4. Runtime assets are written to stable bin/<configuration>/<targetFramework>/ output paths

What You Can Do​

Simple Console App​

func main() {
    print "Hello!"
}

With Dependencies​

project.yml:

name: MyApp
version: 1.0.0
outputType: exe
targetFramework: net10.0

dependencies:
  - nuget: Newtonsoft.Json
    version: 13.0.3

Program.nl:

import Newtonsoft.Json

func main() {
    obj := new { Name = "Alice", Age = 30 }
    json := JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj)
    print json
}

String Enums​

enum Status {
    Active = "active",
    Pending = "pending",
    Completed = "completed"
}

func main() {
    status := Status.Active
    print status  // Output: active
}

ASP.NET Core Web API​

project.yml:

name: MyApi
version: 1.0.0
outputType: exe
targetFramework: net10.0
sdk: Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web

dependencies:
  - framework: Microsoft.AspNetCore.App

Program.nl:

import Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder

func main() {
    builder := WebApplication.CreateBuilder([])
    app := builder.Build()

    app.MapGet("/", () => "Hello from N#!")

    app.Run()
}

Single-File CLI Workflow​

If you want to compile a loose .nl file directly:

dotnet run --project /path/to/nsharplang/src/NSharpLang.Cli/Cli.csproj -- run Program.nl

That path is useful for experiments, but the recommended workflow is template-generated projects plus nlc build, nlc run, and nlc test.