What is Jitzu?

Jitzu is two things in one: an interactive shell you use as your terminal, and a typed scripting language you write real programs in. Both share the same runtime, the same type system, and the same package ecosystem.

The Shell

Jitzu ships with an interactive shell (just run jz with no arguments) that replaces bash, zsh, or PowerShell for daily use. It has the commands you expect — ls, cd, cat, grep — plus features built for modern workflows:

  • Tab completion for files, commands, variables, and types
  • Typed pipes that flow OS command output into Jitzu functions
  • Ctrl+R reverse search, arrow-key history predictions, and a git-aware prompt
  • Directory labels — name a directory once, use it as a path prefix everywhere
Shell
simon ~/projects/api (main) *
> find src -ext cs
src/Parser.cs
src/Lexer.cs
src/Interpreter.cs

> git log --oneline | first
a1b2c3d Add pattern matching support

> label git ~/git/
> cd git:jitzu/site

The Language

At the prompt or in .jz files, you write in a language that borrows from Rust, C#, F#, and TypeScript. It’s expression-based, statically typed with inference, and has pattern matching, union types, and string interpolation built in.

Jitzu
// Variables — immutable by default
let name = "Jitzu"
let mut counter = 0

// Functions return their last expression
fun greet(who: String): String {
  `Hello, {who}!`
}

// Union types and pattern matching
union Shape {
  Circle(Double),
  Square(Double),
}

let area = match shape {
  Shape.Circle(r) => 3.14159 * r ** 2,
  Shape.Square(s) => s ** 2,
}

NuGet Packages

Any .NET NuGet package works out of the box. Add a directive, import what you need, and use it — no project files, no restore step.

Jitzu
#:package Newtonsoft.Json@13.0.4
open "Newtonsoft.Json" as { JsonConvert }

let json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(user)
print(json)

Runtime

Jitzu compiles your code to bytecode and runs it on a stack-based VM built on .NET 10. It’s fast enough for scripting and interactive use, and gives you access to the entire .NET ecosystem.

Next Steps