Quickstart with Scarp v0.0.5-alpha.3

This is the historically verified alpha.3 first-run guide, v0.0.5-alpha.3, published November 2, 2026. Scarp is experimental and runs programs through an interpreter: there is no native executable builder or stable language guarantee. Older reference pages remain pinned to alpha.1. For a new installation, see the current v0.0.6-alpha.3 release; the commands and files below are intentionally pinned to alpha.3.

1. Choose and verify the official download

Download the archive for your computer from the official alpha.3 GitHub release:

Download the corresponding .sha256 file or SHA256SUMS from the same release. Before extraction, compute the downloaded archive's SHA-256 hash and compare the complete hash with the published value:

• Windows PowerShell: run Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 -Path .\scarp-0.0.5-alpha.3-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip.
• Linux: run sha256sum scarp-0.0.5-alpha.3-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz.
• macOS: run shasum -a 256 scarp-0.0.5-alpha.3-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz.

If the hashes differ, do not run the archive. Extract the verified archive. Keep the included example files and their folders together. You can run the executable from its extracted directory without placing it on your system PATH.

2. Confirm the installed version

Open a terminal in the extracted folder and run the matching executable:

scarp version

Use .\scarp.exe version on Windows PowerShell or ./scarp version on Linux/macOS if you have not added Scarp to PATH. Confirm that the reported version is 0.0.5-alpha.3 before continuing. Do not mix alpha.1 or alpha.2 commands with an older binary.

3. Create a tested Scarp program

In a folder you control, create text_construction.srp as a UTF-8 file with this exact source:

bind greeting: string = text_concat("Hello, ", "🌍");
bind planet = text_slice(greeting, 7, 1);
print(greeting);
print(text_repeat(planet, 3));
print(text_len(greeting), text_bytes(greeting));

This source is copied byte-for-byte from the alpha.3 compiler's published example, not an untested proposal.

4. Verify first, then execute

Run these commands from the directory containing the file:

scarp verify text_construction.srp
scarp exec text_construction.srp

verify checks source and module types without running ordinary statements. exec executes the program. With the exact source above, the published output is:

Hello, 🌍
🌍🌍🌍
8 11

If Scarp is not on PATH, save text_construction.srp beside the extracted executable and substitute .\scarp.exe (Windows PowerShell) or ./scarp (Linux/macOS) for scarp in the commands above. Alternatively, call the executable using its absolute path; filenames are resolved from the terminal's current directory.

Why 8 11? The text has 8 Unicode scalar values but 11 UTF-8 bytes: 🌍 counts as one scalar value and four bytes.

5. Learn more

Next, use the published alpha.3 CLI reference for command syntax and error codes, then explore the full alpha.3 release guide for four verified programs, the CLI and structured errors. For the longer installation/build-from-source workflow, read installation, noting its separately pinned alpha.1 steps. Read the language status before relying on an experimental feature.

Evidence: the source and output above are checked against the exact alpha.3 conformance fixture by the site's TypeScript validation and CI.

Upgrading to alpha.4? See the versioned file-to-project migration guide. Existing file commands continue to work; the new directory commands require alpha.4.