Quickstart: your first Scarp project (v0.0.5-alpha.4)

This is the historically verified alpha.4 project quickstart for v0.0.5-alpha.4 (November 3, 2026). It is pinned to official source commit 79141329176f5dce51457e90a6652902f6432135. Scarp is experimental, and runs through an interpreter.

1. Download and check your compiler

Obtain the official archive for your system and its matching .sha256 or SHA256SUMS from the published GitHub release.

Compare the downloaded archive's SHA-256 checksum with the official value before extracting and running it. Keep the scarp executable accessible in your terminal. If it isn't on PATH, use .\scarp.exe in PowerShell or ./scarp on Linux/macOS instead of scarp below.

2. Create, verify and launch

Open a terminal inside an existing parent folder in which hello-world does not already exist. Run these four commands in order:

scarp version
scarp create hello-world
scarp verify hello-world
scarp launch hello-world

scarp version must identify 0.0.5-alpha.4. The create command refuses to overwrite even an empty existing folder. verify checks the project without executing its main statements; launch actually executes the starter program.

3. Inspect the generated project

The actual project layout is:

hello-world/
  Scarp.project
  src/
    main.srp

The generated hello-world/Scarp.project contains exactly:

scarp-project: 1
name: hello-world
entry: src/main.srp

The generated hello-world/src/main.srp contains exactly:

print("Hello from Scarp!");

The released compiler prints this when you launch the project:

Hello from Scarp!

This source, manifest and output are not simulated: they are asserted against the published compiler's actual project generator, and a dedicated GitHub CI job creates, verifies and launches the same project using the tagged interpreter.

4. Edit the entry file

Modify hello-world/src/main.srp as a UTF-8 source file. The manifest's entry: src/main.srp resolves inside the project directory. After each edit, use project-directory verify to catch syntax and type errors, and launch to execute:

scarp verify hello-world
scarp launch hello-world

verify does not execute regular program statements, runtime arithmetic or user function contracts, so runtime errors can still occur during launch.

5. Avoid common problems

For flags, manifest size/path limitations, and error handling, continue to the full alpha.4 release guide, feature status, and original alpha.3 CLI reference.

Coming from alpha.3? Follow the migration checklist before moving existing sources. You can keep using standalone exec and verify FILE.srp commands.