Kvist

A practical Lisp for systems programming that compiles to Odin.

Kvist combines Clojure-inspired syntax, source macros, immutable data, and interactive development with a native, statically typed execution model. Ordinary values have Odin-like representation and ownership: allocation, mutation, and cleanup remain explicit, and generated programs require no VM or garbage collector.

Kvist transpiles to readable Odin, imports Odin core and vendor packages directly, and allows Kvist and Odin source files to live in the same package.

When data-oriented programming is a better fit, Data provides EDN in memory: immutable maps, vectors, sets, lists, keywords, symbols, and tagged values. This makes Hiccup, transactions, Datalog queries, configuration, and other data DSLs feel like Lisp without making every runtime value dynamic.

Native REPL — submissions are checked and executed as native Kvist code, while definitions, values, imports, macros, and recent results persist.

Native by default — concrete structs, arrays, maps, pointers, procedures, allocators, and explicit ownership.

Data-oriented programming — immutable EDN-shaped values with destructuring, structural matching, persistent updates, typed validation, and decoding.

Fused transforms and iterators — expressive collection pipelines lower to direct loops without lazy sequences or intermediate collections.