Quickstart

In this guide you install scriptc, compile a small TypeScript program into an executable, check what compiles, and add an npm dependency.

Prerequisites

• A supported computer: macOS 15 or later (arm64 or x64), Linux (arm64 or x64), or Windows (x64). See Platform Support for details.
• Node.js 24 or later and npm, to install scriptc. The compiler itself and the executables it builds run without Node.js. Standalone compiler archives are also available from GitHub Releases.
• A linker, to build executables. On macOS, install the Xcode Command Line Tools with xcode-select --install. On glibc-based Linux, install clang. On Windows and musl-based Linux, install zig.

Install

Install the CLI globally with npm:

$ npm install -g scriptc

npm installs the native compiler for your platform as an optional dependency. An install script then copies that executable into the scriptc package and records where the compiler finds its helper files. The platform package alone does not install a working scriptc command, so keep optional dependencies and install scripts enabled. If npm blocks the install script, scriptc prints scriptc: native installation is incomplete; enable install scripts and reinstall scriptc; reinstall with install scripts enabled to fix it.

Check that it works:

$ scriptc --version
0.3.0

Create a program

Create hello.ts. It greets the name passed on the command line, or world when there is none:

const who: string = process.argv.length > 2 ? process.argv[2] : "world";
console.log(`hello, ${who}`);

Compile and run

scriptc run compiles the program and runs it immediately:

$ scriptc run hello.ts
hello, world

scriptc build writes an executable instead. It prints the path of the file it writes; the examples in these docs discard that line with >/dev/null:

$ scriptc build hello.ts -o hello >/dev/null
$ ./hello scriptc
hello, scriptc

The executable runs on its own, without Node.js or scriptc installed. scriptc run does not pass extra arguments to the program, so build an executable when you need them.

On Windows, build hello.exe and run it with .\hello.exe.

Check compilation support

Before building a larger program, run scriptc coverage. It analyzes the program without building it and reports how much compiles:

$ cat hello.ts
const who: string = process.argv.length > 2 ? process.argv[2] : "world";
console.log(`hello, ${who}`);

$ scriptc coverage hello.ts

  statements analyzed   2
  compile statically    2  (100%)

  fully static — all analyzed statements compile to native code.

When a program uses an unsupported operation, the report lists each site with a diagnostic code and a hint. See Coverage Reports.

Use an npm dependency

Create cli.ts:

import pc from "picocolors";

console.log(pc.green("hello"));

Install the package, then build as usual:

$ npm install picocolors
$ scriptc build cli.ts -o demo >/dev/null
$ ./demo
hello

The package compiles into the executable at build time, so the executable doesn't need node_modules when it runs. See npm Dependencies for which packages compile and how to check them.

Next steps

• Coverage Reports: find out whether an existing program compiles.
• Platform Support: cross-compile for Linux, Windows, and WebAssembly.
• CLI Reference: output formats, optimization levels, and other options.
• Limitations: restrictions and differences from Node.js.