CLI Reference

The tulpar binary bundles the compiler, runtime, package manager, formatter, and language server in a single executable. This page is the exhaustive reference; the Getting Started guide is a friendlier introduction.

Running a program

tulpar <source.tpr>          # AOT compile + run (default; native speed)
tulpar --vm <source.tpr>     # Bytecode VM (instant startup, dev loop)
tulpar --legacy <source.tpr> # Tree-walk interpreter (slowest, debug)

Without flags, tulpar runs the AOT pipeline (LLVM → native binary → exec). If the AOT path fails for an infrastructure reason (clang missing, runtime archive not linkable) it silently falls back to the VM. Source-level errors (parse, codegen) do not fall back — you get the diagnostic once, not twice.

Mode	Startup	Throughput	When to use
AOT (default)	~200 ms cold	Native (≈ Rust)	Production, benchmarks, deploys
--vm	< 10 ms	~3-5× slower than AOT	Edit-run loop, CI test runs
--legacy	< 10 ms	~50× slower	Last-resort debugging only

Building a standalone binary

tulpar build <source.tpr> [output_name]

Same as the default run path, but keeps the produced binary at output_name (or <source> without .tpr if omitted). Subsequent tulpar build calls skip recompilation if the output is newer than the source and the driver. Set TULPAR_AOT_NOCACHE=1 to force a rebuild.

tulpar build hello.tpr           # produces ./hello (./hello.exe on Windows)
tulpar build hello.tpr myapp     # produces ./myapp
TULPAR_AOT_NOCACHE=1 tulpar build hello.tpr   # always recompile

REPL

tulpar --repl       # or: tulpar -i

Interactive read-eval-print loop, backed by the legacy interpreter (starts instantly, runs each line as you press enter). Built-in commands inside the REPL:

Command	Effect
exit, quit	Leave the REPL
help	Show the REPL command list
clear	Clear the screen

Formatter

tulpar fmt <source.tpr>

Re-emits the source with normalised indentation and operator spacing. Idempotent (running it twice produces the same output as once). No config file — the rules are baked in.

Package manager

tulpar pkg init                  # create a new tulpar.toml in the cwd
tulpar pkg add <name>            # add a dependency
tulpar pkg install               # install everything in tulpar.toml

See the Package Manager page for the manifest format and dependency specs.

Language server (LSP)

tulpar --lsp

Speaks LSP over stdio — wire it into your editor (VS Code extension, Vim/Neovim LSP client, etc.) and it owns stdin/stdout for the JSON-RPC transport. Don’t run it manually except for testing.

Capabilities: completion, hover, diagnostics, go-to-definition, “did-you-mean” suggestions for typos. See Tooling — LSP / Formatter / VS Code.

Version & update

tulpar version          # or: tulpar --version, tulpar -v
tulpar update           # download & install the latest release
tulpar update --check   # only report whether an update is available

tulpar update shells out to the platform’s installer script (https://tulparlang.dev/install.{ps1,sh}) and replaces the running binary with the latest published release. On Windows it uses the rename-then-replace dance because Windows can’t overwrite a running .exe directly.

--check is non-destructive — it queries GitHub for the latest tag, prints the comparison, and exits.

Help

tulpar --help          # or: tulpar -h, tulpar help, tulpar ?

Prints the same command reference shown when you run tulpar with no arguments. Output language follows the system locale (Turkish on TR locale, English elsewhere).

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
TULPAR_LANG=tr / en	Override the system locale for diagnostic messages
TULPAR_AOT_NOCACHE=1	Force tulpar build to recompile even if the output is up-to-date
TULPAR_INSTALL_DIR	Where install.sh puts the binary (default: ~/.local/bin)

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Source-level failure (parse / codegen / runtime error)
2	CLI usage error (unknown flag, bad combination)