Babashka
Hacker ApprovedScripting runtime in Developer tools
People recommend it for Clojure scripting from a single executable, with fast startup and a good standard library. Common caveat: it is memory hungry.
People recommend it for Clojure scripting from a single executable, with fast startup and a good standard library. Common caveat: it is memory hungry.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 27
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 87%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 27 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Go-to tool for new projects
“All of my new projects start as a single babashka script now.”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “The Future of CSS” “Babashka is my go-to tool for starting all new projects now.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Go Away Python” “This release of Babashka fills beautifully that role for me.”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Babashka 1.12.215: Revenge of the TUIs” - Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Babashka 1.12.215: Revenge of the TUIs”
Replaces bash scripting
“the dev experience of making these scripts is so much nicer than trying to write bash scripts”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “A Road to Lisp: Which Lisp” “Babashka has replaced any kind of bash-scripting”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Steel Bank Common Lisp version 2.6.7” “Babashka has replaced bash-scripting for me.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” Fast startup
“I have many babashka shebang deployed scripts with fast startup.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “2026: The Year of Java in the Terminal” “it starts in ~5-20ms instead of the usual JVM startup”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Babashka 1.12.215: Revenge of the TUIs” “For Clojure now there's Babashka: super quick.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “2026: The Year of Java in the Terminal” Simple and pragmatic
“I find babashka packaging to be minimal and much more convenient than python for scripting.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “2026: The Year of Java in the Terminal” “babashka in comparison is so much more pragmatic, simple and straightforward.”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “A shell colon does nothing. Use it anyway.” “For the little things Babashka tends to be even more straight forward.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Bringing Clojure programming to Enterprise (2021)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Memory hungry
“bb turned out to be a bit more ergonomic. Although impractically memory hungry.”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “Janet Verison 1.42.0 Out” “babashka adds ~200ms to cold start and can be pretty memory hungry”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?”
What people said
40 of the 62 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“All of my new projects start as a single babashka script now.”
“Babashka ends up having to use an interpreter for anything dynamic”
“bb turned out to be a bit more ergonomic. Although impractically memory hungry.”
“pipe it into an inline babashka repl where you can inspect the object with all the power of clojure”
“you could use Babashka, comes with Cheshire (and others) out of the box”
“for serious projects, specially lispy ones, babashka is amazing”
“Babashka has replaced any kind of bash-scripting”
“babashka in comparison is so much more pragmatic, simple and straightforward.”
“I can do things in way better fashion with babashka.”
“the dev experience of making these scripts is so much nicer than trying to write bash scripts”
“Writing scripts using Babashka is also really nice.”
“Portal, which runs on multiple platforms including: Clojure, Babashka”
“babashka adds ~200ms to cold start and can be pretty memory hungry”
“Babashka has replaced bash-scripting for me.”
“I love babashka and the whole REPL driven world.”
“Start with your own personal scripts first, get a knack for it, feel the benefits”
“I ran my modal-keyboard-toolkit controlled through babashka (clojure) with an exposed nREPL endpoint.”
“All my custom MCPs are written in babashka (Clojure)”
“There are so many useful scripts we write in babaska alone”
“All my custom MCPs are written in Clojure (bb).”
“I still may use babashka to understand the data flow”
“I have a babashka script that talks to the Hyprland compositor”
“For the little things Babashka tends to be even more straight forward.”
“These days I'd use borkdude/jet or babashka and then deal with data in Clojure REPL”
“This release of Babashka fills beautifully that role for me.”
“Babashka is the best addition to my toolkit in years.”
“it starts in ~5-20ms instead of the usual JVM startup”
“you will pry `clj-kondo` (and babaskha things in general) from my cold dead hands”
“it's data orientation makes it a great fit for something like your example”
“I am not walking away from my GraalVM compiled babashka binary”
“I find babashka packaging to be minimal and much more convenient than python for scripting.”
“For Clojure now there's Babashka: super quick.”
“I have many babashka shebang deployed scripts with fast startup.”
“Babashka is my go-to tool for starting all new projects now.”
“It’s a scripting dream, and when it’s time to be an adult, you can throw it on the JVM too!”
“Good stdlib, full macro support, shell out to other commands, just a great tool.”
“I pipe them through borkdude/jet, then into babashka”
“babashka is SUCH a good way to learn the language”
“It sees plenty use as Clojure/Clojurescript and Babashka.”
“babashka lets you use clojure in a scripting environment via a single executable”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.