Catala
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 99 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
Turns law into formal, verifiable code that people praise for bringing computer science and law together. Critics worry it concentrates power in the legislature.
Turns law into formal, verifiable code that people praise for bringing computer science and law together. Critics worry it concentrates power in the legislature.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 10 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Bridges computer science and law
“Catala is a fantastic project and a real attempt to bring computer science and law together.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Catala – Law to Code” “the french also are at the frontier of law-computing i'd say see Catala Lang”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “Axiom Foundation launches to publish law as open, verifiable code” Formal logic that can be proven
“having a formal language that encodes that logic seems useful”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Catala – Law to Code” “It's formally proved too!”
Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “I put all 8,642 Spanish laws in Git – every reform is a commit” Clearer than legalese or node diagrams
“I wish all law was written like this instead of the purposefully obfuscated legalise”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “I put all 8,642 Spanish laws in Git – every reform is a commit” “I find that easier to read than giant graph of node thingies with lines”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “Axiom Foundation launches to publish law as open, verifiable code” Seen as interesting, needed widely
“Thank you, https://catala-lang.org/ looks very interesting.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Solving a million-step LLM task with zero errors” “We really need this in India.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Catala – Law to Code”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Concentrates power in the legislature
“A technology like this necessarily concentrates power in the legislature, and takes it away from the judicial system.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Catala – Law to Code” Risky to draw conclusions from it
“it can be dangerous to draw conclusions from systems like this one”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Catala – Law to Code”
Other programming languages people recommend
The four most recommended other programming languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 163 programming languages, rankedWhat people said
All 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I find that easier to read than giant graph of node thingies with lines”
“the french also are at the frontier of law-computing i'd say see Catala Lang”
“I wish all law was written like this instead of the purposefully obfuscated legalise”
“It's formally proved too!”
“having a formal language that encodes that logic seems useful”
“it seems like yet another programming language”
“it can be dangerous to draw conclusions from systems like this one”
“A technology like this necessarily concentrates power in the legislature, and takes it away from the judicial system.”
“Catala is a fantastic project and a real attempt to bring computer science and law together.”
“We really need this in India.”
“Thank you, https://catala-lang.org/ looks very interesting.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.