# Janet programming language

45 Hacker News commenters recommended Janet programming language and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Small Clojure-style Lisp that compiles to compact standalone binaries and suits scripting and embedded use. Critics cite a thin package ecosystem and missing libraries.

## Why people recommend it

- Compiles to small standalone binaries (4 comments): "It can compile your script to a static binary for distribution." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46266690)) "compiles a whole playground of itself and the std lib in 823kb" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46726667)) "I was really impressed by how small the executable file was." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48368159))
- Good for embedded scripting and DSLs (3 comments): "These are mostly internal/embedded DSLs, which makes them much easier to use than the typical lexer/parser generators" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155275)) "Janet is strongly Clojure influenced but more of an embedded scripting language." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50206766)) "I have built a markup language with embedded scripting in Janet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48368320))
- Replaces Python, shell and awk for scripting (3 comments): "I refrain from using Python for most scripting/prototyping task but really like Janet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46231431)) "for smaller projects, prototyping, scripting etc., it is really enjoyable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47810072)) "janet has replaced sh, python, awk, etc. for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48369150))
- Clojure-inspired and quick to learn (2 comments): "clojure inspired languages that are quick to learn if you know clojure (janet, C runtime, fennel on the Lua platform)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46032696)) "clojure inspired languages that are quick to learn if you know clojure (janet, C runtime" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46031633))

## What people warn about

- Thread-local state breaks embedding (3 comments): "If Janet using thread-local state, this just doesn't work: the state for one instance is completely different from another" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48381193)) "Still not good: if you're making audio plugins, you don't control the threads which your program runs on." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48374257)) "I wouldn't do it with Janet if it uses thread local state this way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48383862))
- Built-in PEG parser has limitations (2 comments): "evolutionary dead-end PEG were replaced with a grammar parser that is known to work under all circumstances" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48368350)) "I would rather see Janet simply adopt a parser that is free of this kind of limitations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48382123))
- Few batteries included, no Tk (2 comments): "ultimately realized that I wanted more batteries included but didn't want Python" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48368253)) "Janet is faster, but lacks anything like tk." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48370082))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust.md): 2039 recommend
- [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language.md): 1254 recommend
- [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python.md): 1067 recommend
- [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig.md): 743 recommend
- [TypeScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typescript.md): 574 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Janet programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/janet/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).