Janet programming language
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 44 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
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.
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.
53 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 45
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 85%
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
- 45 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.6 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
Compiles to small standalone binaries
“It can compile your script to a static binary for distribution.”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Using Python for Scripting” “compiles a whole playground of itself and the std lib in 823kb”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “Compiling Scheme to WebAssembly” “I was really impressed by how small the executable file was.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” - Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Jolt: Clojure compiler implemented with Chez Scheme”
Good for embedded scripting and DSLs
“These are mostly internal/embedded DSLs, which makes them much easier to use than the typical lexer/parser generators”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “The true power of regular expressions (2012)” “Janet is strongly Clojure influenced but more of an embedded scripting language.”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Jank – The native Clojure dialect with seamless C++ interop” “I have built a markup language with embedded scripting in Janet”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” Replaces Python, shell and awk for scripting
“I refrain from using Python for most scripting/prototyping task but really like Janet”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Python Workers redux: fast cold starts, packages, and a uv-first workflow” “for smaller projects, prototyping, scripting etc., it is really enjoyable”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Official Clojure Documentary page with Video, Shownotes, and Links” “janet has replaced sh, python, awk, etc. for me”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” Clojure-inspired and quick to learn
“clojure inspired languages that are quick to learn if you know clojure (janet, C runtime, fennel on the Lua platform).”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Racket v9.0” “clojure inspired languages that are quick to learn if you know clojure (janet, C runtime”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Racket v9.0”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Thread-local state breaks embedding
“If Janet using thread-local state, this just doesn't work: the state for one instance is completely different from another”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” “Still not good: if you're making audio plugins, you don't control the threads which your program runs on.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” “I wouldn't do it with Janet if it uses thread local state this way”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” Built-in PEG parser has limitations
“evolutionary dead-end PEG were replaced with a grammar parser that is known to work under all circumstances”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” “I would rather see Janet simply adopt a parser that is free of this kind of limitations.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” Few batteries included, no Tk
“ultimately realized that I wanted more batteries included but didn't want Python”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?” “Janet is faster, but lacks anything like tk.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Why Janet?”
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
40 of the 88 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Janet is strongly Clojure influenced but more of an embedded scripting language.”
“working on a live image should make iteration a breeze in an LLM”
“I'd probably recommend Janet to people who want Tcl without Tk”
“It has a lot of very interesting ideas going on, though ultimately i didnt end up using it”
“playing in the league of Lisp to standalone binaries”
“These are mostly internal/embedded DSLs, which makes them much easier to use than the typical lexer/parser generators”
“from all practical points it felt like almost using the same language everywhere”
“I wouldn't do it with Janet if it uses thread local state this way”
“I would rather see Janet simply adopt a parser that is free of this kind of limitations.”
“If Janet using thread-local state, this just doesn't work: the state for one instance is completely different from another”
“Was quite a fun experience with the built-in PEG, so I did markdown parsing from scratch.”
“When you import a module in Janet, it adds a namespace prefix to all symbols.”
“I really want to like Janet, as it seems to be the sweet spot between Guile, Tcl and CL”
“Still not good: if you're making audio plugins, you don't control the threads which your program runs on.”
“for small things, because you can easily shift work to compile time, it beats normal Go”
“Janet feels like its own stand-alone language in that respect”
“it has a pretty efficient threaded bytecode interpreter”
“lack of package management versioning and lack of libraries in general”
“it just doesn't have half the quality of the Janet debugger and REPL”
“Janet is faster, but lacks anything like tk.”
“It won't blow your socks off, but it's more than respectable.”
“what I want is a very clear bifurcation between the standard library's stateful mutating procedures”
“I have a visceral reaction to square brackets (so vectors) being used in lambdas and control flow operators”
“janet has replaced sh, python, awk, etc. for me”
“Those two fascinating art tools got me very excited about Janet”
“setq is ugly, but I think using def is maybe questionable.”
“I have found Janet’s syntax very pleasant to work with”
“evolutionary dead-end PEG were replaced with a grammar parser that is known to work under all circumstances”
“I have built a markup language with embedded scripting in Janet”
“ultimately realized that I wanted more batteries included but didn't want Python”
“I was really impressed by how small the executable file was.”
“Janet ( https://github.com/janet-lang/janet ) seems to be aimed at this.”
“for smaller projects, prototyping, scripting etc., it is really enjoyable”
“The only true Lisp languages I've found are CL and Janet.”
“I'm an enthusiastic enjoyer of the Janet programming language.”
“compiles a whole playground of itself and the std lib in 823kb”
“It can compile your script to a static binary for distribution.”
“I refrain from using Python for most scripting/prototyping task but really like Janet”
“clojure inspired languages that are quick to learn if you know clojure (janet, C runtime, fennel on the Lua platform).”
“clojure inspired languages that are quick to learn if you know clojure (janet, C runtime”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.