# Roto

13 Hacker News commenters recommended Roto and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A Rust-style scripting language that is easy to embed in Rust apps and compiles at runtime, so logic can change without rebuilding the host. Critics say it is moderately domain specific.

## Why people recommend it

- Rust-like syntax and static typing (3 comments): "Rust-style syntax, static type checking, sane type system, easily embedded" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48984042)) "The syntax is of course very Rusty, which is cool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48345073)) "being similar to Rust has many advantages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346745))
- Edit logic without rebuilding host (2 comments): "You can edit your logic without rebuilding and restarting the host application" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48345272)) "Extensibility and hot reloading." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48345279))
- Easy to embed and set up (2 comments): "Rust-style syntax, static type checking, sane type system, easily embedded" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48984042)) "a good reason to use this is setup being easier" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48345667))
- Fast with numbers (2 comments): "So the nuanced take is that Roto is fast with numbers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48344313)) "mlua and roto are some of the fastest" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346762))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Lua](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lua.md): 186 recommend
- [awk](https://hackerapproved.com/p/awk.md): 67 recommend
- [AutoHotkey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/autohotkey.md): 44 recommend
- [GDScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gdscript.md): 22 recommend
- [AppleScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/applescript.md): 19 recommend

## Cite as

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