Starlark
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 14 scripting languages by recommenders
Deterministic, Python-like language for build and config files, designed for untrusted code; critics say it lacks many Python features.
Deterministic, Python-like language for build and config files, designed for untrusted code; critics say it lacks many Python features.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Deterministic and bounded execution
“it intentionally doesn't (in default configuration) support recursion or unbounded loops, so is deterministic and bounded execution time”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “PyInfra 3.8.0 Is Out” “Bazel uses Starlark, which is pretty much a deterministic subset of Python.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Migrating to Bazel symbolic macros” “If you need a deterministic programming language, you could use starlark”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Stop Designing Languages. Write Libraries Instead (2016)” Familiar Python-like syntax
“This is why Google made Starlark. You can think of it as just enough Python for the exact use case you talked about.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Things I don't like in configuration languages” “Bazel uses Starlark, which is pretty much a deterministic subset of Python.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Migrating to Bazel symbolic macros” “it's a python dialect so most llms can use it with little help”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Building an Advanced Agentic Harness” Works well for build macros
“When I write Bazel macros, they're great, the perfect tool for the job.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “PyInfra 3.8.0 Is Out” “starlark is well suited for this job”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Migrating to Bazel symbolic macros”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Missing many Python features
“Starlark has been proposed in the past, but unfortunately it means you have to work with something different than Python”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Develop Cross-Platform CLI and GUI Tools with Tcl/Tk” “almost-but-not-quite version of python that doesn't support all manner of features you would hope for”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Bazel's UX is really, really, really bad” “beats starlark in that it already has all the features your users (and Claude) know about”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Hyprland 0.55 announced the switch to Lua for its config files” Another language to learn
“Starlark has been proposed in the past, but unfortunately it means you have to work with something different than Python”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Develop Cross-Platform CLI and GUI Tools with Tcl/Tk” “they keep inventing new stuff like Starlark. They need to stop.”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is stepping down”
Other scripting languages people recommend
The four most recommended other scripting 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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lua | 186 | 62 | 75% | 12 | 10 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| awk | 67 | 18 | 79% | 12 | — | Approved |
| AutoHotkey | 44 | 5 | 90% | 11 | — | Approved |
| GDScript | 22 | 16 | 58% | 9 | — | — |
| StarlarkThis page | 16 | 5 | 76% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
21 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Starlark is quite resilient against exploding complexity”
“almost-but-not-quite version of python that doesn't support all manner of features you would hope for”
“Starlark has been proposed in the past, but unfortunately it means you have to work with something different than Python”
“probably my favorite and most used abstraction”
“there's already a better alternative”
“they keep inventing new stuff like Starlark. They need to stop.”
“it's a python dialect so most llms can use it with little help”
“beats starlark in that it already has all the features your users (and Claude) know about”
“I just got so fed up with Starlark trying to do a nontrivial RBE prelude”
“I could use a templating language like Jinja or Starlark, but that's another dependency for a relatively simple job”
“it was designed for untrusted code and had a conformance test suite”
“I have adopted Starlark functions instead”
“When I write Bazel macros, they're great, the perfect tool for the job.”
“it intentionally doesn't (in default configuration) support recursion or unbounded loops, so is deterministic and bounded execution time”
“If you need a deterministic programming language, you could use starlark”
“starlark is well suited for this job”
“Starlark has very good reasons for existing.”
“it had lots of issues compared to Starlark”
“Bazel uses Starlark, which is pretty much a deterministic subset of Python.”
“This is why Google made Starlark. You can think of it as just enough Python for the exact use case you talked about.”
“looking like full-blown programming languages is a feature”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.