Vow documentation

Vow is a systems language with two pillars: contracts (requires / ensures) and capabilities (permissions the program cannot create for itself). No garbage collector, and no manual free(). No ambient filesystem or network access (ambient print is a deliberate debug exception).

Start here

1. Install — curl installer ships vow + vpm
2. Your first program — vow new, src/main.vow, build, run
3. CLI commands — new / init, build, run, check, fmt, lsp, profile, audit
4. Built-in functions — strings, collections, math, JSON, I/O builtins
5. Tutorial — every major syntax construct, by use case
6. The 5-minute tour — contracts + capabilities in one pass
7. Async / await — async fn, await db_query, block_on from HTTP handlers

Built-in functions

No package install required — these ship with the compiler:

Area	Examples	Docs
Strings	str_trim, str_split, parse_int, to_string_int	Tutorial · Reference
Collections	array_push, array_sort, array_map, map_get	Tutorial · Reference
Math	abs_int, min_int, sqrt_f64	Reference
JSON	json_parse, json_stringify	Tutorial · Reference
Time / I/O	clock_now, read_file, thread_spawn, …	Reference

Full tables: Built-in functions reference.

Tutorial highlights

• Basics — main, let/var, print
• Built-in functions — stdlib by use case
• Control flow — if, for / 0..n, match
• Strings & collections — interpolation + Phase 1 helpers
• OOP — classes, interfaces, inheritance, chaining
• Syntax ergonomics — new, switch, try/catch
• Capabilities — needs / with / --grant / scoped_to / budgets
• Concurrency — threads, processes, async overview
• Async / await — DB/file I/O with block_on
• HTTP API — vow-web-server + integration REST

Core concepts

• Capabilities
• Contracts
• OOP — classes, interfaces, dyn, inheritance
• Memory
• Types

Language reference

• Syntax
• Keywords
• Operators
• Grammar
• Built-in functions — strings / collections / math / JSON / Caps I/O

Packages

• vpm — package manager (ships with the installer)
• vow-web-server — Express-like HTTP router and serve loop
• Ecosystem — what ships vs early helpers vs stubs

Then read

• Examples gallery — runnable commands by phase
• Limitations — not optional
• Changelog — release notes
• Benchmarks — measured numbers only