Language reference

Everything in the language, in the order you would meet it. This page follows the formal definition, which is the authority where the two disagree.

Lexical structure

A semicolon begins a comment that runs to the end of the line. Each bracket is a token on its own. A string is "…" with the escapes \", \\ and \n. Every other character joins a token that extends as far as it can, stopping only at a bracket, a semicolon, whitespace or a quote.

Program structure

A file is a sequence of definitions and extended definitions. Definitions are the language proper. Extended definitions arrange the world around it: loading another file, receiving authority from the host, and testing. As in Ramsey's interpreters, a file's unit tests run after the whole file has loaded, so a test may mention anything the file defines, in any order.

def  ::= (val name exp)
     | exp
     | (define name (formals) exp)
     | (datatype Type {[Con {(field ty)}]})
     | (record Record {(field ty)})
     | xdef

xdef ::= (use file)
     | (grant name host-spec)
     | (script Name {site-script})
     | (under ({config}) {unit-test})
     | unit-test

Definitions

(define name (formals) body)

A function. The formals must be distinct. Top-level names are mutually recursive.

(val name exp)

Evaluate once and bind the result. If it fails, nothing is bound and the failure is reported.

(datatype Type [Con (field ty)…]…)

A sum type: a value is one of its constructors. Constructor names must be distinct, and they share one namespace across the program.

(record Record (field ty)…)

A product type: a value has all of its fields.

The difference matters when you write code over them. A datatype is consumed with case, one branch per constructor. A record is consumed with (. r field). It also shows up in how you build them:

(Sell "Margins are compressing.")             ; constructor: positional
(Message [role User] [content "FY2025 10-K"]) ; record: named, in any order

Expressions

Core forms

(if test then else)

The test must evaluate to a Boolean; anything else is a checked run-time error.

(let* ([x e]…) body)

Sequential binding: each right-hand side sees the bindings before it. There is no simultaneous let.

(lambda (formals) body)

An anonymous function, closing over its environment.

(f arg…)

Application. Arguments are evaluated left to right.

(begin e…)

Evaluate in order, answering with the last. Empty begin is #f. Sugar for nested let*.

(and e₁ e₂) · (or e₁ e₂)

Short-circuiting, and sugar for if.

(. e field)

Select a field from a record.

Case analysis

case is how a program consumes a datatype, a list, or a model's answer. If no branch matches, that is a checked run-time error, not a failure.

pattern ::= Con                        ; a constructor with no fields
          | (Con {name | _})          ; its fields, bound or ignored
          | '()                        ; the empty list
          | (cons name name)           ; head and tail
          | _                          ; anything

Patterns are flat. A constructor applies to variables or _, never to another pattern, and no variable may repeat within one pattern. This keeps matching a single step, which keeps every proof about case to a single step too. Nested patterns could be added later as sugar.

Building values

(Con {exp})                 ; constructor application
Con                         ; a nullary constructor is just its name
(Record {[field exp]})     ; every field, named
(list {exp})                ; a list
(cons exp exp)              ; prepend

The six agentic forms

These are what the language adds. Everything a program can do to the outside world happens through ask and call; there is no other door, which is why a budget, a deadline, the trace and the ownership rules apply to everything.

ask

(ask model ty context ['site])

Consult a model once, for an answer of type ty. The context is an ordinary list of Messages that you build and pass: nothing accumulates behind your back. The site is a name for this place in the program; scripts and traces are keyed by it, and it defaults to the source location.

The answer is validated against ty before it is bound. If it doesn't fit, the ask produces Invalid rather than a value. Asking again is a separate, visible decision — see retry.

Before the call, ask reserves the worst case: everything it is about to send, plus the largest answer ty allows. If that doesn't fit the budget, the model is never called and nothing is charged.

call

(call capability op {exp})

Use a tool once. The capability comes from grant and can only come from there. A tool result is currently always Text; unlike ask, call does not yet name the type of its result.

fail and catch

(fail exp)
(catch exp name handler)

A failure is a value, not a crash. catch binds it to name and runs the handler. (fail 'sym) is sugar for (fail (Raised 'sym)). A failure propagates left to right: everything before it still ran and still spent.

budget

(budget ([cost exp] [time exp]) body)

Everything inside gets at most that much money and time. Either limit may be omitted, which means unlimited. Nesting takes the smaller of the two, and whatever the inside spends is charged to the outside. A budget scope has one pool and one absolute deadline shared by every branch running inside it.

workflow and par

(workflow ([name exp]…) body)
(par e₁ e₂)

A set of named steps. Dependencies come from the names each step mentions: a step whose inputs are ready starts immediately, alongside the others. The graph must be acyclic, and the names must be distinct — both are checked before the program runs.

Steps may not share a stateful tool, because the outcome would depend on timing. Such a workflow is rejected before any step starts. To work in parallel on a kernel, fork it first. par is sugar for a two-step workflow and answers with a Pair.

Types

ty ::= Text | (Text numeral)        ; optionally bounded, in bytes
     | Num | Bool | Sym
     | (List ty) | (List ty numeral)
     | Type | Record              ; anything you defined
     | Any                          ; a placeholder; never askable

Which types can be asked for

A type is askable when it is built only from Text, Num, Bool, Sym, List, and datatypes or records whose fields are all askable. Any is not askable.

That one rule is what keeps authority unforgeable: a capability is not an askable type, so no model answer can ever contain a tool. Authority comes only from the host.

Bounds, and why a type costs money twice

A bound caps the answer's size, which caps the reservation. A Verdict with 400-byte reasons reserves far less than the same type with unbounded text, so it fits budgets the unbounded one is refused by.

How a type maps to JSON

Failures

Every failure is a value of the predefined Failure datatype, so you can case on it like anything else.

A checked run-time error is a different thing and cannot be caught: an unbound name, an if on a non-Boolean, a case with no matching branch, an exhausted script. Those mean the program is wrong, not that the world misbehaved.

The initial basis

Predefined types

(datatype Role    [System] [User] [Assistant] [Tool])
(record   Message (role Role) (content Text))
(datatype Failure [Invalid (raw Text)] [ToolError (message Text)]
                  [Refused (category Sym)] [OverBudget] [PastDeadline]
                  [Raised (reason Sym)])
(datatype Option  [None] [Some (value Any)])
(record   Pair    (fst Any) (snd Any))
(record   Resources (cost Any) (time Any))

Primitives

Predefined functions

These are written in µNorman itself, and each is defined by algebraic laws.

(not b) · (<= x y) · (>= x y)

The obvious things.

(append xs ys) · (length xs) · (filter p xs) · (drop k xs)

Lists. drop treats a count of zero or less as zero.

(retry n f)

Call the thunk up to n+1 times, stopping at the first success. Retries Invalid and ToolError only — never OverBudget or PastDeadline, since asking again cannot help and would spend what little is left.

(repair n f ctx)

Like retry, but the bad reply and a correction are appended to the context. Costs more per attempt, because the context grows — a trade-off explicit context makes visible.

(best-of k f check)

k attempts, concurrently, keeping one that check accepts. Built from a recursive par, so the cost adds up and the time is the longest attempt.

(window n ctx)

A context policy: every System message, then the last n others. Note that it moves system messages to the front.

Hosts and capabilities

(grant name (model [id "…"] [in n] [out n] [ceiling n] [think n]))
(grant name (kernel))        ; stateful
(grant name (filesystem))    ; stateful
(grant name (http))          ; stateless

Every model field is optional and falls back to a default. Prices are in micro-dollars per token: [in 3] is $3 per million input tokens. Prices are stated here, not looked up — the API does not report them, so a grant is where the program says what it believes a token costs. If they are wrong, the budget arithmetic is wrong.

Scripts and tests

Tests run against scripts: canned replies keyed by site, with a simulated clock. Every test runs in a fresh world — a fresh pool, a fresh deadline, the script rewound, an empty trace — so tests are independent and exactly repeatable.

(script Name
  [site (reply "…") (out n) (latency d)
        (reply "…") (out n) (latency d)]   ; consumed in order
  [cap/op (result "…") (latency d)])          ; a tool, keyed capability/operation

Faults are injected the same way, which is what makes failure paths testable at all:

Test forms

(under ([script Name] [cost $1.00] [time 1min]) {unit-test})

(check-expect e expected)

Both sides run in their own fresh world, so evaluating the expected value cannot consume the script.

(check-assert e)

The expression is true.

(check-fail e pattern)

It fails, with a failure matching the pattern: (check-fail (ask-v) (Invalid _)).

(check-error e)

It is a checked run-time error — the program is wrong, not the world.

(check-within e ([cost c] [time t]))

It spends at most c and takes at most t, whatever its result. That lets you measure failures as well as successes.

(check-equiv e₁ e₂ 'grade)

Two expressions agree, at 'exact (result and the whole world, trace included), 'resource (result, spend, time, host state), or 'value.

A complete, runnable example of all of it together:

(grant claude (model [in 3] [out 15] [ceiling 8000]))

(datatype Verdict
  [Buy  (reason (Text 400))]
  [Sell (reason (Text 400))])

(define ask-v ()
  (ask claude Verdict (list (Message [role User] [content "FY2025 10-K"])) 'analyst))

(script flaky
  [analyst (provider-error "503 Service Unavailable") (latency 1s)
           (reply "{\"tag\":\"Sell\",\"reason\":\"Margins fell.\"}") (out 12) (latency 2s)])

(under ([script flaky] [cost $1.00] [time 1min])
  ;; A provider outage is a ToolError, which retry handles.
  (check-fail   (ask-v) (ToolError _))
  (check-expect (retry 1 ask-v) (Sell "Margins fell."))
  (check-within (retry 1 ask-v) ([cost $0.01] [time 3s]))
  ;; Failures are values: catch one and look at it.
  (check-expect (catch (ask-v) e (case e [(ToolError m) m] [_ "other"]))
                "503 Service Unavailable"))

Syntactic sugar

Sugar is defined by translation, so it inherits every theorem already proved about the core forms, with no new cases to check.

(let* () e)                 =  e
(let* ([x e₁] rest…) e)   =  LETX(x, e₁, (let* (rest…) e))
(begin)                      =  #f
(begin e₁ … eₙ)             =  (let* ([_₁ e₁] …) eₙ)
(par e₁ e₂)                  =  (workflow ([a e₁] [b e₂]) (Pair [fst a] [snd b]))
(and e₁ e₂)                  =  (if e₁ e₂ #f)
(or e₁ e₂)                   =  (if e₁ #t e₂)
(fail 'sym)                  =  (fail (Raised 'sym))
(ask m τ c)                  =  (ask m τ c 'file:line:col)
(budget ([cost e]) body)    =  BUDGET(e, ∞, body)

What is checked before a program runs

Each of these is decidable from the syntax alone, so the parser rejects it outright.

1. The formals of a lambda or define are distinct; so are a datatype's constructors and a record's fields.
2. A workflow's binding names are distinct.
3. A workflow's dependency graph is acyclic.
4. Patterns are flat, and no variable repeats within one pattern.
5. Forms are applied with the right number of parts.

Askability is checked when the ask runs rather than at parse time, because a function may ask for a datatype defined later in the file. Everything else about types is a run-time check too. Moving those to compile time is what the planned type and effect system is for — see Status.

Reserved words

val define datatype record use grant script under check-expect check-assert check-error check-fail check-within check-equiv if let* lambda case ask call fail catch budget workflow begin par and or _

cost and time are not reserved. They appear only in fixed bracket positions, and they are the field names of Resources. An earlier draft did reserve them, which made (. (remaining) cost) a syntax error in the language's own basis. Running the tests caught it.

Going deeper

• The formal definition — abstract syntax, big-step semantics, every rule, and the theorems.
• The machine — the event-by-event semantics behind concurrency and shared budgets.
• The laws — which refactors are safe, which are not, and the nine problems writing them found.