Guide

CLI & flags

One binary, klainmain. Point it at a file; tune the trade-offs per compile.

usage

klainmain [flags] <file.ts>

# Compile to a native binary (does NOT run it)
$ klainmain app.ts

# Compile and run in one step
$ make run FILE=app.ts

# Inspect the generated LLVM IR
$ make ir FILE=app.ts

Flags

Flag	What it does
`--emit-llvm`	Emit LLVM IR to stdout and stop — don't compile.
`-o <name>`	Output binary name (default: input path without `.ts`).
`--static`	Statically link the output, for a scratch/distroless Docker image. Linux only — macOS ships no static libc, so it refuses cleanly with an explanation.
`-mm <mode>`	Memory management: `manual` (default — `Memory.free(x)` only) or `gc` (Boehm GC, needs `bdw-gc`). Identical on Linux and macOS.
`-bigint <lib>`	BigInt backend, linked only when used: `libtommath` (default) or `gmp`. Identical semantics — trades license/speed.
`-crypto <lib>`	`crypto.subtle` backend: `openssl` (default) or `commoncrypto` (macOS only, no OpenSSL dependency).
`-compat <m>`	`strict` (default — opinionated, safer-than-JS) or `js` (best-effort JS-faithful, e.g. global shadowing).
`-regex <m>`	RegExp dialect: `es-unicode` (default) / `ecmascript` / `es-utf16` / `es-ascii` / `pcre`.

Linking, briefly

Programs are pure libc by default. A binary only links an extra library when it actually uses the feature — libcurl for fetch/http.listen, libnghttp2 for http.listen, libpcre2 for RegExp, OpenSSL for crypto.subtle/tls. Everything else stays plain-libc, closer to typical C/C++ toolchain output than a self-contained Go binary.

Left in manual mode, a program's memory footprint is a monotonically increasing function of its runtime — a feature for short-lived CLI tools, a life choice for anything long-running. Want automatic collection? Pass -mm=gc.

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