Nightly Build (2026-04-18, 3a897b1a)

Automated nightly build from main at 2026-04-18.

Commit: 3a897b1
Full SHA: 3a897b1

Warning

Nightly builds are untested beyond the standard test suite. Use --nightly with install.sh:

curl -fsSL https://jamesc.github.io/beamtalk/install.sh | sh -s -- --nightly

v0.3.1

0.3.1 — 2026-03-26

Language

• Actor message timeout configuration syntax — configure per-message timeouts with language-level syntax (BT-1190)
• Rename trace:/traceCr: to show:/showCr: on Object — clearer naming for debug output methods (BT-1636)
• Fix ^ and := in match arm bodies — non-local returns and assignments inside match arms now compile correctly
• Fix whileTrue: silently drops mutations in value-type context (BT-1609)

Standard Library

• Tracing — new Tracing stdlib class with Erlang shim for trace context, propagated context across actor boundaries, causal trace linking, and application-level metadata enrichment (BT-1604, BT-1605, BT-1625, BT-1633, BT-1639)
• Protocol enhancements — class methods in protocol definitions, REPL support for Protocol define: declarations, fix protocol-only files not generating register_class/0, fix class prefix before doc comments in protocol signatures (BT-1610, BT-1611, BT-1612, BT-1616, BT-1617, BT-1618)
• performLocally:withArguments: — new class method dispatch primitive that executes in the caller's process, enabling synchronous class method calls without actor messaging (BT-1664)
• Foo class methods return user-defined class methods (BT-1635)
• Emit class method doc comments in codegen (BT-1634)
• Revert method combinations (before/after daemons) and migrate: protocol — removed BT-102 and BT-106 pending redesign

Compiler

• Direct-call optimization for sealed class methods — sealed classes now emit direct function calls instead of dynamic dispatch, improving performance (BT-1639)
• Enforce field:/state: keyword alignment by class kind — the compiler rejects state: in value classes and field: in stateful classes (BT-1663)
• Improved lint diagnostics — origin tracing and severity levels in lint messages (BT-1588)
• Surface protocol register_class/0 failures as structured errors (BT-1616)

Runtime

• Actor tracing infrastructure — trace store gen_server with lock-free storage, actor send wrapper telemetry, lifecycle telemetry from compiled actor init/terminate, lifecycle events (spawn, stop, destroy), aggregate actor stats with min/max duration and class name, outcome/class/duration trace filters, wall-clock timestamps with serialized counter, export_traces for trace snapshots (BT-1601, BT-1602, BT-1603, BT-1620, BT-1621, BT-1622, BT-1627, BT-1628, BT-1629, BT-1632, BT-1638, BT-1640, BT-1641, BT-1642)
• Fix String#asAtom intermittent failures on valid strings (BT-1585)

Tooling

• MCP tracing tools — lean surface for trace inspection, integration fixes, and e2e test coverage (BT-1606, BT-1622)
• BUnit parallel test runner with serial opt-out (BT-1624)
• BUnit stack traces show Beamtalk class names and source line numbers — test failures display .bt source locations instead of compiled Erlang module names
• Improved BUnit failure output — caller-first stack frames and relative file paths
• Parallelize CI test suite (BT-1623)
• Fix MCP lint server reporting zero warnings when CLI finds real issues (BT-1587)
• Fix flaky MCP REPL startup tests (BT-1599)

Documentation

• ADR 0070: Package Namespaces and Dependencies (BT-714)
• Tracing documentation and examples (BT-1607)

Internal

• Add parser tests for class member ordering before fields
• Fix flaky testGreeting — stop own actor in tearDown (BT-1662)
• Fix TranscriptStream timing races in getting-started tests (BT-1662)
• Fix trigger_hot_reload tests failing under cover compilation (BT-1630)
• Dependency updates: tungstenite 0.29, tokio-tungstenite 0.29, actions/download-artifact v8

v0.3.0

0.3.0 — 2026-03-21

Language

• Parametric types (generics) — classes can declare type parameters (Value subclass: Stack(T)), with full type checker substitution, constructor inference, and generic inheritance via superclass type application (ADR 0068)
• Protocols — Protocol declarations with class-body syntax, protocol registry with conformance checking, runtime queries (conformsTo:, protocols), variance for protocol-typed parameters, and type parameter bounds (T :: Printable) (ADR 0068)
• Union types — T | U syntax with exhaustive type checking and provenance tracking
• Control flow narrowing — class =, isKindOf:, isNil, and respondsTo: narrow types in ifTrue:/ifFalse: branches
• String is now a subclass of Binary — String inherits Binary's byte-level methods; Binary moved under Collection hierarchy (ADR 0069)
• DynamicSupervisor type parameter — startChild return type narrows based on the supervisor's declared child type

Standard Library

• Protocol — new stdlib class wrapping the runtime protocol registry
• Binary — expanded with instance methods: size, serialize:, deserialize:, fromIolist:, at:, slice:length:, toList, and more
• Stdlib generic annotations added to Result, Array, Dictionary, and Set

Compiler

• Generic type substitution — type checker resolves type arguments through method calls, field access, and constructor patterns
• Dialyzer spec generation — generic types emit proper -spec attributes; CI validates generated specs
• Codegen runtime metadata — generic type information preserved at runtime for reflection
• Union type provenance — InferredType::Union unified to Vec<InferredType> members with source tracking
• Fix false type warnings for generic field defaults

Tooling

• MCP — removed :modules command; purged "module" terminology in favour of "class" throughout
• Single-source versioning — VERSION file at repo root with automatic dev suffix from git state
• Nightly builds — distribution builds and install.sh --nightly support
• MCP load_project — rebuild class indexes after each file load, fixing test fixture resolution (BT-1608)

Documentation

• ADR 0068: Parametric Types and Protocols (updated)
• ADR 0069: Actor Observability and Tracing (BT-1429)
• ADR 0069: Make String a subclass of Binary
• Learning guide 27: Generics and Protocols

Internal

• Fix flaky CI: WebSocket health check with exponential backoff (BT-1598)
• Fix broken streamlinear-cli installation in cloud and devcontainer
• Binary instance method tests and Binary size: migration (BT-1594)
• String method audit verifying Binary inheritance (BT-1595)

v0.2.0

0.2.0 — 2026-03-20

Language

• Three distinct class kinds — Value subclass: (immutable, field:), Actor subclass: (mutable process, state:), Object subclass: (methods only, no data). Wrong keyword/class-kind combinations are now compile errors (ADR 0067)
• Extension methods (>>) — add methods to sealed classes from outside, with compile-time conflict detection and type metadata (ADR 0066)
• Extension type annotations — :: -> ReturnType on >> definitions for gradual type checking
• initialize: lifecycle hook — Supervisor and DynamicSupervisor support post-start initialization
• terminate: lifecycle hook — documented and tested actor cleanup on shutdown
• Actor process monitoring — monitor, pid, onExit: for observing actor lifecycle
• Non-local return fix — ^ in blocks correctly unpacks super/tier2/self-dispatch tuples

Standard Library

78 classes (up from 76), including new and improved:

• Binary — serialize:, deserialize:, size:, fromIolist: for byte-level operations
• Logger — stdlib class wrapping Erlang's OTP logger with info:, warning:, error:, debug: and compile-time domain metadata inlining
• File — readBinary:, writeBinary:contents:, appendBinary:contents: for binary I/O; lastModified: for file timestamps
• Pid — kill, exit: for forced process termination; isAlive for liveness checks
• System — uniqueId for monotonic ID generation; setEnv:value:, unsetEnv: for environment variables
• Time — nowS for seconds-precision timestamps
• Ets — exists:, newOrExisting:type: for safer table lifecycle
• Subprocess — dir: parameter for working directory control
• Server — handleInfo: for handling raw BEAM messages in actors
• Timer — spawn_link variant for linked timer processes
• Supervisor — withShutdown: for configurable shutdown timeouts
• BUnit — setUpOnce/tearDownOnce suite-level lifecycle hooks; TestCase converted to Value subclass with functional setUp

Bug fixes in stdlib

• String collect: now returns List (was incorrectly returning String)
• String asString returns self instead of printString
• Integer raisedTo: returns Integer for non-negative integer exponents
• HTTPClient works in compiled test contexts
• Erlang FFI charlist return values auto-converted to String
• File path sandbox removed — File now accesses unrestricted paths (ADR 0063)

Compiler

• State threading overhaul — local variable mutations inside blocks, ifTrue:/ifFalse: branches, and self-sends in assignment RHS now correctly propagate in both Value types and Actors. Covers collect:, select:, reject:, detect:, flatMap:, do:, doWithKey:, takeWhile:, dropWhile:, groupBy:, partition:, sort:, anySatisfy:, allSatisfy:, each:, inject:into:, and count:
• Cross-file class hierarchy — type checker resolves class kinds and methods across files; ClassKind propagation walks ancestor chain
• Extension method pipeline — scanner collects >> definitions across project, emitter generates ETS-dispatch code, type checker reads extension metadata
• @expect dead_assignment — new suppression annotation for intentional dead assignments
• Keyword constructor hashing — long keyword constructor atom names hashed to stay within Erlang's 255-char limit
• Parser — helpful error for unescaped { in strings (was a crash); stale @expect type treated as error
• new/new: moved from Object to Value — Object-kind classes can no longer be instantiated; constructors are Value-only. Sub-subclass instantiation (new/new:/keyword ctors) now works correctly
• Lint improvements — warn when Object subclass has only state + getters (suggests Value); block-scoped variable mutation lint for value types; removed false-positive self-capture lint (BT-953)
• Codegen refactoring — decomposed large functions across gen_server dispatch, state threading, method body loops, and register_class; explicit return values replace implicit side-channel fields; unified branch body loops with classify/dispatch pattern
• Performance — cache Pass 1 ASTs to eliminate double-parse in package build; REPL :load builds class indexes once per batch

Tooling

• Logging and observability (ADR 0064):
  • beamtalk logs CLI command for workspace log access
  • JSON log format switching via Beamtalk logFormat:
  • Per-class and per-actor debug filtering with enableDebug:
  • Beamtalk logLevel: replaces deprecated Logger setLevel:
  • Actor lifecycle, message dispatch, compilation pipeline, supervisor lifecycle, and MCP tool invocation logging
  • SASL reporting routed to workspace file logger
  • VS Code output panel with live log streaming
• MCP — list_classes, search_classes, docs see-also links, WebSocket keepalive, per-diagnostic line numbers in load_project, client reconnect after workspace restart
• VS Code — log level picker and show-logs button
• REPL — fixed destructured bindings escaping into persistent scope; REPL codegen extracted from Compilation context
• AGENTS.md — essential patterns, MCP workflow, scaffold templates extracted to external files

Bug Fixes

• Actor self-call state mutations no longer silently lost via safe_dispatch
• Supervisor correctly calls Actor initialize hook on child start
• ifTrue:/ifFalse: propagate local var mutations in value types and REPL
• Class method calls inside blocks in class methods no longer produce codegen error
• Self-cast sends in blocks no longer route through actor mailbox (deadlock fix)
• Logger formatter crashes on {string, Binary} tuples and unicode — hardened with crash-proof JSON formatter
• beamtalk run . hostname error when workspace already running
• File absolutePath: returns correct path on Windows/macOS
• Dispatch error logging demoted to debug (reduces runtime log noise)
• Scope leak fix when generate_method_body_with_reply returns Err in dispatch codegen
• Actor method error messages enriched with stacktrace and source location
• Move initialize dispatch to handle_continue to surface init errors properly
• Float literals retain decimal in codegen for strict equality correctness
• BUnit fixture superclass index fix for Value sub-subclass tests

v0.1.0

v0.1.0 — Initial public release