Hello World

Let’s create your first Draft program and run it.

Create a New File

Create a file named main.draft:

action main()
    write("Hello, world!")
fin action.

Understanding the Program

Let’s break down what this program does:

Element	Meaning
action	Declares the start of a function definition
main()	The function name with its parameter list
write(...)	Prints output to the console
fin action.	Ends the action definition

Run the Program

Navigate to the directory containing main.draft and run:

draft run main.draft

You should see:

Hello, world!

Compile to Binary

To produce a standalone executable:

draft build main.draft -o hello

Then run the compiled binary:

./hello        # macOS / Linux
hello.exe      # Windows

A More Complex Example

Here’s a program that takes user input:

action main()
    write("What is your name?")
    @name = read_line()
    write("Hello, " + @name + "!")
fin action.

Run it:

draft run main.draft

Output:

What is your name?
> Earl
Hello, Earl!

Key Concepts

• Actions — Functions in Draft are called actions. They start with action and end with fin action.
• Variables — Prefixed with @ (e.g., @name). They are immutable by default.
• Standard Library — write() and read_line() are from the io module, automatically imported.

Next Steps

Learn about Project Structure to organize your Draft projects properly.