kukicha

Kukicha

Brewed from what Go leaves on the table. Kukicha is a strict superset of Go, rename .go to .kuki and it compiles unchanged. Then blend in features that didn't fit Go's minimalist philosophy: pipes, onerr, enums, if-expressions, readable operators. Not sure? kukicha brew gives you standard Go back. The stems dissolve and the tea remains.

kukicha.org | Quick Reference | Tutorials | Stdlib Reference

A taste of Kukicha

Triage open GitHub issues with an LLM. Fetch, classify in parallel, keep the urgent ones, sort, print — end to end in 40 lines, no if err != nil ladder.

# triage.kuki — classify open issues with Claude, flag the urgent ones
import "stdlib/concurrent"
import "stdlib/fetch"
import "stdlib/json" as jsonpkg
import "stdlib/llm"
import "stdlib/slice"
import "stdlib/sort"

type Issue
    number int
    title string
    body string

type Verdict
    number int
    severity int # 1 = trivial .. 5 = on fire
    kind string # bug | feature | docs | question
    summary string

func triage(i Issue) Verdict
    reply := llm.New("anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-6")
        |> llm.JSONMode()
        |> llm.System(`Classify GitHub issues. Reply JSON: {severity:1-5, kind, summary}`)
        |> llm.Ask("{i.title}\n\n{i.body}") onerr return {}

    v := Verdict{number: i.number}
    jsonpkg.UnmarshalString(reply, reference of v) onerr return {}
    return v

func main()
    issues := fetch.Get("https://api.github.com/repos/golang/go/issues?per_page=20")
        |> fetch.CheckStatus()
        |> fetch.Json(empty list of Issue) onerr panic "github: {error}"

    urgent := issues
        |> concurrent.MapWithLimit(4, triage)
        |> slice.Filter(v => v.severity >= 4)
        |> sort.ByKey(v => -v.severity)

    print("Needs attention:")
    for v in urgent
        print("  [P{v.severity}] {v.kind}  #{v.number}  {v.summary}")

Reads like the English description above it. Underneath: typed HTTP→JSON decode with fetch.Json(list of Issue), a pipeline-level onerr that catches network, status, and decode in one handler, an LLM builder composed with pipes, structured output decoded straight into a Verdict struct, bounded parallelism without goroutine or errgroup bookkeeping, and stdlib Filter/sort.ByKey chained on the result. Every err != nil you'd write in Go is absorbed by onerr.

All valid Go is still valid Kukicha — rename .go to .kuki and it compiles unchanged.

Quickstart

Requires Go 1.26+ (download) | Pre-built binaries on GitHub Releases

go install github.com/kukichalang/kukicha/cmd/kukicha@v0.1.7
mkdir myapp && cd myapp
kukicha init

kukicha init initializes a Go module (if go.mod is absent), extracts the stdlib, downloads dependencies, and writes an AGENTS.md language reference. Add .kukicha/ to your .gitignore.

Create hello.kuki:

function main()
    name := "World"
    print("Hello, {name}!")

kukicha run hello.kuki

Adopt Gradually

# See what your Go code looks like with Kukicha idioms
kukicha-blend main.go

# Convert Go to Kukicha (preview first, then apply)
kukicha-blend --diff main.go
kukicha-blend --apply main.go

# Convert Kukicha back to Go anytime
kukicha brew main.kuki

Commands

What Kukicha Adds

Go's philosophy is radical simplicity. Some proven patterns from Rust, Elixir, Kotlin, and Python didn't fit that vision. Kukicha picks them up.

All Go syntax is also accepted, Kukicha is a strict superset.

What does Kukicha offer?

• Existing .go files compile as .kuki unchanged
• kukicha brew converts back to standard Go anytime
• Blend in one feature at a time, leave the rest as Go
• Security at compile time, catches SQL injection, XSS, SSRF, path traversal, command injection, and open redirects at build time
• 42+ ease-of-use stdlib packages — fetch, slice, sort, mcp, llm, html, crypto, shell, and many more
• Ships as Go, single binary, cross-compile, WASM support and the full Go ecosystem

Editor Support

• VS Code: Search kukicha-lang in extensions (repo)
• Zed: kukichalang/zed-kukicha
• Other: make install-lsp and point your editor at kukicha-lsp

Documentation

• Quick Reference — Go-to-Kukicha translation table
• Agent Workflow Tutorial — prompt AI, review, ship
• Beginner Tutorial — first program, variables, functions
• Production Patterns — databases, auth, retry
• FAQ | Contributing

Version: 0.1.7 | License: MIT