Download Sans

Sans compiles to native machine code via LLVM. The sans binary is a self-contained compiler — no package manager, no runtime to install.

macOS

Paste the following in your terminal:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/sans-language/sans/releases/latest/download/sans-macos-arm64.tar.gz | tar xz && sudo mv sans /usr/local/bin/

Works on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs (Intel runs via Rosetta 2). Verify the install:

sans --version

Prerequisites

xcode-select --install
brew install llvm@17

Xcode Command Line Tools — required for the system linker (cc)
LLVM 17 — Sans uses llc at runtime to compile programs. The sans binary finds it automatically from Homebrew.

Gatekeeper note

macOS may block the binary on first run since it is not notarized. To clear the quarantine flag after installing:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/sans

Linux

curl -fsSL https://github.com/sans-language/sans/releases/latest/download/sans-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz && sudo mv sans /usr/local/bin/

Prerequisites

sudo apt install build-essential llvm-17 libcurl4-openssl-dev libssl-dev

GCC or Clang — system linker
LLVM 17 — Sans uses llc at runtime to compile programs
libcurl + libssl — for HTTP and TLS support

Manual download

Platform	Arch	Download
macOS	ARM64 (Apple Silicon + Intel via Rosetta)	sans-macos-arm64.tar.gz
Linux	x86_64	sans-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Windows

Pre-built binaries for Windows are not yet available. You can build from source or watch the releases page for updates.

Build from source

Requires: Rust (stable), LLVM 17, Clang/GCC.

git clone https://github.com/sans-language/sans
cd sans
LLVM_SYS_170_PREFIX=$(brew --prefix llvm@17) cargo build --release
# binary at target/release/sans

What's included

The sans binary is the full compiler. It compiles .sans source files to native executables via LLVM. No separate runtime is needed — the standard library is compiled from source alongside your program on each build.

sans build hello.sans   # produces ./hello
sans run hello.sans     # build + run, cleans up

See the documentation for language reference and examples.

All releases

All release archives and changelogs are on the GitHub releases page.