🦊 Devalang (CORE) — Compose music with code

Devalang is a tiny domain-specific language (DSL) for music makers, sound designers, and audio hackers. Compose loops, control samples, render and play audio — all in clean, readable text.

Whether you're building a track, shaping textures, or performing live, Devalang helps you think in rhythms. It’s designed to be simple, expressive, and fast — because your ideas shouldn’t wait.

From studio sketches to live sets, Devalang gives you rhythmic control — with the elegance of code.

🚧 Notice 🚧

Includes synthesis, playback, and rendering features, but is still in early development, and breaking changes may occur.

NEW: Devalang WORKSHOP is now available.

📚 Quick Access

• ▶️ Playground
• 📖 Documentation
• 🧩 VSCode Extension
• 🎨 Prettier Plugin
• 📜 Changelog
• 💡 Examples
• 🌐 Project Website
• 📦 Devaforge on npm
• 📦 Devalang on npm

⏱️ Try it now !

Try Devalang in your browser

Have a look at the Playground to try Devalang directly in your browser

Try Devalang in your terminal

With Node.js

npm install -g @devaloop/devalang@latest

With Rust

cargo install devalang --version <version>

Initialize a new project

devalang init --name my-project --template minimal

Write your first script

Create a new Devalang file src/index.deva in the project directory:

# src/index.deva

# BPM definition
bpm 125

# Bank picking (make sure you've installed it)
bank devaloop.808 as my808Bank

# Pattern literal without options
pattern kickPattern with my808Bank.kick = "x--- x--- x--- x---"

group myGroup:
    # Rhythmic (each beat playing a kick)
    # on beat:
    #     .my808Bank.kick 1/4

    # Synth definition with ADSR
    let myLead = synth sine {
        attack: 0,
        decay: 100,
        sustain: 100,
        release: 100
    }

    # Global automation
    automate myLead:
        param volume {
            0% = 0.0
            100% = 0.5
        }
        param pitch {
            0% = -12.0
            100% = 12.0
        }

    # Notes in a loop with condition
    for i in [1, 2, 3]:
        if i == 3:
            myLead -> note(C5, { duration: 200 })
            print "Playing note C5 for " + i

    # Pause runtime for 500ms
    sleep 500

    # Note with automation
    myLead -> note(C4, {
        duration: 400,
        velocity: 0.8,
        automate: {
            pan: {
                0%: -1.0,
                100%: 0.0
            }
        }
    })

    # Notes with params
    myLead -> note(G4, { duration: 600, glide: true })
    myLead -> note(B3, { duration: 400, slide: true })

# Spawning the group & the pattern to play them in parallel
spawn myGroup
spawn kickPattern

And the best part ? You can play it directly from the command line:

Play the script once

devalang play

LIVE mode (repeat the playback + watch mode)

devalang play --repeat

🎉 You can now hear your Devalang code in action

For more examples, check out the examples directory

❓ Why Devalang ?

• 🎹 Prototype audio ideas without opening a DAW, even VSCode with our Playground
• 💻 Integrate sound into code-based workflows
• 🎛️ Control audio parameters through readable syntax
• 🧪 Build musical logic with variables and conditions
• 🔄 Create complex patterns with ease

🚀 Features

• ⚡ Fast Build & Hot Reload — optimized build process for quicker iteration.
• 🎵 Audio Engine & Real-time runner — low-latency playback, render-to-file, and a realtime runner used by devalang play --repeat for live feedback.
• 🧩 Language primitives — synths, notes, ADSR, maps, arrays, loops, conditionals and functions for expressive musical logic.
• 🎛️ Per-note automation & modulators — automate maps, $mod.*, $easing.* and $math.* helpers for envelopes and LFOs.
• 🧩 Module system & structured AST — import/export variables, stable AST output for debugging and tooling.
• 🧰 Plugins & Addons (WASM-ready) — install plugins/banks, @use directive, and WASM plugin integration so plugins can render or process audio at runtime.
• 📦 Addon manager & Devaforge — CLI commands to discover/install banks, plugins and templates; devaforge helps create addons.
• ⚙️ CLI tooling — build, check, play, install, init, discover, telemetry and more with consistent flags (--watch, --debug, --compress).
• 📂 Project templates & examples — quick-start templates and many example projects in examples/.
• 🧑‍💻 TypeScript API & WASM distribution — Node-friendly package with TypeScript bindings and a WASM build for browser/Node usage.
• 🧰 Editor & formatting support — VSCode extension and Prettier plugin to edit Devalang with syntax and formatting support.
• 🎵 Custom samples & banks — drop samples into .deva and reference them from code; banks of sounds for fast composition.
• 🔄 Looping, grouping & scheduling — precise beat-tied scheduling primitives for complex rhythmic patterns.

📄 Documentation

Please refer to the online documentation for detailed information on syntax, features, and usage examples

📰 What's new

• Effects chaining: Added support for chaining multiple effects on synths and samples.
• New addons system: Revamped the addons system for better management and integration.
• MIDI export: Added the ability to export MIDI files from Devalang scripts.
• Synthesizer improvements: Enhanced the built-in synthesizer with new types and modulation options.
• Devaforge: Introduced a new system for creating and managing addons, including a CLI for addon generation.
• Documentation updates: Improved documentation for clarity and completeness.
• Discovering addons: Introduced a new command to detect addons.
• Public TypeScript API: Added a public TypeScript API for easier integration.
• Improved error messages: Enhanced error messages for better debugging.
• Major refactor: Significant codebase refactor for improved maintainability and performance.
• Bug fixes: Various bug fixes and stability improvements.

🛡️ License

MIT — see LICENSE

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, bug reports and suggestions are welcome !
Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

For more info, see docs/CONTRIBUTING.md.

📢 Contact

Feel free to reach out for any inquiries or feedback.

📧 contact@devaloop.com