First Steps of Darklang Inc.

Darklang Inc is the new steward of the Darklang language, whose team has been working on Darklang for several years.

In this post, we'll cover three big changes related to Darklang:
we've formed a new company, we're open-sourcing everything, and we're going to do a careful shutdown of some services to be more sustainable.

What is Darklang?

Darklang is a programming language and platform designed around one simple idea: developers should be able to "just code" without dealing with the layers of accidental complexity that make modern software development harder than it needs to be.

It's a holistic developer tool composed of interconnected parts: a programming language, language server, runtimes (CLI and Cloud), and integrated package manager and deployment system that work together seamlessly. Something you can run on your laptop, self-host, or use with our hosted cloud service. Features like trace-driven development let you see live data in your editor as you code, while deployless development means changes reflect safely in production almost instantly.

While other platforms have been retrofitting AI tools onto existing development workflows, we believe there are huge advantages to a cohesive platform like Darklang. By controlling all parts of the development flow and making them available to AI at low levels, we enable incredibly tight iteration cycles. AI can create functions, quickly add and run tests, deploy changes, and handle the full development lifecycle within one unified system, then surface back to the user when relevant.

Goodbye, "Dark Inc." - Hello, "Darklang Inc."

Darklang Inc is a sort of successor to Dark Inc, the company led by Paul Biggar that developed and operated Darklang since 2017. Darklang Inc is led by Stachu and Feriel, who had been working at Dark Inc for several years, and who were excited to continue the project after Dark Inc. ran out of cash. We've acquired all the Darklang assets and IP from Dark Inc., and plan to continue the work and steer the product in a direction we believe is most appropriate. Paul is still involved however, serving as advisor and investor. You can read his perspective on the transition here.

This fresh start allows us to pursue the vision of Darklang with an approach centered around sustainability. The new company will  focus entirely on building the developer tools and platform that programmers deserve.

Our first action as a new company was something we'd wanted to do for years: go fully open source.

Open Source

After years of being source-available, our source code is now fully open source under the Apache License 2.0.

This wasn't a simple decision - we've long wrestled with questions of sustainability, business models, and how to build something that truly empowers developers. We've written a detailed post explaining our reasoning, the tradeoffs we considered, and why open source makes sense for Darklang's future.

This shift reflects our belief that developer tools should be accessible, inspectable, and community-owned. Open source enables this flexibility while ensuring the platform can persist and evolve regardless of any single company's fate.

On Sustainability, and Winding Down Darklang-Classic

As a new company with limited runway, we're transitioning Darklang-Classic to a limited-user model - keeping active canvases running while shutting down dormant ones and disabling new signups. We're committed to supporting anyone who's actually using Darklang-Classic. Full details in our separate post.

As we release new software over the next few months, we're committed to offering Darklang wholly for free as an OSS product, while building a sustainable business around hosting, support, and other conveniences.

What's Next?

If we've seemed quiet lately, it's because we weren't sure how the shutdown of the old company would unfold. Now that things are settled, we're committed to being transparent, vocal, and engaged.

Over the past two years, Darklang evolved from Darklang-Classic's closed, our-servers-only approach, to something fundamentally different: open source, local-first, and designed to take full advantage of AI. While this post focuses on organizational changes, we're excited to share more future-facing updates soon, including a new website, a clear product vision, and (finally) some new software to play with.

Stay connected through our Discord, subscribe to our mailing list, or email hello@darklang.com as we build forward.

A quick thanks to everyone from the Dark Inc era - the team, users, external contributors, GitHub Sponsors, and investors who made it possible. Special thanks to Paul for his years of work and for supporting this transition.

Comment on Hacker News, Twitter, Mastodon, Lobste.rs, LinkedIn