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How Incan works

This page is a user-level mental model of what happens when you run Incan.

The short version

Incan compiles .incn source code to Rust, then builds an executable.

Pipeline (conceptual)

flowchart TD
    incanSource[Incan_source_.incn] --> parser[Parse_and_validate]
    parser --> typecheck[Typecheck_and_resolve]
    typecheck --> lower[Lower_to_Rust]
    lower --> cargo[Cargo_build]
    cargo --> binary[Executable]

What this means in practice

  • Incan programs are compiled (not interpreted).
  • The “happy path” is: edit code → run incan → get an executable or an error.
  • When things fail, you typically care about which stage failed (parse, typecheck, codegen, build).

Where to go next