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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

In the current beta, Incan checks .incn source code, lowers it through the Rust backend, and builds an executable. Generated Rust is inspectable backend output today, but the longer-lived public contract is the checked source, diagnostics, build reports, semantic facts, package metadata, and native artifacts.

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