Getting started with the Acutis language

Acutis is designed for you to integrate with your existing build process through its API, so currently there aren’t any configuration files or starter projects to clone.

To quickly start experimenting with it, you can install it and use the CLI without needing a complicated build system.

Why Acutis?

The template engines that inspired Acutis are all great software, and you will be served very well by them. So why use this?

I created Acutis because there were specific language features I wanted. I was inspired by the functional, component-based, composable design in React as well as the pattern-matching abilities in ReScript (and OCaml, Reason, and all of the other languages in that family). You’ll get the most out of using Acutis if you want to experiment with something different. Be prepared to get your hands dirty to fit it into your existing build system.

What state is it in?

Acutis is young software. In the “make it work, make it right, make it fast” order, it’s just at the end of the “make it work” stage. So far, I’m the only person who uses it who I know of, and it’s far from battle tested.

Also, I haven’t developed any editor tooling for it yet.

Installation

Acutis is available through npm. You can install it locally for a project:

npm install acutis-lang

or globally:

npm install -g acutis-lang

If you’re using it in a ReScript project, then add it to the dependencies in your bsconfig.json file.

{
  "bs-dependencies": ["acutis-lang"]
}

⚠️ Acutis requires ReScript compiler version 9.0 or higher.

Examples

• This documentation uses Acutis with Eleventy. Browse the source here.
• The Acutis CLI.

Conventions

I use the .acutis file extension for my templates, but there’s nothing in the language that enforces that. You can use something else (for example, .html) or you can configure your editor to treat .acutis files as HTML (or whatever format you want).