TL;DR
Steve Klabnik, known for work on Rust and Ruby on Rails, is developing a new systems language called Rue that aims for memory safety without a tracing garbage collector. He is working with Anthropic's Claude as an AI-assisted co‑developer; the project is early but already large in code size.
What happened
Software developer Steve Klabnik has launched Rue, a systems programming language intended to deliver memory safety without using a traditional tracing garbage collector while offering higher‑level ergonomics than languages such as Rust and Zig. Klabnik says he has been exploring design tradeoffs that relax the absolute highest performance targets to simplify the language and its ecosystem. Rue is being implemented largely in Rust and, according to Klabnik, the repository reached roughly 70,000 lines of Rust code within about two weeks of active work. Development has been substantially assisted by Anthropic’s Claude model: early posts on the project list both Klabnik and Claude as contributors, and Claude has been credited with producing many commits and summarizing progress. Klabnik also described having relearned how to use LLMs effectively and said the assistant accelerated his progress, while noting that larger projects still require traditional software engineering skills.
Why it matters
- Rue targets a design space—memory safety without tracing garbage collection—that the article describes as under‑explored in recent decades.
- The project demonstrates an AI model being used as an active coding collaborator on a low‑level systems compiler, raising questions about developer workflows.
- Claude’s involvement highlights issues around the provenance of model capabilities, since the model’s behavior is tied to training data drawn from widespread developer contributions.
- If successful, Rue could influence tradeoffs between performance, ergonomics, and language complexity in systems programming.
Key facts
- Creator: Steve Klabnik, a developer with a history in Rust and Ruby on Rails development.
- Goal: provide memory safety without a tracing garbage collector and aim for higher‑level ergonomics than Rust or Zig.
- Implementation: Rue is being written largely in Rust.
- AI assistance: Anthropic’s Claude has been credited as a substantial contributor, with initial posts listing both Klabnik and Claude.
- Code volume: Klabnik reported roughly 70,000 lines of Rust in the Rue codebase after about two weeks of the current development effort.
- Project status: a working compiler exists that produces executables, but tooling gaps remain.
- Tooling missing: there is no Language Server Protocol (LSP) implementation nor package manager yet, per the report.
- Public examples: a FizzBuzz sample in Rue appears similar to a Rust version, leaving approachability comparisons unclear.
- Klambik’s workflow: he restarted the project after earlier experiments and said improved LLM skills and model quality sped progress.
What to watch next
- Development of basic tooling such as an LSP and a package manager for Rue (LSP and package manager are not present yet — confirmed in the source).
- Independent assessments of Rue’s code quality and safety guarantees — not confirmed in the source.
- Community uptake, adoption, and whether Rue evolves distinct ergonomics or performance tradeoffs compared with Rust and Zig — not confirmed in the source.
Quick glossary
- Memory safety: A property of a program or language that prevents certain kinds of bugs such as buffer overflows, use‑after‑free, and invalid pointer access.
- Garbage collection: Automatic memory management that reclaims unused memory at runtime, often via tracing or reference counting techniques.
- Large language model (LLM): A machine learning model trained on large text corpora that can generate code or natural language and assist with tasks when given prompts.
- Compiler: A tool that translates source code written in a programming language into executable machine code or an intermediate representation.
- Language Server Protocol (LSP): A standardized protocol that enables code editors to provide features like auto‑completion, go‑to‑definition, and diagnostics via a language server.
Reader FAQ
Who is building Rue?
Rue is being developed by Steve Klabnik with substantial assistance from Anthropic’s Claude model, according to project posts.
Does Rue use garbage collection?
No — the language aims to provide memory safety without a tracing garbage collector.
Is Rue ready for production use?
not confirmed in the source
Did Claude write most of the code?
Claude has claimed responsibility for many commits and said it wrote a large portion of recent changes; Klabnik reviewed and made design decisions.
Is Rue easier to learn than Rust?
not confirmed in the source
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Sources
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