Standard Library

Standard library

The standard library combines Rust-backed facilities with Shelly implementations. Use import std::module for qualified access or select public names explicitly. The prelude is imported implicitly; other modules require an import.

Area	Module	Guide
Common collection, path, and numeric helpers	std::prelude	Prelude
Binary values, files, readers, writers	std::io	Bytes and I/O
Single-consumer item streams	std::stream	Item streams
Documents, mapping, streaming JSON	std::json	JSON
TCP, UDP, Unix sockets, TLS, DNS	std::net and its children	Networking
HTTP clients and typed bodies	std::net::http	HTTP
HTTP listeners and request handlers	std::net::http::server	HTTP servers
Length frames, SSE, JSON-RPC	std::net::framing, sse, rpc	Framing and RPC
Colors, styles, terminal geometry	std::terminal	Terminal formatting
Scriptable Reedline editors	std::terminal::readline	Line editing
Prompt status providers	std::widgets	Prompts and widgets

These guides explain ownership and common workflows as well as API names. Inspect a public type's .properties to explore its current interface.

Where the code comes from

Shelly can load a filesystem standard library or its embedded copy. The selected prelude root is reported by $SHELLY_STD_FOUND. Search overrides, missing-prelude behavior, and explicit reloads are covered in Startup and standard library.

Standard-library modules obey module visibility. A Rust implementation is not automatically public: wrappers can expose selected native registrations and add scripted convenience methods.

The language has its intended core features and is in stabilization. Interfaces and internals continue to be refined before a possible internal rewrite; examples here describe the current implementation rather than a promise of frozen APIs.

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Related: Language map · Prelude · Startup