Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts

Things that make Kyto unusual — and worth knowing.

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1. The compiler is ~21 KB of Assembly

kura is not written in Rust, C, or Go. The entire compiler toolchain is NASM x86-64 Assembly:

• Windows PE binary (~21 KB)
• Linux ELF binary (similar size)

GitHub reports the repo as ~96% Assembly. That is not a labeling trick — the Rust crates were removed; kura runs without a Rust runtime.

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2. A language built from scratch

Kyto is not a thin wrapper around another toolchain. It includes:

• Its own grammar (let, fn, struct, emit, …)
• Its own lexer and evaluator in .asm files
• Its own config format (.kyto.config)
• Its own project manifest (kyto.toml)

This is not a fork of Python or a YAML preprocessor with a new name.

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3. Kyto vs kura naming

Kyto	Language (like Rust)
kura	Compiler (like rustc)

Release zips are named kyto-* because they are Kyto project releases. The binary inside is kura.

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4. Privacy is architectural, not marketing

• No network calls in the compiler
• No telemetry
• No cloud account required
• Secrets stay on disk; optional local encryption (ChaCha20-Poly1305)

kura compile never phones home.

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5. One compile, many artifacts

A single kura compile can emit simultaneously:

• .env + .env.example
• SQL user seeds
• TypeScript constants
• JSON user lists
• Bash deploy export scripts

Most stacks need 3–5 separate tools or copy-paste for this.

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6. Kyto Lite: config without code

config_only = true means operators edit .kyto.config like a simple flat file — no programming required.

DOMAIN app.example.com
USERS alice bob

Power users can add .kyto later without changing the workflow.

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7. Comments use +

Both .kyto and .kyto.config use + for comments — visually distinct from # (shell) and // (JS), so mixed repos stay readable.

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8. Crypto implemented in Assembly

kura encrypt / kura decrypt use ChaCha20-Poly1305 (RFC 8439) implemented in crypto.asm — compatible with the original design, no OpenSSL dependency in the hot path.

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9. Dual-platform from one codebase

Windows and Linux share:

• lexer.asm, kyto_eval.asm, crypto.asm, config.asm, emit_*.asm

Only entry points and I/O differ:

• kura.asm + win_io.asm (Windows)
• kura_linux.asm + linux_io.asm (Linux)

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10. CI builds on every push

GitHub Actions compiles kura on Ubuntu and Windows for every push to main. Releases publish:

• Zip archives (Windows + Linux)
• ghcr.io/voidmute/kyto container

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11. Comparable projects (for context)

Tool	What it does	Kyto difference
dotenv	.env files only	Kyto also emits SQL, TS, deploy
Helm values	K8s config	Kyto is local-first, any stack
Dhall / CUE	Config languages	Kyto targets app dev artifacts directly
Terraform	Infrastructure	Kyto focuses on app env + users + deploy exports

Kyto sits in the "compile my app config" niche, not "provision cloud resources."

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12. The binary was bootstrapped in public

The journey (visible in git history):

1. Early toolchain (including Rust) proved the design
2. Full port to NASM Assembly
3. Rust removed — Assembly-only repo
4. Linux port, crypto, CI, releases, wiki

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13. Real-world usage

Projects can run Kyto in config_only mode to generate portal env, users, and deploy scripts from .kyto.config. See examples/minimal in the repository for a minimal working setup.

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14. What's still evolving

Honest roadmap items:

• Full emit env(build_env(...)) eval parity for random secrets merge
• kura init --name / kura compile --entry CLI flags
• Richer .kyto control flow in evaluator

See Architecture and the asm roadmap.

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15. “Kyto was here”

When you run kura init, every scaffolded file is stamped with a Kyto was here comment — the compiler’s way of marking a fresh Kyto project:

File	Stamp
kyto.toml	# Kyto was here
.kyto.config.example	+ Kyto was here
kyto/main.kyto	+ Kyto was here
README.md (if new)	<!-- Kyto was here -->
docs/KYTO.md (if new)	<!-- Kyto was here -->
.gitignore (if new)	# Kyto was here

Existing README.md or .gitignore files are left untouched so kura init never overwrites your work. The success message prints initialized Kyto project (Kyto was here).

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16. By the numbers

Fact	Detail
Compiler size	~21 KB NASM binary
Platforms	Windows x86-64, Linux x86-64
Repo language split	~96% Assembly on GitHub
One kura compile	.env, SQL, JSON, TypeScript, deploy script
Network at compile time	None

Kyto is a small, self-contained toolchain aimed at teams that want one local compile step instead of maintaining parallel config in several formats.