vercel-labs--zerolang/docs/articles/standard-library.md

Graph-Backed Library Surface

The Zerolang standard library is graph-backed. The compiler uses binary std/*.graph stores. Sibling std/*.0 files are human-readable projections for review, not the normal compile path.

Agents should learn the callable surface from the installed compiler:

zero skills get stdlib

Humans should use this page to decide which module to ask for.

Expected Usage

{
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "text": "make a small json http api"
    },
    {
      "role": "assistant",
      "text": "I’ll use the HTTP and JSON helpers and run a couple route checks."
    },
    {
      "role": "tools",
      "calls": [
        {
          "command": "zero skills get stdlib",
          "output": "stdlib helpers: std.http.writeJsonOk, std.http.requestIsGet, std.json.field, ..."
        },
        {
          "command": "zero query --find handle",
          "output": "fn handle(request: Span<u8>, response: MutSpan<u8>) -> Maybe<Span<u8>>"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Module Groups

Core data and memory:

• std.mem: spans, byte equality, copy/fill, allocators, byte buffers, and fixed-capacity vectors.
• std.collections: fixed-capacity collection operations over caller-owned storage.
• std.search: scalar span search and binary search.
• std.sort: in-place sorting over caller-owned scalar storage.
• std.ascii, std.text, std.str: byte-backed text helpers.
• std.unicode: strict UTF-8 codepoint decode/encode iteration and codepoint classes.
• std.parse, std.fmt, std.codec, std.math: parsers, formatters, codecs, and numeric helpers.
• std.regex: compile-once regular expression matching for a documented subset.
• std.inet: IPv4, IPv6, and hostname literal validation and parsing.

Program surfaces:

• std.args, std.cli, std.env: command-line and environment helpers.
• std.io, std.fs, std.path: caller-buffer I/O, hosted filesystem helpers, and lexical paths.
• std.json, std.toml, std.url, std.csv, std.log: data formats and structured output.
• std.testing: test-block predicates.

Runtime and web:

• std.time, std.rand, std.proc, std.term, std.crypto: hosted/runtime helper surfaces, terminal sequences, key decoding, terminal metadata, and raw terminal mode.
• std.net, std.http: network metadata, HTTP client/server metadata, request parsing, response writing, hosted fetch, and local listen support.

Inspect What A Program Uses

zero inspect --json examples/crm-api
zero size --json examples/crm-api
zero mem --json examples/allocator-collections.graph

Useful JSON fields include:

• usedStdlibHelpers
• stdlibHelpers
• effects
• allocationBehavior
• targetSupport
• errorBehavior
• ownershipNotes
• apiStability

Allocation And Capability Rule

Standard library helpers should make ownership, effects, and target support visible. Hosted APIs such as filesystem, process, time, random, network, and HTTP require target capabilities. Buffer-oriented helpers should write into caller-owned storage rather than silently allocating.

Projections In Module Pages

Module pages include .0 snippets because humans need readable examples. Treat those snippets as projection examples. Agents should patch user programs through graph commands and use zero export only when a human asks to review the resulting projection.