Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Clx – Compile Lua to Native Executables Through C++20
Hi HN, clx is an ahead-of-time compiler for standard Lua that generates C++20 and produces standalone native executables through GCC, Clang or MSVC. The project started as an experiment to see whether modern C++ could be used as a portable compiler backend instead of LLVM or direct machine code generation. The generated code is then compiled and optimized by the host toolchain. The latest release replaces the previous NaN-tagged value representation with a new shadow-types implementation, adds full int64 support, improves native arithmetic code generation and adds ARM64 macOS coroutine…
Clx is an ahead-of-time compiler that converts standard Lua code into C++20, which is then compiled into standalone native executables using GCC, Clang, or MSVC. Designed for developers seeking performance improvements… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
- 1

A cross-platform build utility based on Lua
2019 · xmake.io · its alternatives →
- 2
Cline CLI 2.0▲298Parallel agents & headless CI/CD in your terminal
Feb 2026 · cline.bot · its alternatives →
- 3

A minimal text-editor with lua scripting. Contribute to skx/kilua development by creating an account on GitHub.
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 4

Lua with C/C++/Java/Javascript syntax. Contribute to mingodad/ljs development by creating an account on GitHub.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 5

Hi HN, I’m Joe. My friends Matthew, Jake and I are building Luminal (https://luminalai.com/), a GPU compiler for automatically generating fast GPU kernels for AI models. It uses search-based compilation to achieve high performance. We take high level model code, like you'd have in PyTorch, and generate very fast GPU code. We do that without using LLMs or AI - rather, we pose it as a search problem. Our compiler builds a search space, generates millions of possible kernels, and then searches through it to minimize runtime. You can try out a demo in `demos/matmul` on mac to…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 6

Minimal-overhead C++ wrapper for Lua. Contribute to vapourismo/luwra development by creating an account on GitHub.
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7

Next-level syntax for C-like languages :). Contribute to kiselgra/c-mera development by creating an account on GitHub.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8

Lisp is Lisp. Lua is Lua. Lisp and Lua as One. Contribute to meric/l2l development by creating an account on GitHub.
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 9
RightNow CLI▲121I locked in for 18 hours and built Claude Code for CUDA. It is completely open source! It writes CUDA kernels, debugs memory issues, and optimizes for your specific GPU. It is a fully agentic AI with tool calling built specifically for the CUDA toolkit This is the CLI version of RightNow AI code editor, our GPU-native code editor with a built-in emulator, visual profiling, and remote GPU access. The CLI is open source, lightweight, and fast. It is designed for anyone who wants AI help with CUDA without setup I used Python because it is the most common language, so anyone can build on top of…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10

3D C++ Game Engine - yet another open source game engine - nem0/LumixEngine
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 11

x86 C compiler written in untyped lambda calculus. Contribute to woodrush/lambda-8cc development by creating an account on GitHub.
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 12

Build a standalone executable from a Lua program. Contribute to ers35/luastatic development by creating an account on GitHub.
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 13

A little help for programmers, who wants to run C/C++ code in the browser. (This is my second attempt to show it, first time I got banned bcoz of my personal page domain, I don't really understand it why is is suspicious.)
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 14

🔥 A cross-platform build utility based on Lua. Contribute to xmake-io/xmake development by creating an account on GitHub.
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 15

LuaJIT 2.0 and 2.1 bytecode generator, assembler, parser, viewer and test VM. Lua 5.1 parser, IDE and debugger. - rochus-keller/LjTools
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16

An experimental Python-to-C transpiler and domain specific language for embedded high-performance computing - zanellia/prometeo
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17

Built this for my LLM workflows - needed searchable, persistent memory that wouldn't blow up storage costs. I also wanted to use it locally for my research. It's a content-addressed storage system with block-level deduplication (saves 30-40% on typical codebases). I have integrated the CLI tool into most of my workflows in Zed, Claude Code, and Cursor, and I provide the prompt I'm currently using in the repo. The project is in C++ and the build system is rough around the edges but is tested on macOS and Ubuntu 24.04.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18

Hi HN — I’m learning Rust and decided to build a universal CLI for running code in many languages. The tool, Run, aims to be a single, minimal dependency utility for: running one-off snippets (from CLI flags), running files, reading and executing piped stdin, and providing language-specific REPLs that you can switch between interactively. I designed it to support both interpreted languages (Python, JS, Ruby, etc.) and compiled languages (Rust, Go, C/C++). It detects languages from flags or file extensions, can compile temporary files for compiled languages, and exposes a unified REPL…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 19

Programming language that compiles into a x86 ELF executable. - riicchhaarrd/ocean
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20LP
LuaCAD models solids in Lua rather than the OpenSCAD language, with operator overloading for CSG (`a + b`, `a - b`, `a * b`). It ships with a CLI and a desktop app, including a preview area and a text editor. I've always been a big fan of OpenSCAD, but the SCAD language itself is unfortunately quite cobbled-together and is a very poorly designed programming language. LuaCAD takes all the good parts of OpenSCAD and combines them with one of the best scripting languages. It has now completely replaced OpenSCAD for me, and I think it provides a better experience than OpenSCAD for all use cases.…
Aug 2026 · luacad.ad-si.com · its alternatives →
- 21

Lua + SQLite + musl libc running on x86. Contribute to ers35/luakernel development by creating an account on GitHub.
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22

laboratório de integração Lua com libuv para execução de scripts assíncronos e experimentação de POCs - joaoneto/lua-libuv
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23

🥐 A Lua REPL and debugger. Contribute to giann/croissant development by creating an account on GitHub.
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 24

🔥 A cross-platform build utility based on Lua. Contribute to xmake-io/xmake development by creating an account on GitHub.
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- A Modern C/C++ build tools (Simple, Fast, Cross-platform) alternatives
- Cline CLI 2.0 alternatives
- A console-based editor with Lua support, based on antirez's project alternatives
- Lua/LuaJIT with C/C++/Java/JavaScript syntax alternatives
- Luminal – Open-source, search-based GPU compiler alternatives
- Another C++ Lua Wrapper alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →