What is zero?

Zero is a new programming language built for writing "agents": small, self-contained programs that run natively on a device rather than depending on a cloud service or a heavy runtime. The goal is to give developers a way to build these tools with fine-grained control over memory and side effects, while producing output the compiler can reason about clearly. The language is described as a "systems language," meaning it is designed for low-level, high-performance code where the programmer specifies exactly what the program does and how it uses resources. Three design ideas stand out from the README: explicit effects (you declare what a piece of code is allowed to do), predictable memory (no hidden memory-management pauses), and structured compiler output (the compiler gives back machine-readable results that other tools can consume). You interact with Zero through a command-line tool. Once installed, you can check a program for errors with "zero check", run it directly with "zero run", or compile it to a standalone executable with "zero build". Other commands like "zero graph", "zero routes", and "zero size" let you inspect a program's structure without running it, useful for understanding what a program does before deploying it. The repository includes a documentation site, a set of runnable examples grouped by concept, and conformance tests that verify the language behaves as specified. Zero is explicitly experimental and not yet stable. The README notes that the compiler, standard library, and documentation are useful for trying the language and giving feedback, but the language itself is still changing. It is written primarily in C.