Frequently Asked Questions¶

General¶

What is MOL?¶

MOL is a programming language with native pipeline operators (|>) and auto-tracing, built for AI/RAG pipelines. It's developed by IntraMind / CruxLabx.

Is MOL open source?¶

MOL is source-available on GitHub under a proprietary license. You can read the code, contribute, and use it freely.

What does MOL stand for?¶

MOL stands for Machine Orchestration Language.

What Python version do I need?¶

Python 3.10 or higher. Python 3.12+ is recommended.

Installation & Setup¶

How do I install MOL?¶

pipx install mol-lang

How do I run a MOL program?¶

mol run myfile.mol

Does MOL have a REPL?¶

Yes:

mol repl

Can I try MOL without installing?¶

Yes! Visit mol.cruxlabx.in — the online playground is free and sandboxed.

Language¶

Why `let ... be` instead of `=`?¶

MOL is designed to read like English. let x be 10 is clearer than x = 10 for beginners and in pipeline-heavy code where readability matters most.

Why `show` instead of `print`?¶

Same reason — show "hello" reads naturally. It also doesn't need parentheses for simple values.

Why `is` / `is not` instead of `==` / `!=`?¶

English readability: if x is 5 then reads like a sentence. This is a deliberate design choice for cognitive computing contexts.

What types does MOL support?¶

Primitives: Number, Text, Bool, null
Collections: List, Map
AI types: Thought, Memory, Node, Stream, Document, Chunk, Embedding, VectorStore
User types: struct

Does MOL support object-oriented programming?¶

MOL has structs with methods (struct + impl), but no inheritance. It favors composition and functional patterns through pipes.

Does MOL have a type system?¶

MOL is dynamically typed with optional type annotations:

let x be 10              -- inferred
let y : Number be 20     -- enforced at runtime

Can I use MOL for web development?¶

MOL can transpile to JavaScript and compile to browser-ready HTML:

mol build app.mol            # Standalone HTML
mol build app.mol --target js  # JavaScript file

Pipeline & Tracing¶

When does auto-tracing activate?¶

Auto-tracing activates for pipe chains with 3 or more stages. Two-stage pipes are considered simple transformations.

Can I disable tracing?¶

mol run file.mol --no-trace

Does tracing affect performance?¶

Minimally. Tracing captures timestamps and type info — negligible for most workloads.

Ecosystem¶

Is there a VS Code extension?¶

Yes! The extension provides syntax highlighting, snippets, autocomplete, hover docs, diagnostics, and go-to-definition. Install from the mol-vscode/ directory.

Does MOL have a package manager?¶