> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mzizi.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# A language designed to be written by machines that are not very good at writing

> Mzizi is a Bundu Foundation research project: a Rust framework whose syntax, type system and compiler feedback loop are built for small open-weight models. Phase 0 is a prototype front end, and the thesis is still unmeasured.

<Note>
  **Read [Status](/status) before anything else.** Mzizi-lang is a Phase 0 research
  prototype. A lexer, a recovering parser, an agent diagnostic protocol, a
  content-addressed IR and nine primitives exist and are tested. Nothing renders, nothing
  lowers to Rust yet, contract bodies parse but are not evaluated, and the benchmark that
  the whole thesis rests on **has not run**. These pages document a research programme in
  progress, not a shipping framework.
</Note>

*Mzizi* is **root** in Swahili. It is a Bundu Foundation research project, and it names two
related things in this ecosystem: the component registry and design system served at
[mzizi.dev](https://mzizi.dev), and — the subject of these pages — **Mzizi-lang**, a
language and compiler for authoring components.

## The claim worth defending

Every web framework in existence was designed assuming a human is typing, reading docs, and
holding context in their head. The charter's bet is that this is the wrong assumption for
where development is going:

> Mzizi's single sharp edge: **a Rust framework whose syntax, type system, and compiler
> feedback loop are designed for machine authorship, not just human ergonomics.**

And then a correction that turns out to matter more than the original claim. RFC-0001 was
written by a frontier model optimising for its own experience; [RFC-0002](/rfcs) withdrew
that target:

> **The design target is small models.** A 7B open-weight model running locally, not a
> frontier model with a million-token context. Frontier capability is improving on its own;
> the language cannot help there and does not need to.

That inversion is load-bearing. It is why token efficiency is a first-order goal rather than
a fading one, why `end component button` echoes the name back at you, and why the grammar is
small and closed rather than familiar and open. A familiarity penalty is paid once. A large
decision space is a tax paid on every generation, and it scales inversely with model size.

## Where to start

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Status" icon="gauge" href="/status">
    What exists, what is tested, what is measured, and what is still just a design
    document. The honest version, which is shorter than you would like.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Syntax" icon="code" href="/syntax">
    Nine named failure modes an agent hits writing Rust UI code, and the syntax decision
    that answers each one.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The nine primitives" icon="layers" href="/primitives">
    Real `.mz` source, gated in CI, plus the packaging decision — why primitives are
    copied files and not crates.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The compiler" icon="terminal" href="/compiler">
    `mz check`, `mz outline`, `mz hash`, `mz ir`, and the NDJSON protocol written for a
    reader holding zero file context.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The IR" icon="git-branch" href="/ir">
    Content addressing: one architectural decision that answers seven of eight named
    reading barriers.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The ecosystem" icon="map" href="/ecosystem">
    Which repository serves which domain, and which parts of it are real today.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What Mzizi is not

The charter is explicit about its non-goals, and they are worth reading before anyone
assumes a larger claim:

* **Not a rendering engine.** Phase 1 is interop with Dioxus's existing renderer. Dioxus
  already spent years on "one codebase, four platforms"; rebuilding it buys the
  syntax/compiler layer nothing.
* **Not a tensor runtime.** ML inference is a declared capability backed by Candle, not a
  competing framework.
* **Not a post-quantum cryptography project.** Named as a future research thread and
  explicitly out of scope.
* **Not a web-framework target.** The compiled artifact is WASM (and native, for desktop).
  Astro is one thin, optional distribution surface among several — not a platform Mzizi
  targets.

## Ownership

Mzizi-the-framework is **100% Bundu Foundation IP**. The adjacent Mzizi console ("Fundi")
is Nyuchi-owned and serves a different domain. The charter draws that line deliberately, and
the [ecosystem map](/ecosystem) follows it repository by repository.