Open-source alternatives to Mruby

Duktape is an embeddable JavaScript engine and portable scripting runtime designed for integration into C and C++ applications. It functions as a lightweight ECMAScript runtime that provides a C-JavaScript bridge for exchanging data and invoking functions between native code and a script execution environment. The engine includes an ECMAScript bytecode compiler that allows for the serialization and caching of compiled functions to disk to reduce application startup time. It organizes script dependencies using a CommonJS-compliant module loader. The runtime covers a variety of capabilities in

Gopher-lua is a complete implementation of the Lua language and its standard libraries written natively in Go. It serves as an embedded scripting engine and virtual machine that allows Go applications to execute Lua scripts and exchange data between the host and the script environment. The project provides a bytecode compiler to transform source code into a binary format for faster execution. It enables deep integration between the two languages by allowing the registration of native Go functions to be called from scripts, and the invocation of script functions directly from Go. The engine c

QuickJS is a lightweight, embeddable ECMAScript runtime that executes JavaScript programs conforming to the latest specification. It is designed as a compact, standards-compliant JavaScript engine suitable for resource-constrained environments and embedded systems, available both as prebuilt binaries and as source code that can be compiled for custom integration. The engine distinguishes itself through a minimal runtime footprint achieved by a single-pass compiler that produces compact bytecode, executed on a stack-based virtual machine. Memory management uses reference-counting garbage colle

Opal is a Ruby frontend framework and compiler that translates Ruby source code into JavaScript. It functions as a web runtime that allows for the development of client-side web applications using Ruby instead of JavaScript. The project includes a Ruby HTML template engine that evaluates Ruby code embedded directly within markup files. It further integrates with JavaScript environments by bundling core libraries and dependencies into a distribution string for execution in a web browser. The system provides capabilities for Ruby to JavaScript compilation and the ability to encode and decode B

ChakraCore is an embedded JavaScript engine designed to be integrated as a library within a host application. Its primary purpose is to provide a programmable scripting layer and a lightweight runtime environment for executing JavaScript code and managing state via a programmatic interface. The project focuses on bridging high-level scripting with low-level system calls through a C API. This allows developers to implement custom scripting engines and embed JavaScript execution directly into applications to enable task automation and functional extensions. The engine utilizes a bytecode-based

Trilium is a hierarchical personal knowledge base and digital garden tool designed to organize information into a tree of linked nodes. It functions as a JavaScript programmable wiki and a self-hosted note server, allowing users to maintain a private database of documents synchronized across multiple devices. The platform distinguishes itself through an embedded scripting engine for automating tasks and a REST API that exposes internal data and actions to external tools. Users can further extend the system by modifying the user interface layout and styling through a custom theme engine. The

Gravity is an embeddable, bytecode-compiled programming language designed to provide programmable logic within host applications. It is a garbage-collected language that utilizes a mark-and-sweep system to automate memory management and prevent leaks. The language is characterized by a concurrent fiber-based execution model, allowing multiple non-blocking tasks to run simultaneously. It also functions as a JSON-native language, featuring built-in serialization tools to convert complex data structures to and from JSON format. The project includes a virtual machine and a compiler that transfor

Wren is a bytecode-compiled, class-based scripting language designed as an embeddable programming language. It provides a lightweight runtime and interface for executing dynamic scripts directly within host software applications. The engine utilizes a single-pass compiler to transform source code into compact bytecode and a virtual machine to process those instructions. It supports concurrent task execution through a system of lightweight fibers and coroutines. The language implements a class-based object model with dynamic message dispatch for organizing code into reusable components. It al

OCaml is a strongly typed functional language featuring a sophisticated type system and a focus on safety and expressiveness. It provides a comprehensive compiling toolchain that transforms source code into either portable bytecode or high-performance native binaries. The project is distinguished by a shared memory parallel runtime that executes computations across multiple processor cores using domains, and an algebraic effect system for managing side effects and control flow through execution context handlers. It also includes a dedicated parser generator to automatically create lexers and

Wasm3 is a WebAssembly interpreter designed for embedded runtime integration. It enables the execution of portable binary logic on microcontrollers and resource-constrained hardware, providing support for modules that utilize the WebAssembly System Interface to interact with system resources. The runtime employs register-based bytecode interpretation and direct-threaded dispatch to map virtual registers to physical CPU registers. It includes a host-call interface to map imports to C functions and utilizes static module validation to ensure bytecode follows specification rules before execution

Lua RTOS for ESP32 is a real-time operating system designed for ESP32 microcontrollers that integrates a lightweight Lua interpreter to manage hardware resources and application logic. It utilizes a micro-kernel architecture to provide preemptive task scheduling, ensuring deterministic timing and reliable concurrency for embedded operations on resource-constrained hardware. The system distinguishes itself by providing a unified hardware abstraction layer that maps high-level programming commands directly to peripheral registers. This allows developers to interact with sensors, actuators, and

Rhino is a Java-based JavaScript engine that implements an ECMAScript compatibility layer for execution inside a Java virtual machine. It serves as an embedded scripting engine and a scripting bridge, allowing JavaScript code to be integrated and executed within Java applications. The project facilitates direct inter-language communication by mapping Java classes and objects into a JavaScript environment. This integration enables scripts to interact with internal system services and native host objects through a dedicated mapping mechanism. The engine optimizes performance by compiling JavaS

V8 is a high-performance JavaScript and WebAssembly engine designed to compile and execute code within host applications. It functions as an embeddable scripting engine and just-in-time compiler, providing a portable library for integrating dynamic script execution into native software environments. The engine incorporates a WebAssembly runtime to execute compiled binary code for a stack-based virtual machine at near-native speeds. It enables native application scripting by allowing a JavaScript execution environment to be embedded directly into a native program to handle dynamic logic. The

ToaruOS is an independent operating system built from the ground up without external dependencies. It features a custom x86-64 kernel that supports symmetric multiprocessing and paging, paired with a graphical windowing system and a dedicated bytecode interpreter for application logic. The system distinguishes itself by integrating an embedded Python environment for system-level development and a custom graphical interface that handles its own window composition and text rendering. It includes a compatibility layer for third-party application support and a system package manager for handling

Vyper is a security-focused, typed programming language and compiler designed for creating smart contracts that execute on the Ethereum Virtual Machine. It utilizes a Pythonic syntax to define contract logic and state, serving as a target for formal verification to allow for machine-checked proofs of correctness. The language distinguishes itself through strict architectural constraints that prioritize predictability and security. It enforces acyclic call graphs by prohibiting recursion and mandates bounded loops to ensure static gas prediction. Additionally, it features a native fixed-point

Parity Ethereum is a software implementation of an Ethereum client node that maintains a local copy of the ledger and validates network transactions. It functions as a blockchain network peer and an Ethereum Virtual Machine runtime, providing the environment necessary to process smart contract bytecode and update network state. The project includes systems for cryptographic key management to generate and store the private keys used to sign secure transactions. It enables the operation of a blockchain node and provides mechanisms for Ethereum network synchronization to match the current state

Rhai is an embedded scripting engine and dynamically typed language designed for integration into Rust applications. It functions as an abstract syntax tree compiler and native interop layer, allowing developers to map Rust types and functions into a scripting environment for bidirectional communication. The project serves as a framework for creating customizable domain-specific languages. It allows for the definition of custom operators, syntax, and restricted execution environments, enabling the creation of specialized languages with tailored functional sets. The engine covers a broad rang

This project is an NGINX module that embeds the Lua scripting language directly into the server environment. It functions as a request processor and response filter, enabling the execution of scripts to handle HTTP requests, generate dynamic content, and manage server behavior without external application calls. The module provides a shared memory dictionary and cache manager, allowing data to be stored and retrieved across all active worker processes. This capability supports the collection of high-performance server metrics and the synchronization of information across concurrent processes.

xLua is a scripting bridge and C++ wrapper used to embed the Lua language into host applications. It facilitates bidirectional data exchange and function calls between scripts and the host environment. The project includes a runtime patching tool for replacing application logic and fixing bugs without requiring a system restart. It features a coroutine orchestrator that wraps asynchronous operations into linear code and a script validator that verifies digital signatures to ensure code authenticity and integrity before execution. To minimize memory overhead and garbage collection, the system

RustPython is a Python 3 compatible interpreter implemented in Rust. It functions as a scripting engine that can be embedded directly into host applications, allowing for the execution of dynamic scripts and the customization of software behavior within a memory-safe environment. The project distinguishes itself through its ability to bridge Python and JavaScript runtimes, enabling data exchange and function invocation across language boundaries. It also provides a portable execution environment by compiling Python code into WebAssembly, which allows for the execution of logic directly within

This project provides a framework for binding Rust and Python, enabling the creation of native extension modules and the embedding of the Python interpreter within host applications. It functions as a cross-language interoperability library that facilitates the execution of scripts, the definition of classes, and the sharing of data structures across the boundary of the two runtimes. The framework distinguishes itself through the use of procedural macros to automate the generation of boilerplate code, simplifying the process of exposing native functions and data types. It employs type-level m

Luau is a high-performance programming language evolved from Lua 5.1. It consists of a bytecode virtual machine, an embeddable scripting engine, and a static code analyzer designed to provide a secure, sandboxed execution environment for host applications. The project is distinguished by its gradual typing system, which combines automatic type inference with optional manual annotations to detect bugs without requiring full static typing. It also features native vector mathematics for high-performance operations and a specialized debugging system that uses bytecode patching to minimize executi

Stetho is a debug bridge that connects Android applications to Chrome Developer Tools. It allows for the real-time inspection of network traffic, internal application state, and the user interface layout directly within a desktop browser. The project provides specialized inspectors for analyzing Android-specific components. This includes a network inspector for capturing HTTP requests and responses, an SQLite database browser for querying local storage, and a view hierarchy inspector for mapping UI elements and styles. Additional capabilities cover runtime execution via an embedded JavaScrip

electron-vite is a build system and multi-process bundle orchestrator that uses Vite to compile and bundle the main, preload, and renderer processes for Electron applications. It functions as a desktop application scaffolder, providing templates to integrate various frontend frameworks into a standardized project structure. The project distinguishes itself through integrated source code protection, utilizing a V8 bytecode obfuscator to compile JavaScript into bytecode and obfuscate strings to prevent reverse engineering. It also manages complex desktop architectures by isolating bundles and s

mpv.net is a Windows graphical user interface for the mpv media player. It serves as a customizable multimedia frontend and hardware-accelerated video player that renders high-fidelity video and audio content. The project distinguishes itself by providing a searchable graphical interface for managing player settings and configuration files, alongside a themeable visual style. It supports extensibility through a scripting engine and allows for external playback management via JSON-based communication and command line interfaces. The application covers a broad range of media playback capabilit

Huginn is an open-source automation platform that functions as an event-driven task automator and webhook integration engine. It enables the creation of agents that monitor web data and automate tasks across various web services, operating as a self-hosted web scraper and JavaScript workflow orchestrator. The system uses a directed graph of event flows to route and transform data between external APIs. It differentiates itself by allowing custom JavaScript execution within workflows to modify data payloads and by integrating human-in-the-loop automation to insert manual judgment or data entry

LuaJIT is a high-performance Lua language implementation and just-in-time compiler. It functions as an embedded scripting engine and dynamic binary translator that converts portable bytecode into native machine code during execution. The project focuses on high-performance scripting by translating bytecode into architecture-specific instructions to achieve execution speeds close to compiled C code. It utilizes a lightweight runtime environment designed for minimal memory overhead. The system supports binary data processing via bitwise operations and enables asynchronous task management throu