Compiler implementation plan (6 phases): Phase 1 — compiler.janet skeleton + emit* for const/do/if/let/fn/def/invoke. Phase 2 — symbol classifier (resolve locals/vars/core at analyze time). Phase 3 — loader.janet + api.janet wiring (:compile? flag, load-ns, caching). Phase 4 — macro integration (expand at analyze time via interpreter). Phase 5 — remaining ops (loop/recur, try/throw, quote, syntax-quote, set!, deftype, .). Phase 6 — tests + benchmarks. New files: src/jolt/compiler.janet, src/jolt/loader.janet, test/compiler-test.janet. Modified files: evaluator.janet (compiler fast-path), types.janet (compiled-cache table), api.janet (compile-string, load-ns). Reader and core unchanged.
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Compiler is in `src/jolt/compiler.janet` (352 lines). Two-phase architecture: `analyze-form` produces annotated AST with `:op` keys, `emit-ast` dispatches on `:op` to emit Janet source, `compile-form` ties them together returning a Janet source string. Source-to-source (not bytecode). `core-renames` table maps Clojure core names to Janet function names (e.g., "inc" → "core-inc"). Phase 1 covers: const, do, if, def, fn*, let*, invoke, symbol, core-symbol, qualified-symbol, quote, vector, map. Tests in `test/compiler-test.janet` (79 lines). Phase 2 (symbol classification — locals/vars/core at analyze time) is the next step.
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After compiler Phase 1: 317 tests pass, 0 failures (was 253 before). Compiler tests add 8 test groups (literals, do, if, def, fn, let, invoke — 19 assertions). Run with `jpm test`.
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Compiler development workflow: (1) add match arm in `analyze-form` → produces `{:op :new-op ...}` AST, (2) add `emit-*` helper + dispatch arm in `emit-ast`, (3) add test assertions in `test/compiler-test.janet` using `compile-str` helper, (4) run `janet test/compiler-test.janet` then `jpm test`. Tests compare source-to-source output strings, not execution results. Any fn added to `core-bindings` in core.janet must also be added to `core-renames` in compiler.janet.