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Setup

This page covers end-to-end Mux setup, including runtime installs, compiler/tooling, and editor integration.

Language install​

Runtime (prebuilt binaries)​

Use the prebuilt installer to get the runtime without Rust or LLVM.

Linux and macOS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DerekCorniello/mux-lang/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DerekCorniello/mux-lang/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

Custom install directories:

MUX_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin MUX_LIB_DIR=/usr/local/lib sh install.sh

Compiler and tooling (source builds)​

For compiler development or source builds, you need LLVM 17 and clang. The bootstrap script installs the toolchain automatically.

git clone https://github.com/DerekCorniello/mux-lang
cd mux-lang
./scripts/bootstrap-dev.sh
./scripts/dev-cargo.sh build

Verify installation​

mux --version
mux doctor
mux doctor --dev

Syntax highlighting​

Mux ships TextMate and Tree-sitter grammars. Use the section that matches your editor.

TextMate family (VSCode, Sublime Text, JetBrains)​

Generate grammar (required before packaging):

cd mux-syntax-highlighting
node scripts/generate-syntax.js

VSCode:

  1. Package the extension: 
    ../scripts/release-syntax.sh
  2. Install the .vsix: 
    code --install-extension language-mux-<version>.vsix
  3. Reload VSCode.

Sublime Text:

  1. Copy mux-syntax-highlighting/textmate-mux/source.mux.json into Packages/User/Mux/.
  2. Add to Packages/User/Package.sublime-settings: 
    {
  "syntax": [
    {
      "name": "Mux",
      "scope": "source.mux",
      "file_extensions": [".mux"],
      "path": "User/Mux/source.mux.json"
    }
  ]
}

JetBrains (IntelliJ, WebStorm, etc.):

  1. Install the TextMate Bundles plugin.
  2. Import mux-syntax-highlighting/textmate-mux/source.mux.json.
  3. Associate .mux files in Settings > Editor > File Types.

Tree-sitter family (Neovim, Helix)​

Generate grammar (required before packaging):

cd mux-syntax-highlighting
node scripts/generate-syntax.js

Neovim:

  1. Install the parser and queries from mux-syntax-highlighting/tree-sitter-mux/.
  2. Add to ~/.config/nvim/init.lua: 
    local parser_config = require "nvim-treesitter.parsers".get_parser_configs()
parser_config.mux = {
  install_info = {
    url = "https://github.com/DerekCorniello/mux-lang",
    files = {"mux-syntax-highlighting/tree-sitter-mux/grammar.js"},
    branch = "main"
  },
  filetype = "mux",
}
  3. Run :TSInstall mux and enable highlighting.

Helix:

  1. Build the parser: 
    mkdir -p ~/.config/helix/runtime/grammars
cd mux-syntax-highlighting/tree-sitter-mux
tree-sitter generate grammar.js
cp mux.so ~/.config/helix/runtime/grammars/
  2. Add to ~/.config/helix/languages.toml: 
    [[language]]
name = "mux"
scope = "source.mux"
file-types = ["mux"]
roots = []
grammar = true

[language.highlight]
paths = ["queries/highlights.scm"]

LSP​

In development. There is no supported Mux LSP release yet.

Playground local development​

To run the docs site and compiler API locally for playground testing:

  1. Start the API server from the repo root:
uv run python api/server.py
  1. In a second terminal, start the website:
cd mux-website
npm start

The site runs on http://localhost:3000 and uses the production API (https://mux-lang-api.fly.dev) by default.

To use your local API server instead, set this before starting the docs site:

MUX_API_URL=http://localhost:8080 npm start

Profiling​

Profiling is done with external tools so it stays decoupled from the compiler and runtime.

Linux:

  • perf + flamegraph

macOS:

  • Instruments

Windows:

  • Windows Performance Analyzer or Visual Studio Profiler