Reference

Keywords

These words are reserved — they can't be used as names. Keywords are lowercase and case-sensitive (HTTP methods are uppercase by convention).

Declarations & bindings

Keyword	Role
create	Declare a variable, or instantiate from a class
as	Binds a value in create … as …
from	create x from Class — instantiation
function	Declare a function
with	Introduce parameters, a request body, or a message
give back	Return a value from a function

Control flow

Keyword	Role
if	Conditional
else	else / else-if (else if …)
repeat … times	Counted loop
while	Conditional loop
for each … in	Collection iteration
end	Universal block terminator

Operators (word form)

Keyword	Role
is	Equality / comparison lead-in
not	Negation; is not, is not equal to
less / greater / than	is less than, is greater than [or equal to]
equal / to	is equal to, … or equal to
and / or	Logical conjunction / disjunction
modulo	Remainder operator

I/O & collections

Keyword	Role
show	Print to standard output
add … to	Append to a list

Classes (OOP)

Keyword	Role
class	Declare a class
has	Declare a field
public	A member reachable from anywhere (the default)
protected	A member visible to the class and its subclasses
private	A member visible only to its declaring class
extends	Inheritance

Web services

Keyword	Role
controller … at	Declare a stateless HTTP route group (controller Products at "/products")
web	Compose controllers, own pipeline/health/lifecycle (web ProductApi … use Products … end)
service	Business-logic component with methods, state, and dependency injection
on	Route declaration (on GET "/")
publish … on port	Start a web block
status	give back status N
message	… with message …
ok / created / accepted / no content	Success response shorthands (give back ok data)
GET / POST / PUT / PATCH / DELETE	HTTP methods

Security

Keyword	Role
restrict to	Authorization guard
otherwise	The fallback branch of a guard — restrict … otherwise, require … otherwise, protect … otherwise error
secure	Attach an auth provider
using	secure … using Passkey

Concurrency

Keyword	Role
start task	Start a function in the background (start task X)
wait for	Wait for a started function to finish
cancel	Cancel a function that hasn't run yet
send … to	Send a message to a channel
receive from	Receive a message from a channel
after … seconds	Run a block once after a delay (after 5 seconds … end)
every … seconds, N times	Run a block on an interval, N times
… up to N seconds	Bound a send / receive with a timeout

Error recovery

Keyword	Role
try	Begin a recoverable block (try … catch … end)
catch	Introduce a recovery block; catch error binds the caught error
catch Kind as error	A filtered clause matching one error kind (first match wins)
finally	A block that always runs, on success or failure
throw	Raise an error of your own

Async execution

Keyword	Role
async function	Declare an awaitable function; calling it returns a handle
wait for	Await a handle and yield its give-back value (an expression)

Enterprise application layer

Keyword	Role
record … end	Declare a DTO with validation rules (record CreateUserRequest … end)
validate x	Validate a record — a fail-fast statement or a result-yielding expression
repository … end	A data-access component with async, injectable methods
service … use … function …	Business logic with injected dependencies and callable methods
application … use … end	The dependency-injection composition root
use Name [as singleton|scoped|transient]	Inject a dependency / register a component

Configuration, secrets & environment

Keyword	Role
configuration … end	Declare a typed settings schema (configuration AppConfig … end)
has … as … [is …]	A setting: name, type (text/whole/number/truth/list/map/secret), optional default
secret	A setting type whose value is redacted everywhere but reveal(...)
reveal	The one explicit, auditable way to read a secret's value
use AppConfig	Inject the loaded configuration into a service or application

Middleware & request pipeline

Keyword	Role
pipeline … end	A service's ordered request pipeline, composed around every route
step … with request … end	Declare a reusable custom step; run it with use Name
next(request)	Continue to the rest of the pipeline (an injected value, not a keyword)
catch errors	A failing route answers 500 instead of crashing
allow origins "…" / allow any origin	CORS: set Access-Control-Allow-Origin
add correlation id	Reuse or generate an X-Correlation-Id per request
limit N requests per second|minute|hour	Fixed-window rate limit — 429 when exceeded
limit request size to N kilobytes	Reject an over-large body with 413
log requests	A structured record per request to the host's injected sink
compress responses	Mark gzip when the client accepts it (transport encodes)

Advanced authorization

Keyword	Role
policy … end	Declare an authorization policy (a named set of requirements)
require authentication	The principal must be signed in
require role "…" or "…"	The principal holds one of the roles (permissions likewise)
require claim "name" is "value"	A claim on the principal matches
require policy Other	Compose another (parameterless) policy — its whole decision must grant
with order	Declare a policy's resources; the guard passes them the same way
check … end	Custom decision code — user is the principal; fails closed
restrict to policy Name otherwise …	Enforce a policy with the existing authorization guard
claim("name")	Built-in that reads the current principal's claim (or nothing)

Background processing

Keyword	Role
job Name [in queue "…"] … end	Declare a background job (queued, never called; a failing run is contained)
with a, b	Job parameters, bound from the queue statement's arguments
retry 3 times [waiting 30 seconds]	Re-run a failing job; the final failure is a dead-letter log event
queue Name [with args]	Enqueue one run — it executes when the script ends or before the response returns
queue Name after 5 minutes	Defer the run on the deterministic timeline (seconds / minutes / hours)
schedule Name every 15 minutes	Recurring runs — also every day at "03:00" and every monday at "09:00"
jobs_pending() / jobs_failed() / queue_pending("…")	Built-ins that read the queue state (failed = the dead-letter count)
job_workers	Host setting: 0 turns serve's background pumping off; 1+ pumps between requests

Messaging & event bus

Keyword	Role
event Name … end	Declare a message contract (event UserRegistered … has field … end)
handler Name for Event [with e] … end	Subscribe to an event; a failing delivery is contained
retry N times [waiting M seconds]	A handler's delivery-retry / dead-letter policy (same as a job)
use Name	Inject a service / repository / configuration into a handler
publish Event [with field value, …]	Raise an event — fans out to every subscriber onto the background queue
events_published() / handlers_pending() / events_failed()	Built-ins that read the bus (failed = dead-letters)

Enterprise hardening

Keyword	Role
require value [otherwise "msg"]	Fail-fast precondition — fails when the value is false or nothing (ZX3300)
on startup … end / on shutdown … end	Service lifecycle hooks — startup runs before serving (fail-fast), shutdown on stop
ready … end	Readiness probe — registers GET /ready (ok / failing verdicts, like health)
resilience Name … end	A named policy: timeout N seconds, retry N times [waiting M], break after N failures for M seconds
protect with Name … [otherwise [error]] … end	Run a block under a resilience policy (retry / timeout / circuit breaker)
uptime_seconds() / memory_used()	Production diagnostics built-ins

Logging & observability

Keyword	Role
log debug|info|warning|error msg [with { … }]	Emit a structured log event (destinations come from configuration)
count "name"	Add one to a named counter
measure "name" as value	Record a numeric measurement
audit "event" [with { … }]	An always-recorded business event carrying the acting principal
health … end	A service's health check, auto-registered as GET /health (200/503)
give back ok / failing "reason"	The health verdict (recognized only inside a health block)
metric_count / metric_values	Built-ins that read the metric registry back

Data layer (ORM)

Keyword	Role
database … end	Declare a database (provider, connection, table … from Class)
table … from	Map a class to a table
save … into	Insert or update an item
find all from	Query every row as a list
find one from … where … is …	Query the first matching item, or nothing
where … is greater than / contains / and / or	Rich conditions — reuse the comparison words plus text operators
sorted by field [descending] [then by …]	Order results (stable sort, multiple keys)
skip N / first N	Pagination — offset and limit on find all
find count / find any from	How many rows match (number) / whether any match (truth)
sum / average / minimum / maximum of field from	Numeric aggregates over the matching rows
delete … from	Remove an item
transaction on … catch error … end	Commit on success, roll back on a recoverable error

Schema migrations

Keyword	Role
migration Name … end	An ordered, recorded schema change (create table / add / remove / rename field)
create table T from Class	A migration step: create the table from a class
add field f to T / remove field f from T	A migration step: add or drop a column
rename field a to b in T	A migration step: rename a column, keeping its data
migrate DB	Apply pending migrations, then the automatic additive diff (in one transaction)
rollback DB	Reverse the most recently applied migration (a remove is irreversible)
migrate on open	A database line: auto-apply pending migrations as it opens

Native deployment & hosting

Keyword	Role
deployment Name … end	Describe how a finished app ships (host-neutral)
serves ServiceName	The service this deployment runs
target linux | windows	The host platform (default linux)
reverse proxy nginx | caddy | none	The proxy in front of the app (default none)
domain "…" / port N	The public domain and the port the app listens on

Modules & visibility

Keyword	Role
module	Name a file's module (module Products)
import	Bring in another module (import Math)
showing	Import specific symbols (import Math showing square)
public	Export a declaration from its module
private	Keep a declaration inside its module (also a field modifier)

Testing

Keyword	Role
test	Declare a test (test "adds numbers")
expect	Start an assertion
to	expect … to … (matcher lead-in)
equal	expect … to equal expected
be	expect … to be true / false / nothing
contain	expect list or text to contain an item
throw	expect an expression to throw

Literals

Keyword	Role
true / false	Boolean values
nothing	Absence of a value (null)