flint

Experimental C/C++ package manager and build tool driven by composition.json

TLDR

Initialize a project in the current directory

$ flint init

Add a Git dependency (remote must ship its own composition.json)

$ flint add [https://github.com/user/example_lib]

Sync dependencies declared in composition.json (including Flint Cherts)

$ flint sync

Add a local library path

$ flint add-lib [path/to/lib]

Add compiler flags to the manifest

$ flint add-flag [-Wall] [-O2]

Build the project

$ flint build

Build and run the executable

$ flint run

Write compile_commands.json for clangd and other language servers

$ flint gen

flint is a Linux-only C/C++ build system and Git-based package manager. A project is a directory tree plus a composition.json manifest: language, compiler path, source and include directories, flags, library links, and Git remotes. add clones a dependency into deps/. Flint then aggregates sources and include paths from the root project and every dependency and invokes gcc or clang.A dependency is compatible if it has its own composition.json, or if you paste a published chert composition into dependencies and run sync. Chert listings live on the Flint Cherts site. Layout conventions: src/ and include/ for local code, deps/ for cloned libraries, static/ for .a files, shared/ for .so files.The documented installer clones the repository, compiles flint with -O3, and either copies the binary to /usr/local/bin or leaves flint in the current directory. There is no versioned release archive; the binary is whatever main builds.

PARAMETERS

init

Create a new Flint project in the current directory (expected layout: src/, include/, composition.json).

add url

Clone url into deps/ and register it. The remote repository must contain a composition.json that lists its sources and include paths.

add-lib [path...]

Register one or more local libraries.

add-flag [flag...]

Append compiler/build flags to the project configuration.

build

Compile the project and its dependencies with the compiler named in composition.json.

run

Build if needed, then run the project executable.

gen

Generate compile_commands.json for editor and LSP tooling.

sync

Fetch or update libraries declared under dependencies in composition.json, including entries taken from Flint Cherts compositions.

With no command, flint prints a short usage summary and exits 1. Unknown commands also exit 1. Success is 0.

CONFIGURATION

composition.json

Project manifest in the project root. Typical keys: project_name, project_language (c or similar), version, compiler_path (for example /usr/bin/gcc), executable, flags, lib_links, include_paths, src, and dependencies (name to version plus Git remote).

CAVEATS

Marked BETA and Linux-only. Dependency names are not disambiguated: two libraries that share a directory or project name can collide. The curl-pipe installer compiles from main and may prompt for sudo to install into /usr/local/bin. No SPDX license is declared on the repository.

HISTORY

Written in C by mainak55512. The GitHub repository was created 2026-01-11. Dependencies are vendored in-tree (yyjson, arena, CString, container). CLI reference: https://mainak55512.github.io/flint-cherts/.

RESOURCES

Source code · Documentation