Building the Osprey Community - AI Assisted Language Development

[MelbourneDeveloper]

TL;DR: We're building a functional programming language with AI assistance, and you can help shape it.

I'm Christian and I built Osprey with the help of AI. I've always wanted to build a programming language, but time constraints essentially made it impossible. Claude Sonnet 4 + Cursor was the first AI combo that actually got me over the hump of building a real compiler. Now I want to prove that AI assistants have democratized language development.

The Opportunity

You don't need a CS PhD anymore. If you've used AI to build apps, you can help build a programming language. The AI handles a lot of the complex compiler code. We just need to focus on language design and tooling. This is a 5-10 year long project so any contribution will help.

What We Need

• Compiler-curious devs who want to learn language internals
• Functional programming enthusiasts to shape the ergonomics
• AI enthusiasts to help others with the workflow
• Community builders to help grow the ecosystem

The Challenge

Can we build a language community where AI assistance is the norm? Where contributing a new operator or language feature is as accessible as building a web app?

If you've ever thought "this language should work differently" or wondered how compilers work, this is your chance.

Drop a comment if you're interested. What would you want to work on? What AI tools are you using? What programming language frustrations would you fix?

Let's see if we can change how languages get built. 🚀

Check out the repo | Try the playground