How It All Fits Together

The compilation pipeline:

1. Developer writes Zylisp code in .zy files
2. REPL (from repl) provides interactive development and testing
3. Parser reads s-expressions and builds initial AST
4. Macro expander (in lang) processes macros and special forms
5. Forms pipeline (in lang) transforms Zylisp-specific constructs
6. ZAST generator converts expanded code to Go AST s-expressions
7. Code generator produces readable Go source files
8. Generated code imports runtime for data structures and support
9. Error messages use source maps from core for accurate reporting
10. Production systems use rely for supervision and fault tolerance
11. Coverage tests (in go-ast-coverage) verify completeness

Design feedback loop:

1. Feature idea or problem identified
2. Design document created in design repo
3. Discussion and iteration (Draft → Under Review → Final)
4. Implementation planned with phase assignments
5. Code written in appropriate repo (lang, zast, runtime, etc.)
6. Tests added to verify correctness
7. Documentation updated
8. Experience feeds back into design process