ProvableHQ/leo

🦁 The Leo Programming Language. A Programming Language for Formally Verified, Zero-Knowledge Applications

Rust

4,824

8,095 commits

updated Oct 8, 2026

See the code

README

leo

The Leo Programming Language

Leo is an imperative, statically-typed programming language built for writing private applications.

Table of Contents

🍎 Overview

Welcome to the Leo programming language.

Leo provides a high-level language that abstracts low-level cryptographic concepts and makes it easy to integrate private applications into your stack. Leo compiles to circuits making zero-knowledge proofs practical.

The syntax of Leo is influenced by traditional programming languages like JavaScript, Scala, and Rust, with a strong emphasis on readability and ease-of-use. Leo offers developers with tools to sanity check circuits including unit tests, integration tests, and console functions.

Leo is one part of a greater ecosystem for building private applications on Aleo. The language is currently in an alpha stage and is subject to breaking changes.

βš™οΈοΈ Build Guide

πŸ¦€ Install Rust

We recommend installing Rust using rustup. You can install rustup as follows:

  • macOS or Linux:

    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
    
  • Windows (64-bit):

    Download the Windows 64-bit executable and follow the on-screen instructions.

  • Windows (32-bit):

    Download the Windows 32-bit executable and follow the on-screen instructions.

πŸ“¦ Download using Cargo

If you don't intend to work on the Leo compiler itself, you can install the latest Leo release with:

cargo install leo-lang leo-fmt leo-lsp

Now to use leo, in your terminal, run:

leo

πŸ™ Build from Source Code

If you'd like to install the latest unreleased top of tree Leo, you can build from source code as follows:

# Download the source code
git clone https://github.com/ProvableHQ/leo
cd leo

# Install 'leo' and bundled plugins
cargo install --path crates/leo
cargo install --path crates/fmt

🦁 Update Leo

To install the latest released version of Leo and its plugins, run:

cargo install leo-lang leo-fmt leo-lsp

To check the installed version, run:

leo --version

Use leo update to update project dependency locks. This command does not install Leo or its plugins.

πŸš€ Quick Start

Use the Leo CLI to create a new project

# create a new `hello-world` Leo project
leo new helloworld
cd helloworld

# build & setup & prove & verify
leo run main 0u32 1u32

The leo new command creates a new Leo project with a given name.

The leo run command will compile the program into Aleo instructions and run it.

Congratulations! You've just run your first Leo program.

🧰 Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble installing and using Leo, please check out our guide.

If the issue still persists, please open an issue.

πŸ“– Documentation

🀝 Contributing

Please see our guidelines in the developer documentation

πŸ›‘οΈ License

License: GPL v3

πŸ”Ό Back to top

compiler
leo
programming-language
zero-knowledge
zksnarks

ProvableHQ/leo

🦁 The Leo Programming Language. A Programming Language for Formally Verified, Zero-Knowledge Applications

Rust

4,824

8,095 commits

updated Oct 8, 2026

See the code

README

leo

The Leo Programming Language

Leo is an imperative, statically-typed programming language built for writing private applications.

Table of Contents

🍎 Overview

Welcome to the Leo programming language.

Leo provides a high-level language that abstracts low-level cryptographic concepts and makes it easy to integrate private applications into your stack. Leo compiles to circuits making zero-knowledge proofs practical.

The syntax of Leo is influenced by traditional programming languages like JavaScript, Scala, and Rust, with a strong emphasis on readability and ease-of-use. Leo offers developers with tools to sanity check circuits including unit tests, integration tests, and console functions.

Leo is one part of a greater ecosystem for building private applications on Aleo. The language is currently in an alpha stage and is subject to breaking changes.

βš™οΈοΈ Build Guide

πŸ¦€ Install Rust

We recommend installing Rust using rustup. You can install rustup as follows:

  • macOS or Linux:

    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
    
  • Windows (64-bit):

    Download the Windows 64-bit executable and follow the on-screen instructions.

  • Windows (32-bit):

    Download the Windows 32-bit executable and follow the on-screen instructions.

πŸ“¦ Download using Cargo

If you don't intend to work on the Leo compiler itself, you can install the latest Leo release with:

cargo install leo-lang leo-fmt leo-lsp

Now to use leo, in your terminal, run:

leo

πŸ™ Build from Source Code

If you'd like to install the latest unreleased top of tree Leo, you can build from source code as follows:

# Download the source code
git clone https://github.com/ProvableHQ/leo
cd leo

# Install 'leo' and bundled plugins
cargo install --path crates/leo
cargo install --path crates/fmt

🦁 Update Leo

To install the latest released version of Leo and its plugins, run:

cargo install leo-lang leo-fmt leo-lsp

To check the installed version, run:

leo --version

Use leo update to update project dependency locks. This command does not install Leo or its plugins.

πŸš€ Quick Start

Use the Leo CLI to create a new project

# create a new `hello-world` Leo project
leo new helloworld
cd helloworld

# build & setup & prove & verify
leo run main 0u32 1u32

The leo new command creates a new Leo project with a given name.

The leo run command will compile the program into Aleo instructions and run it.

Congratulations! You've just run your first Leo program.

🧰 Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble installing and using Leo, please check out our guide.

If the issue still persists, please open an issue.

πŸ“– Documentation

🀝 Contributing

Please see our guidelines in the developer documentation

πŸ›‘οΈ License

License: GPL v3

πŸ”Ό Back to top

compiler
leo
programming-language
zero-knowledge
zksnarks

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