Agency

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Compiling and Running Code ​

Agency code compiles down to plain JavaScript and runs on Node.

Running a file ​

bash
agency run foo.agency

This compiles the file and immediately executes its main node. run is also the default command:

bash
agency foo.agency

See the run CLI reference for a couple of extra options.

Compiling to JavaScript ​

Use compile (also aliased as build):

bash
agency compile foo.agency
agency compile lib/

You can pass multiple files or directories. A couple of handy flags:

  • --ts — emit .ts files instead of .js.
  • -w, --watch — recompile automatically whenever the inputs change.

The compile CLI reference has the full list.

The global-install gotcha ​

If you installed Agency globally (npm install -g agency-lang), there's a classic Node trap to watch out for. A global install makes the agency CLI available everywhere, but the agency-lang package isn't importable everywhere.

So if you compile and run separately, you may see an error like this:

bash
agency compile foo.agency
node foo.js
# Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find package 'agency-lang'

Two easy fixes:

  • Use agency run instead of node. run tells Node where to find the agency-lang package.

    bash
    agency run foo.agency

  • If you're inside an npm project, install agency-lang for the project.

Or you can create a standalone script with agency pack. This will inline Agency and other related packages, so all you need to is Node (a lesser-known Beatles song).