Welcome to Golf Programming Language!

Current release (3.1.0). Updated 2025-08-19.

Language for Web backend.
Apache 2 License.

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Here's what Golf code feels like. Hint: it's short and easy. Below's an example of fetching a web page:

 begin-handler /fetch public
     call-web "https://google.com" response text response-headers head
     print-out head new-line
     print-out text new-line
 end-handler

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Easy and memory safe

Golf is unlike other languages. It's simpler and declarative. You can do much in a single line.

Lots of great features and rich functionality. Build back-end applications super fast.

Built with industry-standard Free Open Source libraries for performance, functionality, stability and compatibility.

Memory safety

Memory safety that's fast and lean, so you can have both performance and safety.

Automatic memory release to avoid leaks in long-running server processes.

Smart status checking of your code to avoid mistakes from the get-go.

Install with confidence

Golf doesn't need sudo permissions because it installs in a home folder. Install Golf now.

Well documented with examples

Visit Documentation for a clear and concise manual. Check out examples too.

Every CPU cycle counts

Performance is important. That's why Golf makes native executables from smartly generated C code, optimized for speed and efficiency.

C is the fastest and most efficient and having it as a foundation is important.

Versatile and powerful

Build for the web, build command-line programs, build application servers.

Powerful features such as database access, JSON, Regex, XML, encryption and more.

Freedom

Licensed under Apache 2 Free Open Source License. Source code always at your fingertips at:

https://github.com/golf-lang/golf

No binaries

Golf installs from source only for safety and performance, so you don't need to download any binaries. Not to worry, the install process is fully automated. Install Golf now.

Example of Golf code (from SaaS example):

begin-handler /update-order
    out-header use content-type "application/json"
    get-param order_id, item_id, quantity
    set-number arows
// If quantity update is 0, issue SQL to delete an item from order, otherwise update 
    if-true quantity equal "0"
        run-query @db ="delete from orderItems where orderID='%s' and itemID='%s'" \
           : order_id, item_id no-loop affected-rows arows
    else-if
        run-query @db ="update orderItems set quantity='%s' where orderID='%s' and itemID='%s'" \
           : quantity, order_id, item_id no-loop affected-rows arows
    end-if
    @"<<print-out arows>>"
end-handler