Crate nova_driver 

Compilation pipeline orchestration for Nova.

Drives source → lex → parse → resolve → typecheck → MIR → Cranelift (JIT for nova run, object emission + native linking for nova build), rendering diagnostics from every stage through nova-diagnostics. This is the crate behind nova run, nova build, and nova check.

Structs

Analysis

What analyze found.

Checked

What check_program_counted rendered.

DiskSources

Reads every module from disk: the CLI’s sources.

EmbeddedRuntime

The runtime library a nova carries, as its build script embedded it.

Options

What analyze does beyond checking.

Probe

A place in one of the program’s files.

Program

What to load (spec §4.4).

Root

A file the loader starts from.

Enums

Outcome

Outcome of a pipeline invocation that may fail with user errors.

RootKind

Where a root is.

Roots

The roots a command takes (spec §4.4’s table), each only if it exists.

Constants

DOC_TEST_FUNCTION

The test function each doc test module adds (spec docs/superpowers/specs/2026-10-11-phase-3-5b-doc-tests-design.md §5.2): in a program of doc tests, the only @test function collected. Each module is its own namespace, so each can use this name.

Traits

Sources

Where analyze reads a module’s text.

Functions

analyze

Run the front end on entry for the language server (spec §3): the program Program::for_file finds for it.

analyze_program

Run the front end on program (spec 3.3a §4.4, §6). MIR runs only when the program runs and options.module_only is off.

build_file

Compile a file to a standalone native executable (nova build).

build_file_release

Compile a file to an optimized standalone executable via the LLVM backend (nova build --release).

build_program

build_file on program.

build_program_release

build_file_release on program.

build_test_binary

Compile path as a test binary (nova test, Task 5): main is synthesized to dispatch to exactly one collected @test by index (Builtin::TestSelector) rather than to the file’s own main — a test file need not define one, since a missing main is enforced only at MIR lowering (E0601 in nova_mir::lower_module), which the synthesized function supplies before that check ever runs.

build_test_program

build_test_binary on program: the test binary of its roots.

build_test_program_with

build_test_program, reading every module through sources, and passing each diagnostic through map before it is counted and rendered (spec 3.5b §7, §11.2). Doc tests are modules no file holds.

check_file

Type-check a file, printing diagnostics. Outcome::Ok(()) means the program is well-formed and would compile.

check_program

check_file on program (spec 3.3a §5.1). MIR runs only when the program runs: its entry is src/main.nova, or a loose file.

check_program_counted

check_program, counting the errors and warnings it rendered. Publishing’s verification fails on either (spec 3.3b §6.6).

compile_file

Compile a file to native code via the Cranelift JIT.

compile_program

compile_file on program.

package_of

The package path is a module of, and where in it, when path is directly in the src/ or tests/ of a directory holding a nova.toml (spec §4.1). The language server finds its projects the same way.

run_file

Compile and immediately execute a file (nova run), with args as the program’s arguments: std/process’s args() returns exactly this list.

run_program

run_file on program.

set_embedded_runtime

Record the runtime this nova carries. nova-cli calls this once, at startup. An empty payload records nothing, so the lookup goes on to the executable’s neighbours.

std_source

The text of the std module a program’s FileDb names name, such as <std/time>, or None for any other name. The build adds std’s modules to the database only after loading, so a MapDiagnostic that shows a diagnostic in one, as a std doc test’s does (spec 3.5b §7), reads its text here.

Type Aliases

MapDiagnostic

Rewrites a diagnostic before it is counted and rendered, with the program’s files at hand (spec docs/superpowers/specs/2026-10-11-phase-3-5b-doc-tests-design.md §7): it may move the diagnostic’s labels into other files of the database, adding them. false hides a warning; an error is always shown.