Standard Library Overview

Alef is a programming language, and the standard library is part of that

language experience. Surfaces below are available on the native path used

by alef run unless a page says otherwise.

Core surfaces

Module	Role
`std.http`	Clients, JSON/problem responses, app router, middleware, cookies, limits, metrics, shutdown
`std.json` / `json_encode` / `json_decode`	Structured data
`std.ai`	Completions, chat, streaming, tools, embeddings (provider-gated; `stub` for docs)
`std.db`	SQLite migrations, query, exec, transactions
`std.cache`	Small stateful helpers
`std.jobs`	In-process queues, retry/dead-letter, optional persist/restore
`std.crypto`	Random, digests, HMAC, common crypto primitives
`std.encoding`	Base64 and related helpers
`std.concurrent`	Join helpers such as `when_all` / `when_any`
`std.sync`	Synchronization primitives (mutex/once/map/pool class)
`std.time`	Sleep, parse, monotonic clocks, tickers
`std.io`	Stream copy/limit/pipe helpers
`std.view` / `std.http.html`	Server-rendered HTML examples
`std.workflow` / `std.goal`	Durable work sketches (see runtime examples)

1. Prefer module references and book chapters over guessing package names.
2. Live AI providers need env configuration; use stub in tutorials and CI.
3. July 2026 capability summary: What's New — July 2026.

The stdlib is documented like a language stdlib: module by module, with

runnable examples.

Page	Modules
HTTP And JSON	`std.http`, cookies, headers
AI	`std.ai` completions, chat, tools
Database And Cache	`std.db`, `std.cache`
Crypto And Encoding	`std.crypto`, `std.encoding`
Sync And Concurrent	`std.sync`, `std.concurrent`
Time And IO	`std.time`, `std.io`
Jobs	`std.jobs`