Rui CarmoA little language that can.
| Category | Date | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| <span class="caps">IDE</span> | 2024 | ZeroBrane Studio | a very nice IDE for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux |
| Automation | 2025 | Hammerspoon | a macOS desktop automation tool that can be used for window management |
| Browsers | 2024 | luakit | a fast, small, webkit-based browser framework extensible by Lua |
| Embedding | 2025 | LuaCore | A framework for Cocoa embedding. |
| Frameworks | 2024 | lovr | a Lua framework for rapidly building VR experiences across multiple platforms and devices |
| GUI | 2020 | IUP | a GUI toolkit |
| 2023 | TekUI | a cross-platform GUI toolkit | |
| 2024 | https://github.com/samyeyo/LuaRT | A framework (and accompanying IDE) for writing Windows desktop or console applications | |
| GLU | a Lua GUI toolkit | ||
| Game Development | 2020 | Grid SDK | a game engine for Lua |
| 2022 | solar2d | a fork of the former Corona SDK, now open-sourced | |
| LISP | 2025 | fennel | a LISP that compiles to Lua |
| l2l | a LISP that compiles to Lua | ||
| Urn | another, more sophisticated LISP that compiles to Lua | ||
| Libraries | 2020 | ltui | a terminal UI kit |
| 2021 | Penlight | a nice set of Python-inspired modules to paper over the lack of a good standard library in Lua | |
| 2024 | civlua | A curated set of libraries to build a minimalist dev environment. | |
| 2025 | feedparser | An RSS feed parser. | |
| Torch7 | A scientific toolkit | ||
| Slab | a GUI library for Lua and LÖVE | ||
| ldump | Serialize any lua data | ||
| lux | a Lua package manager | ||
| lua-git | a Lua library that implements some | ||
| Menori | a Lua framework for LÖVE with 3D support | ||
| 2026 | Ito | Declarative UI library for Lua inspired by SwiftUI, with stateful widgets, layouts, and an interactive browser workshop | |
| Multiprocessing | 2023 | LuaLanes | A nice alternative to coroutines |
| Music | 2025 | modest | A musical harmony library for Lua |
| Runtimes | 2020 | Ravi | a dialect of Lua with limited optional static typing |
| 2023 | MicroLua | a Lua VM for the RP2040 microcontroller with cooperative multithreading and Fennel support | |
| Pluto | a superset of Lua 5.4 with some added syntax sugar | ||
| go-lua | a lua VM in Go | ||
| blua | blazing fast native Lua for Unity | ||
| Mako Server | an all-in-one Lua application server with MQTT, HTTP, database and OPC servers. GPLv2 with a very strange license. | ||
| Nelua | a typed language with Lua syntax and AOT compilation that can target WASM. | ||
| 2024 | luax | interpreter and REPL augmented with some useful packages and the ability to create standalone executables | |
| piccolo | An experimental stackless Lua VM implemented in pure Rust | ||
| luau | a fast, small, safe, gradually typed embeddable derived language | ||
| 2025 | LuaJIT | the official JIT | |
| Luvit | A wonderful variant of LuaJIT using | ||
| moonshine | A lightweight Lua VM for the browser | ||
| Moon# | An interpreter written in C# | ||
| luje | A Java VM written in Lua | ||
| luajit-libuv | An FFI binding to libuv that seems nicer than | ||
| gopher-lua | A Lua VM and compiler written in Go | ||
| Tools | 2019 | luastatic | pack and build static executables |
| luapak | pack and build static executables from Lua rocks | ||
| 2021 | lite-xl | a lightweight cross-platform text editor | |
| 2024 | Bounces | a macOS/iOS IDE that allows for live reloading. Sadly, it has a subscription model. | |
| lua-language-server | a language server for Lua | ||
| 2025 | Hammerspoon | A Lua-powered scripting engine for Mac OS X | |
| Verification | 2026 | ship-your-lua | Formal verification of Lua 5.4.7 compiled to bare-metal RISC-V64 in Lean 4 against the Sail model; successor to ship-your-interpreter |
| Web Frameworks | 2022 | fullmoon | a fast and minimalistic web framework based on Redbean - a portable, single-file distributable web server. |
| 2024 | Lapis | A web framework that runs inside the LuaJIT runtime hosted inside | |
| 2025 | Mercury | A tiny Sinatra-like framework |