VIP-26: top-level await, and no magic main

Status: accepted, 2026-10-29, under Will's standing approval of recommendations ("assume I accept now. I will interrupt you if I need to").

Decision

import { NodeRuntime } from "@effect/platform-node"
export effect function main() { … }
NodeRuntime.runMain(main())     // exactly as in Effect TS
await runPromise(main())        // or ES top-level await of a Promise (VIP-5); runPromise is a VIP-6 global

• A module's top level is ordinary JavaScript. await there is ES top-level await of a Promise (VIP-5), and try is not allowed, because a top level is not an effect function.
• There is no magic entry point. A function named main is an ordinary function, and you call a runner yourself, exactly as in Effect TS.

Corrected 2026-11-02: the Decision example imports NodeRuntime from @effect/platform-node, which is not in scope (VIP-14), as chapter 1 does (found by the round-6 review).

Amendment: source file kind

Every source .vibe compilation unit is an external module before binding and checking, independently of written imports and exports, required prelude imports, vibe.effectGlobals and vibe.effectModules. Preserve that classification in emitted JavaScript and declaration sidecars with an effective empty module marker when needed. Ordinary TypeScript module emission and host rules, including incompatible-option diagnostics, apply. Top-level await therefore requires supported module and target options. This adds no implicit runner or special main. The moduleDetection exception is explicit in VIP-30.

Amendment: legacy entry markers

The retired side-effect imports vibelang/platform/node, vibelang/platform/bun and vibelang/platform/browser report EK2601, naming vibelang --fix. The entry migration rewrites the startup to an explicit runner; a rewrite that can't preserve types, behavior and declaration output refuses at that site. A refused marker remains an error; no implicit startup is retained and no ordinary main binding is rejected.

What was not adopted

Old VibeLang (D135, D517, EK4843) had the compiler emit runMain(main()) for an exported main. That needed the platform, the entry file and rules for const main, which is behavior Effect doesn't have.

History

The old findings were contradictions about main (EK4843 versus chapter 28). They are moot.