58 releases (28 breaking)
Uses new Rust 2024
| 0.47.0 | May 3, 2026 |
|---|---|
| 0.45.3 | Mar 3, 2026 |
| 0.45.0 | Feb 28, 2026 |
| 0.39.3 | Dec 28, 2025 |
| 0.18.1 | Mar 31, 2025 |
#300 in Network programming
235KB
5K
SLoC

Astra is a Rust based runtime environment for Lua (5.1-5.5), Luau and LuaJIT. The goal is to get as much performance as possible while writing the logic in Lua instead for faster iteration, fault-tolerance and no-build requirements. This project is internally used here at ArkForge, by universities, research labs, and many large organizations.
For enterprise and business inquiries, send us an email at contact@arkforge.net
MSRV: 1.92+
installation
You can install using an installer script:
Linux
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://astra.arkforge.net/install.sh)"
Windows
powershell -c "irm https://astra.arkforge.net/install.ps1 | iex"
Cargo
Alternatively you can also install through cargo tool, if you have it installed:
cargo install lua-astra
Example
-- Create a new server
local server = require("http").server.new()
-- Register a route
server:get("/", function()
return "hello from default Astra instance!"
end)
-- Configure the server
server.port = 3000
-- Run the server
server:run()
Or fancy some multi threaded async code
-- spawn an async task that does not block the running thread
spawn_task(function ()
-- HTTP Request to check your IP address
local response = require("http").request("https://myip.wtf/json"):execute()
pprint(response:status_code(), response:remote_address(), response:body():json())
end)
What about some databases and serialization?
local my_data = require("serde").json.decode('{"name": "John Astra", "age": 21}')
local db = require("database").new("sqlite", ":memory:")
db:execute([[
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS data (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT, age INTEGER) strict;
INSERT INTO data (name, age) VALUES ($1, $2);
]], { my_data.name, my_data.age })
pprint(db:query_all("SELECT * FROM data"))
There is also support for cryptography, datetime, jinja2, markdown, pubsub/observers, structure validation, async filesystem, and many more, check them at at the docs
Community Projects
- Astra Trails - https://github.com/0riginaln0/astra-trails
- Hack Club Clubs API - https://github.com/hackclub/clubapi
If you have a project that uses or extends Astra, let us know about it by extending the list above or opening a new issue
Where is the community?
In the past, we had a discord server where you could join and talk in, however we moved it to GitHub discussions instead. Please open conversations here from now on.
Note
This project may have breaking changes in minor versions until v1.0. Afterwhich semver will be followed. Contributions are always welcome!
Dependencies
~93MB
~1.5M SLoC