A new language called let‑go lets developers write Clojure‑like code in pure Go. The compiler outputs a single ~10 MB binary that cold‑starts in just 7 ms, roughly 50× faster than the JVM and three times quicker than Babashka.

The project began in 2021 as a joke but grew into a practical tool. It supports core Clojure features—macros, protocols, lazy sequences, and core.async—while offering two‑way Go interop. The runtime ships with an nREPL server, HTTP client, JSON handling, and can even compile to WASM for browser execution.

Benchmarks on an Apple M1 Pro show let‑go beating Babashka on startup and short‑lived tasks, matching GraalVM on compute workloads, and using only 14 MB of memory for a fib(35) benchmark. While it isn’t a drop‑in replacement for Java‑based Clojure, it delivers a lightweight, embeddable alternative for scripting, web servers, and systems programming.