Lito

Lito is a module-first build tool for C++.
A fixed lito.toml describes packages, workspaces, targets, dependencies, and build policy.
Lito discovers named module sources and drives Clang, LLD, and LLVM tools.

Documentation

Requirements

• LLVM/Clang 22: clang, clang++, ld.lld, llvm-ar, and llvm-strip.
• A supported C++ standard library: libc++ or libstdc++ on Unix-like targets, and MSVC STL or a separately supplied shared libc++ on Windows MSVC targets.
• clang-format for lito format.
• CMake 4 and Ninja when bootstrapping Lito or building a CMake dependency.

Bootstrap

cmake --preset release
cmake --build --preset release
cmake --install build/cmake-release --prefix build/install

./build/install/bin/lito --version

First project

Create this layout:

hello/
├── lito.toml
└── src/
    └── main.cppm

lito.toml:

[package]
name = "hello"
version = "0.1.0"

[[bin]]
name = "hello"
module = "hello"

src/main.cppm:

module;

#include <cstdio>

export module hello;

auto main() -> int {
    std::puts("Hello from Lito");
    return 0;
}

Build and run:

lito build
./build/debug/bin/hello/hello

Because the target omits sources, Lito uses the runnable entry convention at src/main.cppm and discovers its module dependencies. Use explicit sources for targets that do not follow the module convention.

See the manifest schema for the machine-readable structure and the documentation for package, workspace, configuration, and CLI details.

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0