Elide for Kotlin users

Elide bundles Kotlin 2.5.0-Beta1 and JDK 25 with a build tool, Maven dependency resolver, JUnit runner and ktfmt.

Run the same code

A file with a main function compiles and runs directly:

elide run Main.kt

elide kotlinc, elide java and elide jar run the Kotlin and JDK tools. Their arguments go after --:

elide kotlinc -- -version
elide kotlinc -- -d out Main.kt

A project is an elide.pkl file. Maven dependencies, kotlinx.serialization, kotlinx.coroutines and JUnit need no plugin blocks:

elide init --plain --skip-defaults --template ktjvm   # new project
elide install                                         # resolve Maven dependencies
elide build                                           # compile and assemble
elide test                                            # run JUnit tests
elide run                                             # run jvm.main
elide format -- src                                   # ktfmt

See Java and Kotlin with Elide, Kotlin Compiler, Testing and the elide.pkl reference.

What changes

ManagedKotlinToolchain needs import "elide:Kotlin.pkl" as Kotlin and applies to project builds; elide kotlinc always uses the bundled Kotlin.

Benchmarks

No benchmarks are published for JVM programs in 1.6.0. For ahead-of-time builds, see Native Image.

Strengths

• One binary replaces the JDK, kotlinc, the Maven resolver, the JUnit launcher and ktfmt.
• kotlinx.serialization, coroutines, Power Assert and Metro are enabled without configuration. atomicfu is on too, with its runtime library.
• ManagedKotlinToolchain builds a project with another Kotlin version, prereleases included.
• Workspace members can read a sibling’s internal declarations with project("core").friend().

Weaknesses

• No Gradle support: elide build does not read build.gradle.kts, and Gradle plugins have no equivalent.
• KAPT and KSP are unsupported; Kotlin that uses Java-generated types must take them from an upstream source set.
• The bundled compiler is Kotlin 2.5.0-Beta1, a beta.
• elide java does not add kotlin-stdlib (NoClassDefFoundError), and elide kotlinc -- -include-runtime fails. Run with elide run, or package with a Jvm.JvmApplication (JAR Assembly).
• elide adopt is untested on multi-module and Android projects.

Next steps

• Java and Kotlin with Elide
• JVM APIs
• Kotlin Compiler
• Adopt an Existing Project