docs/pages/api-reference/luau.md

# Luau

Built-in library for generating luau bytecode & functions.

#### Example usage

```lua
local luau = require("@lune/luau")

local bytecode = luau.compile("print('Hello, World!')")
local callableFn = luau.load(bytecode)

-- Additionally, we can skip the bytecode generation and load a callable function directly from the code itself.
-- local callableFn = luau.load("print('Hello, World!')")

callableFn()
```

Since luau bytecode is highly compressible, it may also make sense to compress it using the `serde`
library while transmitting large amounts of it.

## Functions

### compile

Compiles sourcecode into Luau bytecode

An error will be thrown if the sourcecode given isn't valid Luau code.

#### Example usage

```lua
local luau = require("@lune/luau")

-- Compile the source to some highly optimized bytecode
local bytecode = luau.compile("print('Hello, World!')", {
	optimizationLevel = 2,
	coverageLevel = 0,
	debugLevel = 1,
})
```

#### Parameters

-   `source` The string that will be compiled into bytecode

-   `compileOptions` The options passed to the luau compiler that will output the bytecode

#### Returns

-   luau bytecode

---

### load

Generates a function from either bytecode or sourcecode

An error will be thrown if the sourcecode given isn't valid luau code.

#### Example usage

```lua
local luau = require("@lune/luau")

local bytecode = luau.compile("print('Hello, World!')")
local callableFn = luau.load(bytecode, {
	debugName = "'Hello, World'"
})

callableFn()
```

#### Parameters

-   `source` Either luau bytecode or string source code

-   `loadOptions` The options passed to luau for loading the chunk

#### Returns

-   luau chunk

---

## Types

### CompileOptions

The options passed to the luau compiler while compiling bytecode.

This is a dictionary that may contain one or more of the following values:

-   `optimizationLevel` - Sets the compiler option "optimizationLevel". Defaults to `1`.
-   `coverageLevel` - Sets the compiler option "coverageLevel". Defaults to `0`.
-   `debugLevel` - Sets the compiler option "debugLevel". Defaults to `1`.

Documentation regarding what these values represent can be found
[here](https://github.com/Roblox/luau/blob/bd229816c0a82a8590395416c81c333087f541fd/Compiler/include/luacode.h#L13-L39).

---

### LoadOptions

The options passed while loading a luau chunk from an arbitrary string, or bytecode.

This is a dictionary that may contain one or more of the following values:

-   `debugName` - The debug name of the closure. Defaults to `luau.load(...)`.
-   `environment` - Environment values to set and/or override. Includes default globals unless
    overwritten.

---