Documentation

This page covers platform version 2026.2: the documentation of every Alan language, the alan script, and guides for common tasks. New to Alan? Learn Alan takes you from an empty project to a working application first.

Alan 2026.3 is out: release notes · upgrading a project · its language reference

Language reference (2026.2)

An Alan project uses several languages, one per kind of file:

• application, in application.alan: the model of your application, and the language the tutorials teach.
• interface, in interface.alan: what one system exchanges with another.
• wiring and deployment, in wiring.alan and deployment.alan: how the systems of a project connect, and where a deployment runs.
• One language per configuration file of a system type: datastore, connector, webclient, session manager.

The documentation of each language is its grammar, with explanations and examples. A version number in the table links the release notes of that version. Your project pins its versions in its versions.json; this versions.json lists the ones that belong to platform version 2026.2.

All versions

Guides

• Migrating application data: carry a dataset into a new version of the model, and write the parts the platform cannot work out by itself.
• Users and passwords: accounts, passwords and sign-up instead of anonymous access.
• Spreadsheet import and export: Excel and CSV out of every collection, CSV back in.
• Version control and offline editing: a project in Git, edited on your own machine and deployed from the IDE.
• Upgrading a project: move a project to a newer platform version.

The alan script (2026.2)

The alan script is the command-line entry point to the platform. It downloads the toolchain of its platform version, sets up a project from a template, builds the project, and packages it for deployment. Deploying a package is what the online IDE does; the script does not deploy. To move a project to a newer platform version, see Upgrading a project.

curl -O https://dist.alan-platform.com/share/versions/2026.2/alan
chmod +x alan
./alan init     # a project from the default template, with the 2026.2 toolchain
./alan build

./alan --help lists every subcommand.

Get help

• The forum is the place to ask when a model does not behave as you expect. Bring the model.
• The FAQ answers the questions people ask before their first application.
• Cannot find the documentation of a file? Ask on the forum as well.