A Nock-Based Computational Substrate

From the Executive Director • July 12, 2026

From the Executive Director: A long-running joke on the network is that Urbit winning requires that "Nock is the only legal form of computing." Now, we're 95% sure that 99% of the people who say this are doing so in jest, but regardless of how literally anyone takes the phrase, it is a sight to behold when Nock enthusiasts really spread their wings and run with the idea of a tiny instruction set used for all computation.

In planning the content for June, it was clear that Nock was going to be a bit part of the conversation. We wanted to talk to ~lagrev-nocfep about teaching Hoon School and what captured his attention about Urbit, and potentially have an article about some of the language design work he has done, but what emerged was a whole month of content around Nock-based computing.

~lagrev shared how "the puzzle box nature of Nock and Hoon" captured his interest, and then the Languages on Nock article followed on covering projects from ~lagrev-nocfep, ~fodwyt-ragful, and ~mopfel-winrux.

And as a last-minute, out-of-the-blue contribution—while we were drafting the article—~havdeb-satmex swung in and released "Yamoon" (a YAML-like language that compiles to Hoon) which we were excited to include in the article. Anyone who has been avoiding Urbit development in an effort to avoid Hoon's particular oddities, it is definitely worth checking out Yamoon.

What's Most Impressive

But to quell the fears anyone might have of an actual future where RISC-V or x86 are forbidden, we can note that even those committed to Nock see value beyond its 12 opcodes:

"I'm firmly convinced that over-indexing on one particular approach to computing is like planting a garden with a monoculture, only one kind of crop, one kind of vegetable. You extract value from it, but there are a lot of possibilities you leave on the table by not trying other things out, and there are vulnerabilities you introduce by the lack of biodiversity."
— ~lagrev-nocfep

So, a future where "Nock is the only legal form of computing" probably isn't actually on the roadmap. But if you've been focused on von Neumann architectures for your computing substrate, maybe this is your sign to try to see what you can do with 12 opcodes and a solid-state interpreter.

See you on the network, ~sicdev-pilnup

Contributor Spotlight: ~lagrev-nocfep

A conversation with ~lagrev-nocfep on Nock, language design, computation, and the forever computer. Read the interview at urbit.org/blog/contributor-spotlight-lagrev-nocfep

Languages on Nock

A survey of Hoon, Jock, Yamoon, North, Loon, and the programming languages emerging around Nock. Learn how Nock acts as a versatile substrate for far more than Hoon.

This Month in Urbit: June 2026

June ecosystem updates covering new Nock languages and tools like Yamoon and Lua-Hoon, Tlon Messenger's public launch, and Urbit Skills entering alpha. Read the recap at urbit.org/blog/this-month-in-urbit-june-2026