Gleam — Type-Safe Language for the BEAM

Overview

Gleam, the type-safe functional language that runs on the Erlang BEAM virtual machine. Helps developers build concurrent, fault-tolerant applications with Gleam's friendly syntax, exhaustive pattern matching, and access to the entire Erlang/OTP ecosystem.

Instructions

Project Setup

# Install Gleam
brew install gleam    # macOS
# Or: curl -fsSL https://gleam.run/install | sh

# Create a new project
gleam new my_app
cd my_app

# Run
gleam run

# Test
gleam test

# Build for production
gleam build

Type-Safe Web Server with Wisp

// src/my_app/router.gleam — Type-safe HTTP routing
// Gleam catches errors at compile time — no runtime crashes from typos.

import gleam/http.{Get, Post, Delete}
import gleam/http/request.{type Request}
import gleam/http/response.{type Response}
import gleam/json
import gleam/result
import wisp.{type Request as WispRequest, type Response as WispResponse}

pub fn handle_request(req: WispRequest) -> WispResponse {
  case wisp.path_segments(req) {
    // GET /api/tasks
    ["api", "tasks"] -> list_tasks(req)

    // GET /api/tasks/:id
    ["api", "tasks", id] -> get_task(req, id)

    // POST /api/tasks
    ["api", "tasks"] if req.method == Post -> create_task(req)

    // DELETE /api/tasks/:id
    ["api", "tasks", id] if req.method == Delete -> delete_task(req, id)

    // 404 for everything else
    _ -> wisp.not_found()
  }
}

fn list_tasks(req: WispRequest) -> WispResponse {
  // Pattern matching ensures we handle every case
  case task_service.get_all() {
    Ok(tasks) -> {
      let body = json.array(tasks, task_to_json)
      wisp.json_response(json.to_string_builder(body), 200)
    }
    Error(err) -> {
      wisp.log_error("Failed to list tasks: " <> err)
      wisp.internal_server_error()
    }
  }
}

fn create_task(req: WispRequest) -> WispResponse {
  use body <- wisp.require_json(req)

  // Decode and validate — compiler ensures all fields are handled
  case decode_create_request(body) {
    Ok(create_req) -> {
      case task_service.create(create_req.title, create_req.priority) {
        Ok(task) -> wisp.json_response(
          json.to_string_builder(task_to_json(task)),
          201,
        )
        Error(err) -> wisp.unprocessable_entity()
      }
    }
    Error(_) -> wisp.bad_request()
  }
}

Custom Types and Pattern Matching

// src/my_app/task.gleam — Domain types with exhaustive matching
// The compiler guarantees you handle every variant — impossible to forget a case.

import gleam/option.{type Option, Some, None}

/// Task priority — the compiler ensures you handle all variants
pub type Priority {
  Low
  Medium
  High
  Urgent
}

/// Task status with strict state machine semantics
pub type Status {
  Todo
  InProgress
  Review
  Done
  Cancelled
}

pub type Task {
  Task(
    id: String,
    title: String,
    description: Option(String),
    priority: Priority,
    status: Status,
    assignee: Option(String),
  )
}

/// Validate status transitions — not all transitions are allowed.
/// The compiler ensures every combination is handled.
pub fn transition(from: Status, to: Status) -> Result(Status, String) {
  case from, to {
    // Valid transitions
    Todo, InProgress -> Ok(InProgress)
    InProgress, Review -> Ok(Review)
    Review, Done -> Ok(Done)
    Review, InProgress -> Ok(InProgress)    // Send back for changes

    // Any status can be cancelled
    _, Cancelled -> Ok(Cancelled)

    // Can't move backwards to Todo
    _, Todo -> Error("Cannot move back to Todo")

    // Can't skip steps
    Todo, Done -> Error("Must go through InProgress and Review first")
    Todo, Review -> Error("Must go through InProgress first")

    // Already in target state
    same, target if same == target -> Ok(target)

    // Everything else is invalid
    _, _ -> Error("Invalid status transition")
  }
}

/// Calculate SLA based on priority — exhaustive, no default needed
pub fn sla_hours(priority: Priority) -> Int {
  case priority {
    Low -> 72
    Medium -> 24
    High -> 8
    Urgent -> 2
  }
}

Concurrency with OTP Actors

// src/my_app/task_actor.gleam — Concurrent actor for task management
// Gleam runs on the BEAM — millions of lightweight processes, fault-tolerant.

import gleam/erlang/process.{type Subject}
import gleam/otp/actor.{type Next}

/// Messages the actor can receive
pub type Message {
  GetAll(reply_to: Subject(List(Task)))
  Create(title: String, priority: Priority, reply_to: Subject(Result(Task, String)))
  UpdateStatus(id: String, status: Status, reply_to: Subject(Result(Task, String)))
}

/// Actor state
pub type State {
  State(tasks: List(Task), next_id: Int)
}

/// Handle each message type
fn handle_message(message: Message, state: State) -> Next(Message, State) {
  case message {
    GetAll(reply_to) -> {
      process.send(reply_to, state.tasks)
      actor.continue(state)
    }

    Create(title, priority, reply_to) -> {
      let id = "task-" <> int.to_string(state.next_id)
      let task = Task(
        id: id,
        title: title,
        description: None,
        priority: priority,
        status: Todo,
        assignee: None,
      )
      process.send(reply_to, Ok(task))
      actor.continue(State(
        tasks: [task, ..state.tasks],
        next_id: state.next_id + 1,
      ))
    }

    UpdateStatus(id, new_status, reply_to) -> {
      let result = update_task_status(state.tasks, id, new_status)
      case result {
        Ok(updated_tasks) -> {
          process.send(reply_to, Ok(find_task(updated_tasks, id)))
          actor.continue(State(..state, tasks: updated_tasks))
        }
        Error(err) -> {
          process.send(reply_to, Error(err))
          actor.continue(state)
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

/// Start the actor
pub fn start() -> Result(Subject(Message), actor.StartError) {
  actor.start(State(tasks: [], next_id: 1), handle_message)
}

Installation

# macOS
brew install gleam

# Linux
curl -fsSL https://gleam.run/install | sh

# Dependencies
gleam add wisp           # Web framework
gleam add gleam_json     # JSON encoding/decoding
gleam add sqlight        # SQLite bindings
gleam add gleam_http     # HTTP types

Examples

Example 1: Building a feature with Gleam

User request:

Add a real-time collaborative project setup to my React app using Gleam.

The agent installs the package, creates the component with proper Gleam initialization, implements the project setup with event handling and state management, and adds TypeScript types for the integration.

Example 2: Migrating an existing feature to Gleam

User request:

I have a basic type-safe web server with wisp built with custom code. Migrate it to use Gleam for better type-safe web server with wisp support.

The agent reads the existing implementation, maps the custom logic to Gleam's API, rewrites the components using Gleam's primitives, preserves existing behavior, and adds features only possible with Gleam (like Custom Types and Pattern Matching, Concurrency with OTP Actors).

Guidelines

1. Let the compiler help — Gleam's type system catches bugs at compile time; if it compiles, it almost certainly works
2. Use custom types over strings — Define

   Priority

   and

   Status

   as custom types, not strings; the compiler ensures you handle every variant
3. Pattern matching for control flow — Replace if/else chains with pattern matching; the compiler warns about missing cases
4. Result type over exceptions — Gleam has no exceptions; use

   Result(value, error)

   and

   use

   syntax for error handling
5. Leverage the BEAM — Gleam runs on Erlang's VM; you get fault tolerance, hot code reloading, and millions of concurrent processes for free
6. Call Erlang/Elixir libraries — Use

   @external

   to call any Erlang or Elixir library; the entire OTP ecosystem is available
7. Pipelines for data transformation — Use

   |>

   operator for readable data pipelines:

   data |> filter |> map |> sort

8. Actors for state — Use OTP actors (via gleam_otp) for concurrent stateful services; each actor is isolated and crash-safe