The reference states what the toolchain accepts and what it does — exactly, with every value spelled the way the compiler spells it. Where the capability catalog explains what the compiler guarantees and why, the reference is the part you consult with a command line open.
It grows chapter by chapter alongside the release train:
| Chapter | Covers |
|---|---|
| The command line | every flag of the mica binary: modes, inputs, targets, optimization, deployment classes, diagnostics |
| Traps and tiers | every runtime trap by name, the tier each one runs on, and what each optimization tier proves, guards, and deliberately leaves undefined |
| Library contracts | the mica.external format whole: libraries, link blocks, types, functions, encodings, and the error conventions the compiler lifts |
| The type system | every type kind and the capabilities it carries, what promotion does implicitly and a cast does explicitly, and the rules that read capabilities rather than names |
| Known limitations | what the current release deliberately does not do, the spelling that works instead, and where each boundary is headed |
| The language | in preparation — the language reference arrives as its own set of chapters |