The reference states what the toolchain accepts and what it does — exactly, with every value spelled the way the compiler spells it. It is the part of the site you consult with a command line open. Its chapters, in the order they are listed below:
| Chapter | Covers |
|---|---|
| The command line | every flag of the mica binary: modes, inputs, targets, optimization, deployment classes, diagnostics |
| Traps, tiers, and what the compiler guards | every runtime trap by name, the tier each one runs on, and what each optimization tier proves, guards, and deliberately leaves undefined |
| Library contracts: mica.external | 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 |
| The style of Mica source | how a Mica source is shaped, named, laid out and commented, each rule with a program that compiles, and the formatter that writes the layout for you |
| Known limitations | what the current release deliberately does not do, the spelling that works instead, and where each boundary is headed |
| Runtime flags | what a built program may be told when it starts, in a +mica ... -mica group ahead of its own arguments: the flags, the build’s policy over them, pinned values, and the exact refusals |
| The runtime protocol | how a running program answers a client over a socket of its own: the transport and its security, the framing, the session, every method with its parameters and result, every error and refusal reason, and the bounds |
| The program manifest | what every linked program states about itself, readable without starting it: the compiler that built it, its target, optimization, memory class, tasking and carriers, stack request, runtime-flag policy and GPU use, member by member |
| Remarks | every remark the compiler can speak: its code, the fact it states, the alternative it names, and when it speaks — the third voice beside errors and warnings, heard only with --remarks |
| The grammar | the syntax of the language whole, in EBNF with a diagram for every rule: the characters and tokens of a source, its units and declarations, its types, its statements and its expressions, and the spellings the compiler refuses by name |