After 7 years in production, Scarf has reluctantly moved away from Haskell
avi.press
July 10, 2026
11 min read
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45/100
Summary
Scarf has transitioned away from Haskell after seven years of production use. The decision reflects challenges faced while using Haskell in their development process.
Key Takeaways
- Scarf has moved away from Haskell after seven years of using it in production due to issues with compilation time and ecosystem friction.
- The rise of AI and LLMs has changed the economics of software development, making long compile times a significant bottleneck in the development process.
- The author emphasizes that while type safety remains important, the cost of typechecking is now more critical in a landscape where AI can generate code quickly.
- The need for faster development feedback cycles has led to a preference for languages with shorter build times, especially when using multiple coding agents in parallel.
Community Sentiment
Positives
- The combination of LLMs and Haskell is yielding impressive productivity, especially with type systems that provide vital feedback during development.
- Haskell's expressiveness and strong type system seem to help agents converge quickly to functional code, making it a powerful choice despite compile time issues.
- Some developers argue that Haskell's compile-time checks make it easier to catch errors, which is crucial when using LLMs for code generation.
Concerns
- The slow compile times of Haskell are a significant hurdle, especially for iterative development with LLMs, making it less viable for fast-paced environments.
- Critics highlight that relying solely on LLMs could lead to overlooking valuable compile-time checks, undermining the quality of generated code.
- Some users feel that the author’s decision to move away from Haskell indicates a troubling shift away from strong type systems that help constrain LLM outputs.
