Luau (programming language)
| Luau | |
|---|---|
| Paradigm | Multi-paradigm: scripting, imperative, procedural, functional |
| Family | Lua |
| Designed by | Roblox Corporation |
| Developer | Roblox Corporation, Open source contributors |
| First appeared | August 27, 2019 |
| Typing discipline | Gradual, dynamic, structural |
| Memory management | Garbage collector |
| Implementation language | C++ |
| License | MIT License |
| Filename extensions | .luau |
| Website | luau |
| Influenced by | |
| Lua 5.1, TypeScript, Python | |
Luau (/ˈluː.aʊ/ LOO-ow) is an open-source scripting language derived from Lua 5.1. Developed by Roblox Corporation, it serves as the primary scripting language for the Roblox platform. Luau adds gradual typing, performance improvements, and sandboxing features to the base Lua language while maintaining backward compatibility with Lua 5.1.
The language was released to Roblox developers in August 2019 and became open source under the MIT License in November 2021. Since its open-source release, Luau has been adopted by several video game developers outside of Roblox, including Remedy Entertainment for Alan Wake 2, Digital Extremes for Warframe, and Giants Software for Farming Simulator 2025.