{"slug": "spark", "name": "Spark", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI models and assistants", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 6, "warners": 2, "score": 1.343, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2026-01-18", "latest": "2026-09-17", "why": "a better known implementation (in Bash) is probably https://github.com/holman/spark", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "a better known implementation (in Bash) is probably https://github.com/holman/spark", "icon": true, "domain": "adacore.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://spark.apache.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Spark", "SPARK", "spark"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795943057, "item_id": 49746441, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49746441", "by": "Jtsummers", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The latter is mature and used in some parts of the software industry today.", "excerpt": "Proof happens before compilation, and doesn't require compilation. You can follow the Verus tutorials for the specifics, but you can use it as a standalone verifier or as a compilation \"stage\" where it'll run its verification and then conditionally continue on to compilation. Their tutorial seems ok: https://verus-lang.github.io/verus/guide/overview.html But if you want a more complete tutorial on this concept using ", "context": "", "use_case": "formal verification", "switched_from": "", "story": "Developing provably correct Rust code with Verus"}, {"id": 791962960, "item_id": 49497685, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49497685", "by": "priteau", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a better known implementation (in Bash) is probably https://github.com/holman/spark", "excerpt": "I am not sure why this repository last updated in November 2011 is suddenly on the front page? Anyway, a better known implementation (in Bash) is probably https://github.com/holman/spark, which was developed by Zach Holman, one of the first GitHub hires.", "context": "", "use_case": "sparklines in shell", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spark: Sparklines in your shell"}, {"id": 780028384, "item_id": 48751774, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48751774", "by": "csb6", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you might want to check out SPARK", "excerpt": "For people looking for other languages with statically checked contracts, you might want to check out SPARK, which has been around in some form since the late 1980s. It is a subset of the Ada language and had been used for safety critical code in aerospace and defense projects, as well as for some Nvidia firmware. It also uses Z3 to discharge proof obligations generated by the contract annotations, and it lets you us", "context": "", "use_case": "statically checked contracts for safety-critical code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Salt v1.0.0 \u2013 a systems language with Z3 theorem proving in the compiler"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 793915105, "item_id": 49619694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49619694", "by": "artdigital", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Spark asks you for every single tool call, often forgets earlier parts of the conversation", "excerpt": "More because Spark is not good. Gemini Flash 3.8 is an awesome model! I use it all the time Spark asks you for every single tool call, often forgets earlier parts of the conversation, is unable to use apps unless you explicitly tag them and and and Google has great models, but their harnesses and products are just bad", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Muse \u2013 Meta\u2019s personal AI agent"}, {"id": 746814305, "item_id": 46675894, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46675894", "by": "willtemperley", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With Spark, attempting to process OSM for a small country failed.", "excerpt": "That's a good point. Hadoop may not be the most efficient way, but when a deliverable is required, Hadoop is a known quantity and really works. I did some interesting work ten years ago, building pipelines to create global raster images of the entire Open Street Map road network [1]. I was able to process the planet in 25 minutes on a $50k cluster. I think I had the opposite problem: Hadoop wasn't shiny enough and Ja", "context": "", "use_case": "OSM processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["formal verification", "sparklines in shell", "offloaded coding tasks", "statically checked contracts for safety-critical code", "osm processing"], "compared": [{"slug": "clickhouse", "name": "ClickHouse", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "duckdb", "name": "DuckDB", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700153", "title": "Developing provably correct Rust code with Verus", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49615537", "title": "Muse \u2013 Meta\u2019s personal AI agent", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49497265", "title": "Spark: Sparklines in your shell", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49289844", "title": "Accelerating GPT-5.6 Sol Ultrafast", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48750008", "title": "Salt v1.0.0 \u2013 a systems language with Z3 theorem proving in the compiler", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46666085", "title": "Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"warn": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 795943057, "item_id": 49746441, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49746441", "by": "Jtsummers", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The latter is mature and used in some parts of the software industry today.", "excerpt": "Proof happens before compilation, and doesn't require compilation. You can follow the Verus tutorials for the specifics, but you can use it as a standalone verifier or as a compilation \"stage\" where it'll run its verification and then conditionally continue on to compilation. Their tutorial seems ok: https://verus-lang.github.io/verus/guide/overview.html But if you want a more complete tutorial on this concept using ", "context": "", "use_case": "formal verification", "switched_from": "", "story": "Developing provably correct Rust code with Verus"}, {"id": 793915105, "item_id": 49619694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49619694", "by": "artdigital", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Spark asks you for every single tool call, often forgets earlier parts of the conversation", "excerpt": "More because Spark is not good. Gemini Flash 3.8 is an awesome model! I use it all the time Spark asks you for every single tool call, often forgets earlier parts of the conversation, is unable to use apps unless you explicitly tag them and and and Google has great models, but their harnesses and products are just bad", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Muse \u2013 Meta\u2019s personal AI agent"}, {"id": 791962960, "item_id": 49497685, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49497685", "by": "priteau", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a better known implementation (in Bash) is probably https://github.com/holman/spark", "excerpt": "I am not sure why this repository last updated in November 2011 is suddenly on the front page? Anyway, a better known implementation (in Bash) is probably https://github.com/holman/spark, which was developed by Zach Holman, one of the first GitHub hires.", "context": "", "use_case": "sparklines in shell", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spark: Sparklines in your shell"}, {"id": 789030930, "item_id": 49314433, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49314433", "by": "tandr", "date": "2026-08-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "offload things to \"free\" Spark model", "excerpt": "Wait, you have noticed it too? I burned through weekly limit in 25 hours after last reset on Thursday, without changing what I was doing before that. Interestingly enough, previous subscription to Plus gave me about 2-3 days of coding. So I switched to Pro Light now, gave me about the same amount for a week or so (G-d bless these quota resets of theirs!). Now, with the last reset I only gathered 25 hours before I hit", "context": "", "use_case": "offloaded coding tasks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Accelerating GPT-5.6 Sol Ultrafast"}, {"id": 780028384, "item_id": 48751774, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48751774", "by": "csb6", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you might want to check out SPARK", "excerpt": "For people looking for other languages with statically checked contracts, you might want to check out SPARK, which has been around in some form since the late 1980s. It is a subset of the Ada language and had been used for safety critical code in aerospace and defense projects, as well as for some Nvidia firmware. It also uses Z3 to discharge proof obligations generated by the contract annotations, and it lets you us", "context": "", "use_case": "statically checked contracts for safety-critical code", "switched_from": "", "story": "Salt v1.0.0 \u2013 a systems language with Z3 theorem proving in the compiler"}, {"id": 746814305, "item_id": 46675894, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46675894", "by": "willtemperley", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With Spark, attempting to process OSM for a small country failed.", "excerpt": "That's a good point. Hadoop may not be the most efficient way, but when a deliverable is required, Hadoop is a known quantity and really works. I did some interesting work ten years ago, building pipelines to create global raster images of the entire Open Street Map road network [1]. I was able to process the planet in 25 minutes on a $50k cluster. I think I had the opposite problem: Hadoop wasn't shiny enough and Ja", "context": "", "use_case": "OSM processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)"}]}