--- sidebar_position: 1 title: Overview --- Squiggle is a minimalist programming language for probabilistic estimation. It's meant for intuitively-driven quantitative estimation instead of data analysis or data-driven statistical techniques. The basics of Squiggle are fairly straightforward. This can be enough for many models. The more advanced functionality can take some time to learn. ## Using Squiggle You can currently interact with Squiggle in a few ways: **[Playground](/playground)** The [Squiggle Playground](/playground) is a nice tool for working with small models and making prototypes. You can make simple sharable links, but you can't save models that change over time. **[Typescript Library](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@quri/squiggle-lang)** Squiggle is built using [Rescript](https://rescript-lang.org/), and is accessible via a simple Typescript library. You can use this library to either run Squiggle code in full, or to call select specific functions within Squiggle (though this latter functionality is very minimal). **[React Components Library](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@quri/squiggle-components)** All of the components used in the playground and documentation are available in a separate component NPM repo. You can see the full Storybook of components [here](https://squiggle-components.netlify.app). **[Visual Studio Code Extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=QURI.vscode-squiggle)** There's a simple [VS Code extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=QURI.vscode-squiggle) for running and visualizing Squiggle code. We find that VS Code is a useful editor for managing larger Squiggle setups. ## Squiggle Vs. Other Tools ### What Squiggle Is - A simple programming language for doing math with probability distributions. - An embeddable language that can be used in Javascript applications. - A tool to encode functions as forecasts that can be embedded in other applications. ### What Squiggle Is Not - A complete replacement for enterprise Risk Analysis tools. (See [Crystal Ball](https://www.oracle.com/applications/crystalball/), [@Risk](https://www.palisade.com/risk/), [Lumina Analytica](https://lumina.com/)) - A [probabilistic programming language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probabilistic_programming). Squiggle does not support Bayesian inference. - A tool for substantial data analysis. (See programming languages like [Python](https://www.python.org/) or [Julia](https://julialang.org/)) - A programming language for anything other than estimation. - A visually-driven tool. (See [Guesstimate](https://www.getguesstimate.com/) and [Causal](https://causal.app/)) ### Strengths - Simple and readable syntax, especially for dealing with probabilistic math. - Fast for relatively small models. Strong for rapid prototyping. - Optimized for using some numeric and symbolic approaches, not just Monte Carlo. - Embeddable in Javascript. - Free and open-source. ### Weaknesses - Limited scientific capabilities. - Much slower than serious probabilistic programming languages on sizeable models. - Can't do Bayesian backwards inference. - Essentially no support for libraries or modules (yet). - Still very new, so a tiny ecosystem. - Still very new, so there are likely math bugs. - Generally not as easy to use as Guesstimate or Causal, especially for non programmers. ## Organization Squiggle is one of the main projects of [The Quantified Uncertainty Research Institute](https://quantifieduncertainty.org/). QURI is a nonprofit funded primarily by [Effective Altruist](https://www.effectivealtruism.org/) donors. ## Get started - [Gallery](./Discussions/Gallery) - [Squiggle playground](/playground) - [Language basics](./Guides/Language) - [Squiggle functions source of truth](./Guides/Functions) - [Known bugs](./Discussions/Bugs) - [Original lesswrong sequence](https://www.lesswrong.com/s/rDe8QE5NvXcZYzgZ3) - [Author your squiggle models as Observable notebooks](https://observablehq.com/@hazelfire/squiggle)