Question 1

How secure is Tengo for running untrusted user code?

Accepted Answer

Tengo is designed with security in mind, using a VM that isolates script execution and controlled APIs for interoperability. However, like any embedded language, it requires careful host application design to prevent vulnerabilities such as excessive resource usage or injection attacks.

Question 2

Tengo vs Lua for embedding in Go: which is better?

Accepted Answer

Tengo offers tighter Go integration and better performance in benchmarks, as it's written natively in Go. Lua has a larger ecosystem and more mature tooling. Choose Tengo if you prioritize Go-native performance and security; opt for Lua if you need extensive libraries or existing Lua code reuse.

Question 3

How to add custom Go functions to Tengo scripts?

Accepted Answer

You can expose Go functions by using the `Add` method on a Script instance to bind values, or define custom object types as shown in the interoperability documentation. This allows scripts to call Go code directly for extended functionality.

Question 4

Does Tengo support JSON or HTTP out of the box?

Accepted Answer

Tengo's standard library is minimal and does not include built-in JSON or HTTP modules. You'll need to expose Go's standard library functions through custom bindings, which adds development overhead compared to languages with richer built-ins.

Question 5

What's the performance impact of using Tengo in a Go app?

Accepted Answer

Tengo adds VM overhead, so script execution is slower than native Go but faster than many interpreters like starlark-go or otto. For CPU-intensive tasks, consider the trade-off between flexibility and performance, as shown in the Fibonacci benchmarks.

Question 6

Can Tengo scripts handle concurrency or parallelism?

Accepted Answer

Tengo itself lacks built-in concurrency primitives; concurrency must be managed by the host Go application. Scripts run in a single goroutine, making it unsuitable for tasks requiring independent parallel execution without additional Go-level coordination.

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