Fizzbee

A formal specification language and model checker to specify distributed systems.

Try out now at Fizzbee Online Playground. No installation needed.

Docs

If you are familiar with TLA+, this would be a quick start: From TLA+ to Fizz

Installation

On Mac, with brew:

brew tap fizzbee-io/fizzbee
brew install fizzbee

Alternately, prebuilt binaries are available for macOS and Linux. Please click the link below to get the latest release: Download the latest release.

You can try without installation at https://fizzbee.io/play

Online Playground

You can try without installation at https://fizzbee.io/play.

Pre-built Binary

If you want to run the model checker locally, Download a correct pre-built release from https://github.com/fizzbee-io/fizzbee/releases, after extracting downloaded package, run:

./fizz path_to_spec.fizz

If you are a Mac user, and have trouble if you download the pre-built binary through browser, please check #152.

Build from Source

Dependencies:

• Bazel: You need bazel installed to build. Bazelisk is the recommended way to use bazel. Rename the binary to bazel and put it part of your PATH.
• gcc: This project uses protobuf. Bazel proto_library does not use precompiled protoc, and it builds from scratch. It requires g++ compiler. sudo apt update; sudo apt install g++

Build:

bazel build parser/parser_bin
bazel build //:fizzbee

Run:

./fizz path_to_spec.fizz  

Example:

./fizz examples/tutorials/19-for-stmt-serial-check-again/ForLoop.fizz 

Note: Generally, you won't need to rebuild the binary, but most likely will be required after each git pull.

Troubleshooting on macOS

1. Build error on macOS with Protobuf

If you see a build error in Mac like this:

ERROR: /private/var/tmp/_bazel_jp/64463e3d7652188cb285edbcf54b686c/external/protobuf+/src/google/protobuf/io/BUILD.bazel:99:11: Compiling src/google/protobuf/io/printer.cc [for tool] failed: (Exit 1): cc_wrapper.sh failed: error executing CppCompile command (from target @@protobuf+//src/google/protobuf/io:printer) external/rules_cc++cc_configure_extension+local_config_cc/cc_wrapper.sh -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -fstack-protector -Wall -Wthread-safety -Wself-assign -Wunused-but-set-parameter -Wno-free-nonheap-object ... (remaining 50 arguments skipped)

Use --sandbox_debug to see verbose messages from the sandbox and retain the sandbox build root for debugging
In file included from external/protobuf+/src/google/protobuf/io/printer.cc:12:
bazel-out/darwin_arm64-opt-exec-ST-d57f47055a04/bin/external/protobuf+/src/google/protobuf/io/_virtual_includes/printer/google/protobuf/io/printer.h:918:19: error: 'get<std::function<bool ()>, std::string, std::function<bool ()>>' is unavailable: introduced in macOS 10.13
    value = absl::get<Callback>(that.value);
                  ^
bazel-out/darwin_arm64-opt-exec-ST-d57f47055a04/bin/external/protobuf+/src/google/protobuf/io/_virtual_includes/printer/google/protobuf/io/printer.h:863:11: note: in instantiation of function template specialization 'google::protobuf::io::Printer::ValueImpl<false>::operator=<true>' requested here
    *this = that;
          ^
bazel-out/darwin_arm64-opt-exec-ST-d57f47055a04/bin/external/protobuf+/src/google/protobuf/io/_virtual_includes/printer/google/protobuf/io/printer.h:1150:12: note: in instantiation of function template specialization 'google::protobuf::io::Printer::ValueImpl<false>::ValueImpl<true>' requested here
    return ValueView(it->second);
           ^
/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include/c++/v1/variant:1577:22: note: 'get<std::function<bool ()>, std::string, std::function<bool ()>>' has been explicitly marked unavailable here
constexpr const _Tp& get(const variant<_Types...>& __v) {
                     ^
1 error generated.

This is a known issue with protobuf compilation in the recent version of protobuf. You can fix it by adding the following to your .bazelrc file:

build --host_cxxopt=-std=c++14 --cxxopt=-std=c++14

The .bazelrc file is located in the root directory of the project. If it does not exist, you can create it.

That is, run the following command:

echo "build --host_cxxopt=-std=c++14 --cxxopt=-std=c++14" >> .bazelrc

2. macOS quarantine warning for prebuilt binaries

When running the fizzbee-20250213-macos_arm binary on macOS Sequoia 15.3 (build 24D60), you may encounter this warning:

Apple could not verify "python3" is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy.

To fix this, you can download the macos_arm release archive manually using this command:

curl -sL $(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/fizzbee-io/fizzbee/releases/latest | grep "http.*macos_arm.tar.gz" | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's|[\"\,]*||g') | tar xzvf -

AI Coding Assistant Skills

FizzBee provides skills for AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and other tools that support the Agent Skills standard). The skills give your AI assistant built-in knowledge of the FizzBee language, how to run the model checker, how to debug specs, and how to write model-based tests — without you having to explain any of it.

Four skills are included:

Skill	Auto-invoked when...
fizz-spec	Writing or editing .fizz specification files
fizz-check	Verifying a spec or running the model checker
fizz-debug	A spec fails, produces unexpected results, or is slow
fizz-mbt	Writing Go adapter code alongside a .fizz spec

Install Skills (one-time setup)

If you installed fizzbee via brew, run:

fizz install-skills

This installs skills and reference docs to ~/.claude/skills/, making them available across all your projects. To preview without making changes:

fizz install-skills --check

To remove:

fizz install-skills --remove

Without a local fizzbee install, you can use the standalone script instead:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fizzbee-io/fizzbee/main/install-claude-skills.sh | bash

Keeping Skills Up to Date

Re-run fizz install-skills after upgrading fizzbee to get updated skills and docs:

brew upgrade fizzbee && fizz install-skills

Once installed, just work normally — your AI assistant will automatically use the right skill based on what you're doing. You can also invoke them explicitly: /fizz-spec, /fizz-check, /fizz-debug, /fizz-mbt.

Development

Bazel build

To run all tests:

bazel test //...

To regenerate BUILD.bazel files,

bazel run //:gazelle

To add a new dependency,

bazel run //:gazelle -- update-repos github.com/your/repo

or

gazelle update-repos github.com/your/repo

When making grammar changes, run

antlr4 -Dlanguage=Python3 -visitor *.g4

and commit the py files. TODO: Automate this using gen-rule, so the generated files are not required in the repository

Cross compilation to linux

Only the go model checker is cross compiled to linux.

On local machine, run bazel build //:fizzbee.

To dockerize or to run on the linux server:

bazel build --platforms=//:linux_arm  //:fizzbee

or

bazel build --platforms=//:linux_x86  //:fizzbee

Python seems to work without platforms flag but unfortunately, passing platforms flag actually breaks the build.

Running Fizz with Docker

Official images are published to GitHub Container Registry for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64:

docker pull ghcr.io/fizzbee-io/fizzbee:latest

Run a Spec

Mount the directory containing your spec and pass the spec path relative to it:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/workspace ghcr.io/fizzbee-io/fizzbee:latest path/to/Spec.fizz

Output (state graphs, traces) is written to out/ next to your spec via the mount.

Using a Shell Alias for Easier CLI Access

Add the following to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

alias fizz='docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/workspace ghcr.io/fizzbee-io/fizzbee:latest'

Then run specs as if fizz were installed locally: fizz Spec.fizz.

Image Tags

• ghcr.io/fizzbee-io/fizzbee:<version> (e.g. 0.5.3) — pinned to a FizzBee release. The FizzBee code in a version tag never changes: it is always installed from that release's published assets. The image digest may still change if the tag is republished on a refreshed base image.
• ghcr.io/fizzbee-io/fizzbee:latest — the latest release, rebuilt monthly on a freshly patched base image even when there is no new FizzBee release.
• ghcr.io/fizzbee-io/fizzbee@sha256:... — an exact immutable image.

Use latest in CI to automatically receive OS-level security fixes; a version tag for a stable FizzBee release; a digest for bit-for-bit reproducibility.

Security / CVE Policy

The image is a thin wrapper around the official release tarball — the exact artifact the pre-built binary installation uses — on a python:3.12-slim-trixie (Debian stable) base. The FizzBee payload is designed to add no scanner findings beyond the base image; verify the current state yourself:

docker scout quickview ghcr.io/fizzbee-io/fizzbee:latest
# the Target and Base image rows should show identical counts

If a scan attributes findings to the FizzBee payload itself, please file an issue so we can investigate — the policy is to fix or explicitly document any payload-attributed finding.

Findings inherited from the Debian base are present in every image on that base. Their status is tracked by the Debian Security Tracker (see the per-package pages, e.g. perl). The monthly rebuild re-pulls the latest base image, so Debian fixes are picked up automatically once they become available in the base image.

Building the Image Yourself

The Dockerfile packages a published release (it does not build from the source checkout), so a release version is required:

docker build --build-arg FIZZBEE_VERSION=v0.5.3 -t fizzbee .

To model-check with unreleased code, build from source directly instead (see Build from Source).