Built-ins

The KEC Lisp kernel (vendored Fe) ships 26 compiled-in primitives — binding, control flow, list ops, predicates, arithmetic, and one I/O call. This page indexes them with one-line semantics. Everything else you call comes from one of the two layers above the kernel:

Source	Fe type	Defined where	Examples
Kernel built-in (this page)	`FE_TPRIM`	compiled into `kernel/`	`set`, `cons`, `if`
Runtime / host primitive	`FE_TCFUNC`	C in `runtime/` or `host/`, bound via `kec_bind_fe`	`try`, `type-of`, `mod`, `princ`
Core / user	`FE_TFUNC` / `FE_TMACRO`	KEC Lisp in `core/` (or your code)	`map`, `cond`, `defn`, `=`

So =, map, cond, and defn are not kernel built-ins — they live in Core. The language is the kernel plus Core plus the runtime/host primitives.

Kernel delta from upstream Fe. KEC names assignment set, not =. That frees = to mean equality (supplied by Core). If you’ve read upstream Fe docs, this is the one thing to re-learn. See the CHANGELOG and Fe Kernel — Internals for the full delta and implementation constraints.

Binding and definition

Built-in	Semantics
`(let sym value)`	Bind `sym`. In a body -> a local for the rest of that body; at the top level -> a global. Protected standard globals cannot be rebound. Returns `value`.
`(set sym value)`	Assignment to an existing binding (or a top-level global). Protected standard globals cannot be rebound.
`(fn (params…) body…)`	Construct a closure (lexical). `(fn (a . rest) …)` and `(fn args …)` bind rest/variadic args.
`(mac (params…) body…)`	Construct a macro: args unevaluated, the expansion is re-evaluated.

There is no define / defn / defmacro in the kernel — Core supplies those (they expand to set + fn/mac).

After the runtime loads Core, load-bearing standard names are protected. A script that attempts to rebind a kernel primitive such as cons, a host primitive, a Core function such as map, or a private Core helper such as %append receives a catchable error and the original global value remains in place. Lexical locals are still ordinary bindings.

Control flow

Built-in	Semantics
`(if cond then else…)`	Conditional; supports cond-style chaining `(if c1 t1 c2 t2 else)`.
`(and a b …)`	Short-circuit AND.
`(or a b …)`	Short-circuit OR.
`(while cond body…)`	Loop while `cond` is truthy; returns `nil`.
`(do expr…)`	Sequence; returns the last value.
`(quote x)` / `'x`	Suppress evaluation.

List operations

Built-in	Signature	Semantics
`(cons a b)`	`Any Any → Pair`	Construct a pair (allocated from the arena).
`(car p)`	`Pair → Any`	First element. Errors if `p` is not a pair.
`(cdr p)`	`Pair → Any`	Rest. Errors if `p` is not a pair.
`(setcar p v)`	`Pair Any → nil`	In-place mutation of `car`. Returns `nil`.
`(setcdr p v)`	`Pair Any → nil`	In-place mutation of `cdr`. Returns `nil`.
`(list a b …)`	`Any… → List`	Build a proper list of the evaluated arguments.

No nth, length, append, reverse, member, or assoc in the kernel — Core supplies those, written iteratively. Performance-sensitive traversal uses while + setcar/setcdr rather than deep recursion (the GC-root stack is bounded).

Predicates

Built-in	Semantics
`(not x)`	True if `x` is `nil`.
`(atom x)`	True if `x` is not a pair (i.e. `nil`, number, symbol, string, fn, macro, prim, cfunc, or ptr).
`(is a b)`	Equality: numbers by value, strings structurally, pairs and other atoms by identity.

There is no =, nil?, pair?, number?, … in the kernel. (not x) is the null test and atom is leaf detection; Core wraps the rest as named predicates (some using the host type-of primitive).

Arithmetic & comparison

All numeric ops operate on fe_Number (single-precision float); the variadic arithmetic forms fold left.

Built-in	Semantics
`(+ a b …)`	Sum. `(+)` → 0.
`(- a b …)`	Subtract. Unary negates: `(- 5)` → -5.
`(* a b …)`	Product.
`(/ a b …)`	Float division — `(/ 7 2)` → 3.5.
`(< a b)`	Strict less-than.
`(<= a b)`	Less-or-equal.

No >, >=, =, mod, abs, or sqrt in the kernel: > / >= / = come from Core; mod / abs / sqrt and friends are host primitives (see the Language Reference).

I/O

Built-in	Semantics
`(print x …)`	Write each `x` to the configured write function, then a newline.

print is the kernel’s only I/O. The runtime/host layers add princ / newline / repr (and, in the FULL profile, file I/O — load / read-file / write-file / append-file, plus require). try / raise are catchable error control. Length-aware read-string parses one value from text and read-all parses every form, both in any profile; macroexpand-1 expands one quoted macro call for inspection. bound? (including bindings whose value is nil), globals, and fn-params are read-only reflection over the live environment (safe in any profile). eval evaluates an already-read data form in the live image — the editor/REPL keystone — but is a FULL-tier capability, deliberately not bound into SANDBOX contexts. There is no socket I/O at the kernel level.

Foreign containers are host primitives, not kernel built-ins. The current portable set includes vectors, flat row-major matrices, hash tables, and binary-safe blobs; see the Language Reference.

Quick lookup — the full kernel set (source order)

let  set  if  fn  mac  while  quote  and  or  do
cons  car  cdr  setcar  setcdr  list  not  is  atom  print
<  <=  +  -  *  /

26 entries. Anything you call that isn’t in this list is coming from Core (Lisp) or a runtime/host primitive (C) — or, in the KN-86 firmware, from a device primitive bound through the FFI bridge.