Fabrice Bellard releases MicroQuickJS, a new JavaScript engine project

Fabrice Bellard - creator of QEMU, FFmpeg, and QuickJS - has released MicroQuickJS, a new JavaScript engine project. What’s notable here is the source: Bellard previously shipped QuickJS, a compact ES2020-compliant engine used in tools and embedded scenarios; any new runtime from him sets expectations around small binaries and precise spec behavior. Under the hood, details including memory footprint, startup latency, garbage collection strategy, and ECMAScript coverage will determine how MicroQuickJS positions itself relative to QuickJS, Duktape, JerryScript, and MuJS. The bigger picture is a continued push to bring familiar scripting ergonomics to constrained and edge environments without dragging a full browser stack; a lean, standards-minded engine can cut integration costs for firmware, plugins, and WASM-hosted tooling. Worth noting: licensing and API shape often matter more than raw benchmarks for embedders, and Bellard’s projects typically favor permissive terms and clean C interfaces-details to watch as MicroQuickJS rolls out. Release notes and test suites will clarify what’s actually new versus a repackaging of QuickJS concepts.