New landing page for the Carbon project

Proposal: community-facing landing page for Carbon Language

Summary

This issue proposes the creation of a dedicated landing page for the Carbon Language project, aimed at making the repository more accessible and welcoming to new and existing contributors. The current GitHub repository is the primary entry point for the community, but it assumes significant prior knowledge and does not surface community norms, onboarding steps, or contributor resources in a visible or inviting way.

A standalone landing page would lower the barrier to entry and reflect the inclusive, open culture we are working to build.

Timing

With a first release potentially happening later this year, having a welcoming landing page in place beforehand is important. A first release is likely to bring a significant influx of new visitors and potential contributors — many of whom will have no prior context about the project's community norms or how to get involved. First impressions matter, and the current repository entry point is not optimized for that moment.

The project already has a website at docs.carbon-lang.dev, but it is documentation-heavy and designed with existing contributors in mind. It is not well-suited as a first point of contact for someone discovering Carbon for the first time. A separate, welcoming landing page would complement the existing docs site rather than replace it.

Mockup

A full HTML mockup has been prepared for review:

👉 View the mockup on GitHub Gist

To preview it, download the .html file from the Gist and open it in any browser.

Proposed sections

The mockup includes the following sections:

• Hero — project tagline, a short code snippet, a "Get started" CTA, and key repository stats
• About — three pillars: C++ interoperability, memory safety goals, and open governance
• Community quizzes — embedded cards linking to contributor knowledge quizzes, each drawing 10 random questions from a bank of 20
• Contributing — a 4-step onboarding flow and a tag cloud of open contribution areas
• Community — links to Discord, GitHub Discussions, the weekly sync, and the evolution process

Design decisions

• Dark theme with a monospace-accented aesthetic, fitting for a systems language project
• Fully responsive down to mobile screens
• No external dependencies — a single self-contained .html file
• Real links to the GitHub repository, Discussions, evolution process doc, and Code of Conduct

Open questions for the team

• Where should this page live? Options include a docs/ subfolder, a dedicated gh-pages branch, or an external host
• Should the quizzes be embedded directly in the page (via <iframe>) or linked as separate files?
• Are the five sections the right scope for a first version, or should any be added or removed?
• The Discord "Join" button is a placeholder — a permanent invite link is needed once available
• Should the page be bilingual or translation-ready from the start?

AI tooling disclosure

In accordance with the project's guidelines on AI-based contribution tools, I want to be transparent that the mockup HTML and the accompanying quiz files were largely produced with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic). I reviewed, directed, and iterated on all of the output. If this proposal is approved and moves to a PR, the commit message will include an appropriate Assisted-by: tag as suggested by the contributing guide.

Next steps

Given the potential timeline of a first release this year, it would be helpful to reach a decision on this proposal soon. Feedback on the mockup and the open questions above is welcome from all contributors. If the proposal is approved, the next step would be opening a PR to add the files to the repository under an agreed location.