wstp

WSTP, short for Wolfram Symbolic Transfer Protocol, is a communication protocol and accompanying libraries designed to enable external programs to interact with the Wolfram Language kernel. It originated as MathLink and was later renamed and extended by Wolfram Research to form a standardized interface for exchanging Wolfram Language expressions and commands between processes.

The core idea of WSTP is to establish a link between an external program and a Wolfram kernel, through which data can be sent, evaluated, and the results retrieved. A link acts as a channel for streaming information, allowing synchronous requests and asynchronous messaging as long-running computations are performed. Data types supported include integers, real numbers, strings, symbols, and full Wolfram Language expressions, which are marshaled across the boundary by the WSTP API.

WSTP is typically used to integrate Mathematica or the Wolfram Engine into software written in C or C++, and it also provides bindings or wrappers that enable use from other languages such as Java and .NET in various environments. The libraries are cross-platform, available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and are distributed with Mathematica and Wolfram Engine installations.

Applications of WSTP include embedding computational capabilities within standalone applications, automating workflows, and enabling remote or embedded computation where the power of the Wolfram Language is required without launching the full kernel interface manually.

See also: MathLink, Wolfram Language, Wolfram Engine.