This is the experimental version of Lua API, aimed for the luajit use. Please take a look and send the feedback to ayourtch@gmail.com. To run the examples here: 1) install luajit - "sudo apt-get install luajit" on ubuntu 2) "make build-vpp-api" in the top VPP directory 3) "make run" in a separate terminal window This ensures you have an instance of VPP running 4) sudo luajit examples/example-cli.lua This will result in something like this: Version: 00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ { [1] = { ["luaapi_message_name"] = show_version_reply,["program"] = vpe,["version"] = ,["build_date"] = Fri Nov 25 10:58:48 UTC 2016,["retval"] = 0,["build_directory"] = /home/ubuntu/vpp,["_vl_msg_id"] = 170,["context"] = 0,} ,} --- { [1] = { ["luaapi_message_name"] = cli_inband_reply,["_vl_msg_id"] = 94,["length"] = 66,["reply"] = vpp v built by ubuntu on vpp-toys at Fri Nov 25 10:58:48 UTC 2016 ,["retval"] = 0,["context"] = 0,} ,} --- 5) You can also run the performance test bench: $ sudo luajit bench.lua 10001 iterations, average speed 5624LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 6650LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 6053LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 7056LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 6388LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 5849LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 6321LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 6368LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 5958LL per second 10001 iterations, average speed 6482LL per second Average tps across the tests: 6274LL Note: the above is run in an lxd container running inside 2-core xhyve VM on a Macbook Pro, so I would not take the performance numbers for granted :) The "examples" directory contains a few naive examples, as well as a couple of more advanced ones - a tab-completing CLI for VPP that can call both the APIs and CLI, and also a small test utility which I use for automating some small tests using VPP.