Embedded Gleam for Everyone: D. Bettio & G. Cavalieri on Microcontrollers
Show notes
In 2017, Davide Bettio created AtomVM to run Erlang, Elixir and Gleam code on embedded devices with just a few kilobytes of memory. Fast forward to today, and Giacomo Cavalieri of the Gleam core team has built tooling that flashes a Gleam project onto a board with a single command.
Two dollars, some sensors, and a weekend is all it takes to get started with embedded Erlang development. No more dealing with low-level C, complex drivers, or painful debugging. Gleam's delightful developer experience combined with AtomVM's BEAM bytecode support brings approachable IoT to the masses.
In this episode, Davide and Giacomo share:
- How AtomVM squeezes the BEAM onto memory-constrained devices
- Why Gleam and AtomVM are a perfect match for hobbyists and students
- Davide's "scar story" of a buggy AtomVM-powered home thermostat leaving him debugging in the cold
- The trade-offs of the AtomVM standard library and how to extend it
- Writing Gleam bindings for AtomVM features via Erlang FFI
- Example projects to tackle as an embedded Gleam beginner
- What's possible with $2 boards, some sensors, and MQTT
Recorded October 12, 2026.
Resources:
- AtomVM: https://github.com/AtomVM/AtomVM
- AtomVM website: https://atomvm.org
- AtomVM Gleam bindings: https://hex.pm/packages/atomvm_gleam
- Orbital Gleam library: https://github.com/giacomocavalieri/orbital