diff --git a/examples/hello-world/platform/host.c b/examples/hello-world/platform/host.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..076f6ca1a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/hello-world/platform/host.c
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <math.h>
+
+void* roc_alloc(size_t size, unsigned int alignment) {
+    return malloc(size);
+}
+
+void* roc_realloc(void* ptr, size_t old_size, size_t new_size, unsigned int alignment) {
+    return realloc(ptr, new_size);
+}
+
+void roc_dealloc(void* ptr, unsigned int alignment) {
+    free(ptr);
+}
+
+struct RocStr {
+    char* bytes;
+    size_t len;
+};
+
+struct RocCallResult {
+    size_t flag;
+    struct RocStr content;
+};
+
+extern void roc__mainForHost_1_exposed(struct RocCallResult *re);
+
+const size_t MAX_STACK_STR_BYTES = 1024;
+
+int main() {
+    // make space for the result
+    struct RocCallResult callresult;
+
+    // call roc to populate the callresult
+    roc__mainForHost_1_exposed(&callresult);
+    struct RocStr str = callresult.content;
+
+    // Convert from RocStr to C string (null-terminated char*)
+    size_t len = str.len;
+    char* c_str;
+
+    // Allocate on the stack unless the string is particularly big.
+    // (Don't want a stack overflow!)
+    if (len <= MAX_STACK_STR_BYTES) {
+        c_str = (char*)alloca(len + 1);
+    } else {
+        c_str = (char*)malloc(len + 1);
+    }
+
+    memcpy(c_str, str.bytes, len);
+
+    // null-terminate
+    c_str[len] = 0;
+
+    // Print the string to stdout
+    printf("%s\n", c_str);
+
+    // Pointer to the beginning of the RocStr's actual allocation, which is
+    // the size_t immediately preceding the first stored byte.
+    size_t* str_base_ptr = (size_t*)str.bytes - 1;
+
+    // If *str_base_ptr is equal to 0, then the string is in the
+    // read-only data section of the binary, and can't be freed!
+    if (*str_base_ptr != 0) {
+        roc_dealloc(str_base_ptr, 8);
+    }
+
+    // If we malloc'd c_str, free it.
+    if (len > MAX_STACK_STR_BYTES) {
+        free(c_str);
+    }
+
+    return 0;
+}
diff --git a/examples/hello-zig/.gitignore b/examples/hello-zig/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6b820fd903
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/hello-zig/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+hello-world
diff --git a/examples/hello-zig/Hello.roc b/examples/hello-zig/Hello.roc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..24a02e7823
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/hello-zig/Hello.roc
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+app "hello-world"
+    packages { base: "platform" }
+    imports []
+    provides [ main ] to base
+
+greeting =
+    hi = "Hello"
+    name = "World"
+
+    "\(hi), \(name)!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
+
+main = greeting
diff --git a/examples/hello-zig/README.md b/examples/hello-zig/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a2890f03ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/hello-zig/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Hello, World!
+
+To run, `cd` into this directory and run:
+
+```bash
+$ cargo run run Hello.roc
+```
+
+To run in release mode instead, do:
+
+```bash
+$ cargo run --release run Hello.roc
+```
+
+## Troubleshooting
+
+If you encounter `cannot find -lc++`, run the following for ubuntu `sudo apt install libc++-dev`.
+
+## Design Notes
+
+This demonstrates the basic design of hosts: Roc code gets compiled into a pure 
+function (in this case, a thunk that always returns `"Hello, World!"`) and
+then the host calls that function. Fundamentally, that's the whole idea! The host
+might not even have a `main` - it could be a library, a plugin, anything.
+Everything else is built on this basic "hosts calling linked pure functions" design.
+
+For example, things get more interesting when the compiled Roc function returns
+a `Task` - that is, a tagged union data structure containing function pointers 
+to callback closures. This lets the Roc pure function describe arbitrary 
+chainable effects, which the host can interpret to perform I/O as requested by 
+the Roc program.  (The tagged union `Task` would have a variant for each supported 
+I/O operation.)
+
+In this trivial example, it's very easy to line up the API between the host and
+the Roc program. In a more involved host, this would be much trickier - especially
+if the API were changing frequently during development.
+
+The idea there is to have a first-class concept of "glue code" which host authors
+can write (it would be plain Roc code, but with some extra keywords that aren't
+available in normal modules - kinda like `port module` in Elm), and which
+describe both the Roc-host/C boundary as well as the Roc-host/Roc-app boundary.
+Roc application authors only care about the Roc-host/Roc-app portion, and the
+host author only cares about the Roc-host/C bounary when implementing the host.
+
+Using this glue code, the Roc compiler can generate C header files describing the
+boundary. This not only gets us host compatibility with C compilers, but also 
+Rust FFI for free, because [`rust-bindgen`](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-bindgen) 
+generates correct Rust FFI bindings from C headers.
diff --git a/examples/hello-zig/platform/Package-Config.roc b/examples/hello-zig/platform/Package-Config.roc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..377d5c0994
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/hello-zig/platform/Package-Config.roc
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+platform examples/hello-world
+    requires {}{ main : Str }
+    exposes []
+    packages {}
+    imports []
+    provides [ mainForHost ]
+    effects fx.Effect {}
+
+mainForHost : Str
+mainForHost = main
diff --git a/examples/hello-world/platform/host.zig b/examples/hello-zig/platform/host.zig
similarity index 100%
rename from examples/hello-world/platform/host.zig
rename to examples/hello-zig/platform/host.zig