Categories with families (CwFs) have been used to define the semantics of type theory in type theory. In the setting of Homotopy Type Theory (HoTT), one of the limitations of the traditional notion of CwFs is the requirement to set-truncate types, which excludes models based on univalent categories, such as the standard set model. To address this limitation, we introduce the concept of a Groupoid Category with Families (GCwF). This framework truncates types at the groupoid level and incorporates coherence equations, providing a natural extension of the CwF framework when starting from a 1-category. We demonstrate that the initial GCwF for a type theory with a base family of sets and Pi-types (groupoid-syntax) is set-truncated. Consequently, this allows us to utilize the conventional intrinsic syntax of type theory while enabling interpretations in semantically richer and more natural models. All constructions in this paper were formalised in Cubical Agda.

Programming languages can be defined from the concrete to the abstract by abstract syntax trees, well-scoped syntax, well-typed (intrinsic) syntax, algebraic syntax (well-typed syntax quotiented by conversion). Another aspect is the representation of binding structure for which nominal approaches, De Bruijn indices/levels and higher order abstract syntax (HOAS) are available. In HOAS, binders are given by the function space of an internal language of presheaves. In this paper, we show how to combine the algebraic approach with the HOAS approach: following Uemura, we define languages as second-order generalised algebraic theories (SOGATs). Through a series of examples we show that non-substructural languages can be naturally defined as SOGATs. We give a formal definition of SOGAT signatures (using the syntax of a particular SOGAT) and define two translations from SOGAT signatures to GAT signatures (signatures for quotient inductive-inductive types), based on parallel and single substitutions, respectively.