https://github.com/openpeeps/sweetsyntax
SweetSyntax 🍭 A generic parser and AST explorer for analyzing programming languages
https://github.com/openpeeps/sweetsyntax
ast nim openpeeps parser pratt syntax syntax-highlighter
Last synced: about 9 hours ago
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SweetSyntax 🍭 A generic parser and AST explorer for analyzing programming languages
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/openpeeps/sweetsyntax
- Owner: openpeeps
- License: lgpl-3.0
- Created: 2026-05-11T13:15:31.000Z (about 2 months ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-06-30T12:57:29.000Z (10 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-06-30T14:26:35.606Z (10 days ago)
- Topics: ast, nim, openpeeps, parser, pratt, syntax, syntax-highlighter
- Language: Nim
- Homepage:
- Size: 110 KB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
SweetSyntax 🍭 A generic parser and AST explorer
for analyzing programming languages
nimble install sweetsyntax
## 😍 Key Features
- Fast, compiled and efficient ([check benchmarks section](#benchmarks))
- Generic parser & AST explorer
- **Embeddable in other languages** via FFI 👉 Lua, JavaScript (N-API), Ruby, Python, PHP
- Easy-to-use API for integration into various applications
- Built-in syntax support for: C, Crystal, D lang, Go, JavaScript, Nim, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Rust
- Zero-copy parsing using MemFiles
- **Context-aware error** reporting while parsing
- Written in Nim
## What's this for?
SweetSyntax is a powerful and flexible generic parser and AST explorer for analyzing programming languages! It is designed to be integrated into other applications, such as code editors, documentation generators, linting tools and other sweet things!
Parse any language by defining its grammar in a YAML specification file: **tokens**, **operators** (prefix, infix, postfix, assignment), **statement keywords**, block delimiters, and **feature flags** (arrow functions, generators, async/await, template literals). The parser uses a **Pratt parsing** approach with a language-agnostic core and per-language statement handlers.
Key capabilities:
- **Lexer**: Generic tokenizer handling identifiers, literals (int, float, hex, octal, binary, bigint, string, regex), comments, and operators
- **Parser**: Pratt (precedence-climbing) parser with configurable operator precedence and associativity
- **AST**: Typed node tree with support for statements, expressions, infix/prefix/postfix operations, function declarations, and more
- **YAML-driven**: Language syntaxes are pure YAML, allowing for custom statement handlers
### Embeddable SweetSyntax
SweetSyntax is written in Nim, and thanks to Nim's versatile compilation model, can be embedded natively into a wide range of host languages. This is WIP via https://github.com/openpeeps/clue toolkit
| Language | Integration |
|----------|------------|
| **Lua** | Load the compiled `.so`/`.dll` via LuaJIT FFI or a lightweight C binding |
| **JavaScript** | Use as a Node.js native addon via N-API |
| **Ruby** | Bundle as a Ruby C extension |
| **Python** | Call through Python's CFFI or `ctypes` |
| **PHP** | Expose as a PHP extension written in C |
The Nim library compiles to a small, self-contained shared object that any FFI-capable language can load, making SweetSyntax a portable parsing engine for your polyglot projects.
## Examples
_todo_
### Error Reporting
SweetSyntax has built-in support for context-aware reporting. For example:
```
return a == null || b == null ## NaN : a < b ? -1 : a > b ? 1 : a >= b ? 0 : NaN;
^
Error (2:33) Unexpected prefix token: '#'
```
### Benchmarks
SweetSyntax is built for speed. Below is a **hyperfine** benchmark parsing and validating a full copy of **d3.js** (v7.9.0, ~20k lines, unminified, [from cdnjs.com](https://cdnjs.com/libraries/d3)). The entire pipeline (**lexing**, **parsing**, and **AST generation**) completes in under 120ms on my 🔥 rastafarian Ryzen 5 with 6 cores/12 threads:
```
hyperfine --runs 4 './sweetsyntax_benc_d3'
Benchmark 1: ./sweetsyntax_benc_d3
Time (mean ± σ): 116.5 ms ± 1.1 ms [User: 107.5 ms, System: 7.1 ms]
Range (min … max): 115.9 ms … 118.2 ms 4 runs
```
### ❤ Contributions & Support
- 🐛 Found a bug? [Create a new Issue](https://github.com/openpeeps/sweetsyntax/issues)
- 👋 Wanna help? [Fork it!](https://github.com/openpeeps/sweetsyntax/fork)
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### 🎩 License
LGPLv3 license. [Made by Humans from OpenPeeps](https://github.com/openpeeps).
Copyright OpenPeeps & Contributors — All rights reserved.
