28 stable releases

Uses new Rust 2024

2.6.1 Jan 9, 2026
2.4.7 Dec 30, 2025
1.3.0 Dec 13, 2025
0.901.0 Dec 9, 2025

#4 in #kdl

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86 downloads per month
Used in plotnik-macros

MIT/Apache

425KB
16K SLoC

C 15K SLoC // 0.0% comments Rust 144 SLoC // 0.1% comments Scheme 29 SLoC // 0.4% comments

arborium-kdl

Part of Arborium crates.io docs.rs license

KDL grammar for tree-sitter.

A document language with XML-like semantics and a more human-friendly syntax.

Inventor KDL community
Year 2021

Usage

use arborium_kdl::language;
use tree_sitter_patched_arborium::Parser;

let mut parser = Parser::new();
parser.set_language(&language()).expect("Error loading kdl grammar");

let source_code = "/* your kdl code here */";
let tree = parser.parse(source_code, None).unwrap();
println!("{}", tree.root_node().to_sexp());

For most use cases, prefer the main arborium crate:

[dependencies]
arborium = { version = "*", features = ["kdl"] }

Or use this crate directly:

[dependencies]
arborium-kdl = "*"

About Arborium

This crate is part of Arborium, a collection of tree-sitter grammars packaged as Rust crates, maintained by Amos Wenger.

This crate packages a parser.c file generated by the tree-sitter CLI. It exports a language() function returning the tree-sitter Language for kdl.

Why separate crates? Tree-sitter parsers can be large (some exceed 1MB of generated C). Splitting languages into separate crates means you only compile what you need, and parallel/incremental builds are more effective.

Build Requirements

  • Rust: MSRV is 1.85.0 (Rust 2024 edition)
  • C compiler: This crate compiles C code via the cc crate

Supported Targets

  • All major platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows
  • WebAssembly: wasm32-unknown-unknown (with custom sysroot)

Upstream Grammar

Repository bearcove/arborium
Commit ``
License MIT OR Apache-2.0

To regenerate after upstream updates:

cargo xtask gen --name kdl

Found a grammar bug? Please report it to the upstream repository.

Safety

This crate uses unsafe for FFI bindings to the tree-sitter C library. The unsafe surface is minimal and limited to what tree-sitter requires. The generated parser code is produced by tree-sitter's own code generator.

Versioning

Crate versions track Arborium releases, not upstream grammar versions. The upstream commit is recorded above. A major version bump occurs when grammar changes affect node names or structure (breaking for query consumers).

License

  • Generated parser code (parser.c): MIT OR Apache-2.0 (from upstream grammar)
  • Arborium glue code: MIT OR Apache-2.0

Contributing

Dependencies

~0–2MB
~35K SLoC