crabrl 🦀

Lightning-fast XBRL parser that's 50-150x faster than traditional parsers, built for speed and accuracy when processing SEC EDGAR filings.

Technical Architecture

crabrl is built on Rust's zero-cost abstractions and modern parsing techniques. While established parsers like Arelle provide comprehensive XBRL specification support and extensive validation capabilities, crabrl focuses on high-performance parsing for scenarios where speed is critical.

Implementation Details

Benchmark results: 100,000 XBRL facts parsed in 56ms (crabrl) vs 2,672ms (Arelle) on identical hardware.

XBRL Support Status

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install crabrl

From Source

git clone https://github.com/stefanoamorelli/crabrl
cd crabrl
cargo build --release --features cli

As Library Dependency

[dependencies]
crabrl = "0.1.0"

Usage

CLI

# Parse and display summary
crabrl parse filing.xml

# Parse with statistics (timing and throughput)
crabrl parse filing.xml --stats

# Validate with generic rules
crabrl validate filing.xml

# Validate with SEC EDGAR rules
crabrl validate filing.xml --profile sec-edgar

# Validate with strict mode (warnings as errors)
crabrl validate filing.xml --strict

# Benchmark performance
crabrl bench filing.xml --iterations 100

Library

Basic Usage

use crabrl::Parser;

// Parse XBRL document
let parser = Parser::new();
let doc = parser.parse_file("filing.xml")?;

// Access parsed data
println!("Facts: {}", doc.facts.len());
println!("Contexts: {}", doc.contexts.len());
println!("Units: {}", doc.units.len());

Parse from Different Sources

// From file path
let doc = parser.parse_file("filing.xml")?;

// From bytes
let xml_bytes = std::fs::read("filing.xml")?;
let doc = parser.parse_bytes(&xml_bytes)?;

Validation

use crabrl::{Parser, Validator};

let parser = Parser::new();
let doc = parser.parse_file("filing.xml")?;

// Generic validation
let validator = Validator::new();
let result = validator.validate(&doc)?;

if result.is_valid {
    println!("Document is valid!");
} else {
    for error in &result.errors {
        eprintln!("Error: {}", error);
    }
}

// SEC EDGAR validation (stricter rules)
let sec_validator = Validator::sec_edgar();
let sec_result = sec_validator.validate(&doc)?;

Performance Measurements

Performance comparison with Arelle v2.17.4 (Python-based XBRL processor with full specification support):

Synthetic Dataset Benchmarks

SEC Filing Parse Times

Run Your Own Benchmarks

# Quick benchmark with Criterion
cargo bench

# Compare against Arelle
cd benchmarks && python compare_performance.py

# Test on real SEC filings
python scripts/download_fixtures.py  # Download Apple, MSFT, Tesla, etc.
cargo run --release --bin crabrl -- bench fixtures/apple/aapl-20230930_htm.xml

Resources & Links

XBRL Standards

• XBRL International - Official XBRL specifications
• XBRL 2.1 Specification - Core standard we implement
• SEC EDGAR - Search real company filings
• EDGAR Filer Manual - SEC filing requirements

Dependencies We Use

Alternative XBRL Parsers

• Arelle - Complete XBRL processor with validation, formulas, and rendering (Python)
• python-xbrl - Lightweight Python parser
• xbrl-parser - JavaScript/Node.js
• XBRL4j - Java implementation

License ⚖️

This open-source project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). This means:

• You can use, modify, and distribute this software
• If you modify and distribute it, you must release your changes under AGPL-3.0
• If you run a modified version on a server, you must provide the source code to users
• See the LICENSE file for full details

For commercial licensing options or other licensing inquiries, please contact stefano@amorelli.tech.

© 2025 Stefano Amorelli – Released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. Enjoy! 🎉