Clojure DSL resources

This is a curated list of mostly mature and/or actively developed Clojure resources relevant for dealing with domain-specific languages, in particular parsing and data transformation with/of DSLs. The list is currently being expanded as I explore this area more thoroughly. Suggestions are welcome in the form of pull requests or Github issues. I try to steer around abandonware, though.

If you're interested in graphs and data modelling, be sure to check out clojure-graph-resources too.

Domain-specific languages

Lisp dialects traditionally make heavy use of macros to rewrite source code at compile time, opening the DSL floodgates. Somewhat unique to Clojure is a strong emphasis on using the core data literals to form DSLs. In either case, a supposed DSL could just as easily be considered a creative use of existing language features or a particularly well-designed API.

Data-based DSLs

• weavejester/hiccup: Hiccup is a library for representing HTML in Clojure.
  • lambdaisland/hiccup: Enlive-backed Hiccup implementation; behaves closer to how Hiccup works in Reagent.
• noprompt/garden: Garden is a library for rendering CSS in Clojure and ClojureScript.
• BrianChevalier/radiant: Write full featured CSS as Clojure data structures, inline.
• stathissideris/dali: Build SVG graphics using a Hiccup-like DSL.
• cgrand/enlive: A selector-based (à la CSS) templating and transformation system for Clojure.
• seancorfield/honeysql: SQL as Clojure data structures.
• cljfx/cljfx: Declarative, functional, extensible wrapper of JavaFX inspired by the better parts of react and re-frame
• lambdaisland/regal: Regal lets you manipulate regular expressions as data.
• AbhinavOmprakash/luna: Wield the power of regex with the readability of English.
• riverford/datagrep: grep for data, for quick and dirty filtering at the repl.
• QikLiang/GraphQL-format.clj: For building GraphQL queries and transforming the output data in a declaritive format in the style of Meander.
• plumatic/schema: A Clojure(Script) library for declarative data description and validation.
• metosin/malli: Data-driven Schemas for Clojure/Script.
• green-coder/minimallist: A minimalist data driven data model library, inspired by Clojure Spec and Malli.
• kwrooijen/gungnir: A fully featured, data-driven database library for Clojure.
• oakes/edna: A Clojure library for making music with edn data.
• oakes/odoyle-rules: A rules engine for Clojure and ClojureScript.
  • oakes/odoyle-rum: What if we used a rules engine to manage all the state of a frontend UI? Can a rules engine replace reframe?
• frankiesardo/minikusari: minikusari is a minimal rule engine built on top of Datascript (and can work with Datomic or Datahike).
• yonatane/bytegeist: Define binary encoding using plain data.
• zen-lang/zen: Zen is a framework to unify Data DSLs, make them composable and take model driven design to the next level.
• sbocq/cronit: A Clojure library to iterate over time points defined by a cron like expression.
• mauricioszabo/spock: Wrappers of SWI and TuProlog in Clojure.
• datalog: See the relevant section in simongray/clojure-graph-resources for a list of libraries.

Data matching/transformation DSLs

Most of these could also be considered data-based DSLs, but I think they deserve a category of their own.

• noprompt/meander: A library that empowers you to write transparent data transformation code that allows you to plainly see the input and output of these transformations.
• juji-io/editscript: A library designed to diff and patch Clojure data structures.
• disalvjn/faconne: Data Restructuring DSL.
• HealthSamurai/ironhide: A runtime agnostic bidirectional data-driven transformation domain-specific language for fun and profit.
• redplanetlabs/specter: Specter rejects Clojure's restrictive approach to immutable data structure manipulation, instead exposing an elegant API to allow any sort of manipulation imaginable.
• xapix-io/matchete: Yet another pattern matching library for Clojure(Script).
• bsless/impedance: Fast, declarative Clojure map transforms to solve impedance mismatch.
• TristeFigure/derrida: Destructuring "Destructuring".

Traditional Lisp DSLs

• clojure/core.logic: Offers Prolog-like relational programming, constraint logic programming, and nominal logic programming for Clojure.
• quil/quil: Clojure/ClojureScript library for creating interactive drawings and animations.
• overtone/overtone: Overtone is an Open Source toolkit for designing synthesizers and collaborating with music.
• ctford/leipzig: A music composition library for Clojure and Clojurescript.
  • ctford/klangmeister: A musical scratchpad. Klangmeister uses Leipzig for all of its music composition.
• cerner/clara-rules: Clara is a forward-chaining rules engine written in Clojure(Script) with Java interoperability.
  • clyfe/clara-eav: ClaraEAV is a thin layer over Clara-Rules API that simplifies working with EAV triplets.
• lspector/Clojush: The Push programming language and the PushGP genetic programming system implemented in Clojure.
• adam-james-v/svg-clj: DSL for compiling SVG elements with Clojure(script).
• google/clojure-turtle: A Clojure library that implements the Logo programming language in a Clojure context.
• farrellm/scad-clj: OpenSCAD DSL in Clojure.
• athos/JiSE: JiSE is a Clojure DSL library that compiles a Java-like language into JVM bytecode at macroexpansion time.
• daveyarwood/alda-clj: A Clojure library for live-coding music with Alda.

Text-based DSLs

Some DSLs are implemented in Clojure, but compiled or interpreted from text.

• borkdude/sci: Configurable Clojure interpreter suitable for scripting and Clojure DSLs.

Data-oriented configuration

In most Clojure software there is a guiding principle of data > functions > macros. It has resulted in a convention of using mostly data structures to configure the behaviour of systems. This practice has also led to frequent repurposing of data structures. In many cases, the repurposing crosses into a grey zone somewhere between a DSL and idiomatic use.

• pedestal/pedestal: Pedestal is a set of libraries written in Clojure that aims to bring both the language and its principles to server-side development.
• metosin/reitit: A fast, data-driven router for Clojure(Script).
• juxt/bidi: Bidirectional URI routing.
• juxt/yada: Yada is a web library. Whereas bidi is based on routes as data, yada is based on resources as data.

Honourable mentions

These libraries are not really data-oriented, but can be considered popular mini-DSLs in their own right.

• weavejester/compojure: Compojure is a small routing library for Ring that allows web applications to be composed of small, independent parts.

Parsing

• Engelberg/instaparse: Instaparse aims to be the simplest way to build parsers in Clojure.
• aphyr/clj-antlr: Clojure bindings for the ANTLR 4 parser library.

Parser combinators

• blancas/kern: A Parser Combinators Library for Clojure.
• youngnh/parsatron: Born from Haskell's Parsec library, The Parsatron is a functional parser library.
• rm-hull/jasentaa: A parser-combinator library for Clojure and ClojureScript.

Artificial languages

• davidsantiago/hickory: Hickory parses HTML into Clojure data structures, so you can analyze, transform, and output back to HTML.
• yogthos/markdown-clj: A markdown parser that compiles to both Clojure and ClojureScript.
• kiranshila/cybermonday: Cybermonday provides a Clojure(Script) interface to working with markdown as a hiccup AST.
• bnbeckwith/orgmode: A Clojure library designed to parse mode files into clojure data structures.
• russellwhitaker/uap-clj: A Clojure library for extracting browser, operating system, and device information from a raw useragent string.
• alumbra/alumbra.parser: An ANTLR4-based GraphQL parser for Clojure.
• igrishaev/remus: An attentive RSS and Atom feed parser for Clojure. It's built on top of well-known and powerful ROME Tools Java library.
• zsau/rome-clj: rome-clj is a Clojure wrapper for ROME, a Java RSS/Atom feed parsing library.
• zsau/id3: A simple ID3v2 parser, written in Clojure.
• l3nz/cli-matic: Compact, hands-free [sub]command line parsing library for Clojure.
• smee/binary: This library is a high performance binary parser combinator.

Natural languages

Not technically DSLs, but included here to complete the parsing section.

• simongray/datalinguist: A Clojure wrapper for Stanford CoreNLP.
• plandes/clj-nlp-parse: A generalized library to deal with natural language.
• turbopape/postagga: A Library to parse natural language in pure Clojure and ClojureScript.
• ekoontz/menard: A Clojure library for generation and parsing expressions from grammars and lexicons.

Clojure code

• clojure/tools.reader: A complete Clojure reader and an EDN-only reader.
• clojure/tools.analyzer: An analyzer for host agnostic Clojure code, written in Clojure and producing AST in EDN.
• borkdude/edamame: Configurable EDN/Clojure parser with location metadata.
• clj-commons/rewrite-clj: rewrite-clj is a library offering mechanisms to easily rewrite Clojure/EDN documents in a whitespace- and comment-preserving way.
  • clj-commons/rewrite-cljs: This library is a ClojureScript port of rewrite-clj.
  • lread/rewrite-cljc-playground: Working towards rewrite-cljc. Still conservatively pre-alpha, will release on clojars after moving to clj-commons.
• oakes/parinferish: A Clojure and ClojureScript library that parses code and optionally applies parinfer(ish) to it.
  • See oakes/html-soup for an example of a library that uses parinferish as a parser.
• carocad/parcera: Grammar-based Clojure(script) parser.
• echeran/kalai: A source-to-source transpiler to convert Clojure to multiple target languages (Rust, C++, Java, ...).

Miscellaneous

• clojure/spec.alpha: The spec library specifies the structure of data, validates or conforms it, and can generate data based on the spec.
  • clojure/spec-alpha2: This library is an evolution from spec.alpha as well as work towards several new features.
• jkk/formative: Web forms for Clojure and ClojureScript - rendering, parsing, and validating.
• agentbellnorm/dativity: Dativity is a stateless, data driven workflow engine library for Clojure and ClojureScript.
• clojure-lsp/clojure-lsp: A Language Server for Clojure. Taking a Cursive-like approach of statically analyzing code.

Work-in-progress

Some projects are both actively developed and interesting enough to include on this list, but aren't quite ready yet.

• green-coder/vrac: Declarative html template library from the future.

Articles/videos

• Growing a DSL with Clojure
• Parsing XML in Clojure
• Clojure Macros and Metaprogramming
• The Art of Tree Shaping with Clojure Zippers
• Building trees with and without zippers
• Writing Parser Combinator Library in Clojure
• Constructing Clojure private DSLs on top of functions and function combinators

Community

• Clojurians Slack: Where Clojure's most active users seem to hang out.
  • #parsers