CONL: "Markdown" for your config files

a year ago

Complex configuration files in 2025 typically use JSON-with-comments, YAML, or TOML, each with usability issues.
JSON-with-comments struggles with commenting due to trailing commas breaking syntax.
TOML's syntax is confusing with similar-looking constructs performing different actions.
YAML has numerous multiline string formats and other complexities.
New formats adding types and loops are discouraged; use a programming language for generation.
CONL was created as a minimal, easy-to-read, and easy-to-edit configuration format.
CONL supports key-value pairs, lists, maps, and multiline scalars with optional syntax hints.
The format is stable, with implementations available for Rust and Go, including a language server and Zed extension.
CONL's design avoids syntactic typing and supports nested structures without commas or complex delimiters.
Comments use ';' to avoid issues with URLs and colors, and multiline strings use """.
Quoted literals with backslash escapes are supported for better handling of escape sequences.
CONL's simplified data model includes scalar, list, and map types, but lacks round-tripping support for JSON.
Indentation is used for structure, similar to Python, and keys without values are allowed to represent null.
The format encourages units for numeric values and supports Unicode codepoints via escape sequences.

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