# KDL

7 Hacker News commenters recommended KDL and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A small, readable document and configuration language with XML-like node semantics. People praise its explicit, uniform syntax and easy schema definition. One critic calls it niche.

## Why people recommend it

- Small, readable syntax with little noise (3 comments): "KDL is a small, pleasant document language with XML-like node semantics" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943391)) "it reads like code and you can easily define a schema too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48929023)) "the current one got rid of this quotation noise" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48989778))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [CUE](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cue.md): 29 recommend
- [TOML](https://hackerapproved.com/p/toml.md): 19 recommend
- [Jsonnet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jsonnet.md): 12 recommend
- [HCL](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hcl.md): 10 recommend
- [Dhall](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dhall.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "KDL", https://hackerapproved.com/p/kdl/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).