Ohm parsing library
Shares rank 3 of 7 parser libraries by recommenders
A JavaScript and TypeScript parsing toolkit that people recommend for building parsers for custom languages, with an online editor for trying grammars. Critics note PEG ordered choice does not fully remove ambiguity and that it can be slow.
A JavaScript and TypeScript parsing toolkit that people recommend for building parsers for custom languages, with an online editor for trying grammars. Critics note PEG ordered choice does not fully remove ambiguity and that it can be slow.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
Other parser libraries people recommend
The four most recommended other parser libraries, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tree-sitter | 79 | 15 | 84% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Hardwood Parquet parser | 7 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Ohm parsing libraryThis page | 6 | 3 | 67% | 2 | — | — |
| Lark parser library for Python | 6 | 1 | 86% | 5 | — | — |
| Kaitai Struct | 6 | 2 | 75% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it still unable to handle to context sensitive language which is a deal breaker for me”
“PEG tool authors often say that ordered choice solves the problem of ambiguity, that's very misleading.”
“The only thing I prefe peggyjs over ohm is runtime deps”
“Ohm looks slick. The online editor is nice too”
“it avoids ambiguity by using ordered choice (the first matching rule wins)”
“it's the best way to build parsers I've ever seen”
“which I highly recommend if you want to parse a custom language in Javascript or TypeScript”
“As I started benchmarking I realized how slow it was”
“a user-friendly parsing toolkit for JavaScript/TypeScript”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.