Home

Crodox Documentation

Changing Software Development for Good - Simplifying the Complex

Welcome to the official Crodox documentation. Crodox is a grammar definition tool that lets you describe how source code is structured - files, objects, variables, and their relationships - so it can be parsed, queried, and understood.

---

How It Works

graph LR
    subgraph "Grammar Definition"
        FILE["<b>File</b><br/><code>&lt;~ file.xy ~&gt;</code>"]
        VOBJ["<b>Visible Object</b><br/><code>&lt;: name :&gt;</code>"]
        HOBJ["<b>Hidden Object</b><br/><code>&lt;* name *&gt;</code>"]
        FILE --> VOBJ
        FILE --> HOBJ
    end

    subgraph "Inside Objects"
        VAR["<b>Variable</b><br/><code>&lt;&lt; var &gt;&gt;</code>"]
        SUB["<b>Sub-body</b><br/><code>&lt;---&gt;</code>"]
        REF["<b>Reference</b><br/><code>&lt;-{ref}-&gt;</code>"]
        OR["<b>Or Statement</b><br/><code>&lt;| a &lt;||&gt; b |&gt;</code>"]
        REP["<b>Repeat</b><br/><code>&lt;? ... ?&gt;</code>"]
        JUMP["<b>Jump</b><br/><code>--&gt;&gt; target</code>"]
    end

    VOBJ --> VAR
    VOBJ --> SUB
    VOBJ --> REF
    VOBJ --> OR
    VOBJ --> REP
    VOBJ --> JUMP

    subgraph "Output"
        TREE["Dependency<br/>Tree"]
        QUERY["Query<br/>Language"]
    end

    VAR --> TREE
    TREE --> QUERY

    style FILE fill:#4a90d9,color:#fff
    style VOBJ fill:#7b68ee,color:#fff
    style HOBJ fill:#888,color:#fff
    style VAR fill:#e67e22,color:#fff
    style TREE fill:#27ae60,color:#fff
    style QUERY fill:#27ae60,color:#fff

Loading

---

Quick Start

Step	Topic	Description
1	Getting Started	Sign in, link GitHub, create your first template
2	Syntax Overview	All grammar elements at a glance
3	Objects	Visible <: :> and hidden <* *> building blocks
4	Sub-bodies	Nesting child objects inside parents
5	References	Reusing objects without nesting
6	Variables	Capturing tokens and controlling scope
7	Query Language	Querying the dependency tree

---

Full Reference

Core Concepts

Page	Description
Syntax Overview	Complete syntax reference table
Objects	Visible vs. hidden objects
Sub-bodies	<---> child object nesting
References	<-{ref}-> object substitution
Or Statements	<| a <||> b |> alternatives
Repeat Statements	<? ... ?> repeating patterns
Jump Instructions	-->> skip to target

Grammar Structure

Page	Description
Grammar & Subgrammar Structure	File composition and subgrammar nesting
Dependency Structure	How objects form dependency trees

Variables & Scoping

Page	Description
Variables Overview	All variable types and scoping rules
Declarations	How variables are declared
Path <<"path">>	File path references
Reference <<'name'>>	Dependency-creating references
Uppercase <<NAME>>	Overwrite variables
Scope: :following	Default forward scope
Scope: :up	Parent scope
Scope: :down	Child scope
Scope: :siblings	Sibling scope
Scope: :global	Global scope
Scope: :hook	Hook scope

Advanced

Page	Description
Query Language	Querying parsed dependency trees

Examples

Language	Description
Angular	Multi-file grammar (.ts, .html, .css, .module.ts, .service.ts, .component.ts)
Python	Single-file grammar with indentation-based scoping
T-SQL	SQL grammar with BEGIN ... END sub-bodies

Tools

Tool	Description
Template Generator	Python CLI to generate starter Crodox definitions

---

_{Crodox Software GmbH · An der Mauer 4, 73479 Ellwangen, Germany · www.crodox.com}