# json-parser/json-parser

Very low footprint DOM-style JSON parser written in portable ANSI C

Repository: https://github.com/json-parser/json-parser
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/json-parser
Language: C
License: BSD-2-Clause
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2025-05-10T01:01:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 41/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 20, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5316, "days_push": 481, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1337, forks 290 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:25.614558+00:00)

## What it is
A very low footprint DOM-style JSON parser written in portable ANSI C (C89). It ships as just json.c and json.h with no dependencies and a simple API, plus optional C++ operator sugar.

## Use cases
- parse JSON in C with minimal memory footprint
- embed a JSON parser in an embedded or resource-constrained project
- drop a dependency-free JSON parser into any build system
- parse JSON documents into a DOM tree in C89
- report JSON errors with line and column tracking
- enable comments in JSON config files

## When to choose
- you need a tiny, portable, dependency-free JSON parser in C
- you're targeting embedded or resource-constrained environments
- you want a simple DOM-style API without recursion overhead
- you need C89 portability across compilers and platforms

## When to avoid
- you need JSON serialization (use json-builder instead)
- you want a modern C++ or higher-level JSON library with rich features
- you need streaming/SAX-style parsing of very large documents
- you need schema validation or JSONPath-style queries

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: parser, serialization, json
- domain: parsers, developer-tools, files
- platform: c, cpp, cross-platform, embedded
- tags: dom-style, low-footprint, ansi-c, no-dependencies, single-file

## Member repositories
- json-parser/json-parser (main) score 41

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:25.614558+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:44:03.268929+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/json-parser/json-parser (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:25.614558+00:00, sha 4ad1a55fc710)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.