# kgabis/parson

Lightweight JSON library written in C.

Repository: https://github.com/kgabis/parson
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/parson
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: c, json, parser, json-parser
Last push: 2024-05-11T14:17:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5069, "days_push": 844, "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 1468, forks 338 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:48.897951+00:00)

## What it is
Parson is a lightweight JSON parsing and serialization library written in C, consisting of only two files (parson.c and parson.h). It offers a simple API with dot-notation access to JSON values and is C89 compatible.

## Use cases
- parse  files in c
- serialize c structs to
- read config files in  format
- validate  against a schema
- access nested  values with dot notation
- embed  support in embedded c projects

## When to choose
- you need a tiny, dependency-free JSON library in C
- you want C89 compatibility for legacy or embedded environments
- you prefer a simple API over feature-heavy JSON libraries
- you want to drop two files into your project without a build system

## When to avoid
- you need high-performance or streaming JSON parsing for very large documents
- you need JSON Schema full validation or JSONPath queries
- your project is in another language with native JSON support
- you need thread-safe or incremental parsing guarantees

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: parser, serialization
- domain: developer-tools, parsers, files
- platform: c, cross-platform
- tags: -parser, lightweight, c89, two-files, dot-notation

## Member repositories
- kgabis/parson (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:48.897951+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 2026-08-30T04:34:56.894934+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kgabis/parson (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:48.897951+00:00, sha 61c4b82899d5)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.