README

PHP parser and renderer for Carve, a post-Markdown lightweight markup language with visual mnemonics and human-centered design.

Origins

Carve-PHP is a hard fork of djot-php by the PHP Collective. The fork preserves the architecture, AST, renderer pipeline, profiles, and extensions, and replaces Djot's syntax rules with Carve's. The MIT license carries over; copyright lines remain in LICENSE.

For the original Djot implementation, use php-collective/djot instead.

Installation

composer require markup-carve/carve-php

Usage

use Carve\CarveConverter;

$converter = new CarveConverter();
$html = $converter->toHtml('# Hello /Carve/');

Besides HTML, the same AST renders to Markdown, plain text, and ANSI via the CarveConverter::markdown(), ::plainText(), and ::ansi() factories:

$markdown = CarveConverter::markdown()->convert('# Hello /Carve/');
$ansi = CarveConverter::ansi()->convert('# Hello /Carve/');

CLI

The package ships a bin/carve executable that reads Carve from a file or stdin and writes the rendered output to stdout. HTML is the default; pass a format flag for another output:

bin/carve README.crv > README.html   # HTML (default)
bin/carve --markdown README.crv      # Markdown
bin/carve --plain README.crv         # plain text
bin/carve --ansi README.crv          # ANSI-colored terminal text
echo '# Hello' | bin/carve           # render from stdin

--html / --markdown (--md) / --plain (--plain-text) / --ansi select the format. -o FILE writes to a file; -w/--warnings and --strict report parse warnings (exit 1 under --strict); -x/--xhtml and -s/--safe apply to HTML output only. Run bin/carve --help for the full list.

Sandbox

Try this implementation live in the Carve sandbox - explore syntax and extensions, inspect output, and share snippets via pastebin-style links. It also powers the wp-carve WordPress plugin.

Extension Matchers

Carve-PHP supports parse-stage extension matchers alongside render hooks and document transforms. Matchers are tried only where core syntax declines, so core parsing always wins first.

use Carve\CarveConverter;
use Carve\Node\Inline\Text;
use Carve\Parser\MatcherContext;

$converter = new CarveConverter();

$converter->getParser()->getInlineParser()->addInlineMatcher(
    function (string $text, int $pos, MatcherContext $ctx): ?array {
        if (!preg_match('/\G\{\{([a-z]+)\}\}/', $text, $m, 0, $pos)) {
            return null;
        }

        return ['node' => new Text('VAR:' . $m[1]), 'end' => $pos + strlen($m[0])];
    },
    priority: 0,
    triggerChars: '{', // only run this matcher at a `{`
);

MatcherContext exposes definition tables (getReference(), hasFootnote(), getAbbreviation()) and recursive parse helpers (parseInlines(), parseBlocks()). Matchers run by descending priority, then registration order. addInlinePattern() and addBlockPattern() remain available as regex sugar over the same matcher contract.

For a raw-closure addInlineMatcher(), pass triggerChars (the literal first bytes the matcher can ever fire on, e.g. '{' above) so the parser only invokes it at those positions. Without it, the matcher runs at every scan position and disables the per-character fast path for the whole document — a measurable slowdown on long inputs. A matcher registered through addInlinePattern() derives its trigger bytes from the pattern automatically.

The normative extension contract lives in carve/docs/extensions.md. Extensions bundled with this package (such as PlusBulletExtension) are documented in docs/extensions.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

markup-carve / carve-php

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