What is sprache?

Sprache is a lightweight C# library that helps you build text parsers directly in your code. Instead of wrestling with regular expressions for anything beyond the simplest patterns, or adopting a heavyweight toolset like ANTLR, Sprache sits in between, giving you a straightforward way to describe what text should look like and how to extract meaning from it. You build parsers by combining small pieces into bigger ones. For example, you can say "match the letter A at least once" and then combine that with other rules to recognize more complex patterns. The code reads somewhat like a description of what you're trying to parse. You might define what a variable name looks like (a letter followed by letters or digits, with optional spaces around it), and then feed it a string to get back the cleaned-up result. No build-time code generation or external tooling is required, you just reference the library and write your parsing rules in regular C#. People who'd use this are typically .NET developers building tools that need to interpret structured text. The README points to several real-world examples: Octopus Deploy uses it for a template language, Seq uses it to parse structured log queries, and EasyNetQ uses it to parse connection strings. It's also been used to parse XML, evaluate numeric expressions, and read CSV files. If your application needs to accept user input in some mini-language or custom format, configuration files, query filters, template expressions, this library handles the grunt work of turning that text into structured data your program can work with. What's notable is its simplicity. It's a single small assembly with no build steps or code generation. The README is upfront that it's not competing with full language workbenches, it's a pragmatic middle ground when regular expressions feel too fragile but a full parser generator feels like overkill.