kebnf

Convert OMG KeBNF grammar specifications to parser grammars. Parses the full KerML + SysML v2 KeBNF specs and emits target-specific output with semantic traceability.

Output Formats

Format	Flag	Output	Status
ANTLR4	--format antlr4	.g4	CI-validated -- compiles with antlr4, javac
tree-sitter	--format tree-sitter	grammar.js	CI-validated -- tested against tree-sitter-sysml corpus

Quickstart

# Install from crates.io
cargo install nomograph-kebnf

# Convert SysML v2 KeBNF to ANTLR4 grammar
kebnf KerML.kebnf SysML.kebnf --format antlr4 -o Sysml.g4

# Fetch the latest specs from the OMG GitHub repo, then convert
kebnf --fetch-spec
kebnf ~/.cache/kebnf/*.kebnf --format antlr4 -o Sysml.g4

To build from source instead:

cargo build --release
./target/release/kebnf --help

Getting the .g4 File

The CI pipeline generates and validates Sysml.g4 on every commit. Download it from the latest pipeline:

Pipeline > antlr4-validate job > Artifacts > Sysml.g4

Or browse: latest pipeline artifacts

CI Validation

Every push runs a five-stage validation:

1. rust-build -- zero compiler warnings
2. rust-test -- all tests pass
3. rust-clippy -- zero lint warnings
4. antlr4-validate -- generate .g4 from full KerML+SysML, compile with antlr4 4.13.2 (zero errors), compile generated Java with javac 21
5. tree-sitter-validate -- generate grammar.js from full KerML+SysML, run tree-sitter generate (valid parser.c produced)

Tree-sitter Backend

The tree-sitter backend uses pattern-based emission: each definition and usage rule has its prefix keywords inlined for early disambiguation. This eliminates the shared-prefix ambiguity that causes GLR timeout in naive conversion approaches.

Corpus coverage tested against tree-sitter-sysml test snippets:

Category	Coverage
Attributes, Calculations, Constraints, Definitions, Expressions, Flows, Metadata, Requirements, States, Successions, Actions	100%
Views	96%
Usages	94%
Packages	89%
Connections	80%

Known Limitations

The following constructs are not yet supported. They require structural changes to the usage pattern that cause tree-sitter's LR table generation to timeout, or involve keyword/name ambiguity that tree-sitter cannot resolve without external tokenization.

1. Multiplicity + specialization after type: part wheels : Wheel[4] :> parts; -- the specialization :> parts after multiplicity [4] requires repeat(feature_specialization) in the usage pattern, which causes combinatorial conflict explosion during LR table generation.

2. Specialization before name: item :> shapes : Box[1] { } -- the :> subsetting appears before the name, which the usage_declaration rule does not expect.

3. Complex end features: end theCauses [*] occurrence theCause :> causes :>> source { } -- multiple keywords and specializations in an end feature declaration.

4. N-ary connect syntax: ( cause1 ::> causer1, cause2 ::> causer2 ) -- parenthesized connection endpoints with ::> bindings.

5. Keyword/name ambiguity: comment about Vehicle /* ... */ -- the comment keyword is also a valid identifier, and tree-sitter cannot disambiguate without context-sensitive tokenization.

6. Nested redefinition in rendering: view :>> columnView[1] { } -- the view keyword with :>> redefinition inside a rendering body.

See docs/TREE-SITTER-FINDINGS.md for the full research journey from mechanical conversion to pattern-based emission.

What is KeBNF?

KeBNF (Kernel Extended BNF) is the grammar notation used by the OMG to define the concrete syntax of SysML v2 and KerML. It extends standard EBNF with metamodel-binding annotations:

• Type annotations (Rule : Type = ...) -- bind rules to metamodel types
• Property assignments (prop = Value, items += Element) -- AST construction
• Boolean flags (isAbstract ?= 'abstract') -- keyword-driven properties
• Cross-references ([QualifiedName]) -- name resolution
• Semantic actions ({ isPortion = true }) -- unconditional property setting

These annotations control metamodel binding but have no syntactic effect. kebnf strips them during conversion and records them in a mapping file (--mapping mapping.json) for downstream tools that need traceability.

See docs/KEBNF-SPEC.md for the full notation reference.

Architecture

KeBNF source (.kebnf)
    |
    v
  Parser (chumsky) --> AST
    |                   |
    |                   +--> ANTLR4 emitter ------> .g4
    |                   |
    |                   +--> tree-sitter emitter --> grammar.js
    |                   |
    |                   +--> mapping generator ----> mapping.json
    v
  Statistics (--stats)

The parser handles all KerML + SysML v2 rules. Each emitter walks the same AST. The ANTLR4 emitter handles:

• Lexer/parser rule split (ALL_CAPS -> lexer, CamelCase -> parser)
• ANTLR4 reserved word escaping (import -> import_)
• Duplicate rule deduplication (KerML and SysML overlap)
• Mutual left-recursion breaking (wrapper inlining + rule merging)

Conversion Statistics

$ kebnf KerML.kebnf SysML.kebnf --format antlr4 --stats
{
  "total_rules": 640,
  "direct_conversion": 247,
  "strip_and_convert": 353,
  "best_effort": 37,
  "manual_review": 3
}

CLI Reference

kebnf [OPTIONS] <INPUT>...

Arguments:
  <INPUT>...    Input .kebnf files

Options:
  -o <PATH>           Output file (default: grammar.{js,g4})
  -f, --format <FMT>  Output format: tree-sitter, antlr4 (default: tree-sitter)
  -n, --name <NAME>   Grammar name (default: sysml)
  -m, --mapping <PATH> Output mapping.json
  --include <PATTERNS> Include rules matching patterns (comma-separated)
  --exclude <PATTERNS> Exclude rules matching patterns
  --stats             Print conversion statistics
  --validate          Validate output with tree-sitter generate
  --fetch-spec        Download latest KeBNF specs from OMG GitHub
  -v, --verbose       Verbose output

License

MIT

Links

• Nomograph Labs
• tree-sitter-sysml -- hand-tuned SysML v2 grammar for tree-sitter
• SysML v2 Release -- OMG KeBNF source files

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Part of Nomograph Labs.