Integration Guide

For IDE vendors and plugin developers. Learn how to integrate MOTH into your tools.

Integration Levels

MOTH can be integrated at different levels depending on your needs:

Recognize .moth files and apply syntax highlighting. Minimal effort, maximum compatibility.

Full syntax highlighting for MOTH syntax elements: sections, keys, values, types.

Validate MOTH syntax, check for common errors, provide linting feedback.

Code completion, hover documentation, refactoring, and advanced features.

MOTH uses a simple, regex-friendly syntax that's easy to highlight:

# Comments - Lines starting with #

[SECTIONS] - Text in square brackets

key: - Identifiers before colons

value - Text after colons

; - Semicolon separators

{k=v} - Configuration objects

Implement these validation rules for MOTH files:

✓ File must start with header metadata

intent:...; audience:...; style:...

✓ At least one [SECTION]

Sections must be in ALL_CAPS

✓ Valid key:value syntax

Keys must be snake_case, values until newline or semicolon

✓ Proper quote escaping

Use quotes for values with colons or semicolons

Extensions:

MIME Types:

Encoding:

UTF-8 required