Getting started

Box is in early development (v0.13 draft spec). This guide walks through the project layout, parsing your first .box file, and the Zed extension.

Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/adi-family/box
cd box

Repository layout

box/
├── SPEC.md              # core language spec
├── specs/               # per-plugin specs (http, i18n, …)
├── core/                # box-core: parser + plugin host (Rust)
├── abi/                 # box-abi-v1: plugin trait + wire types
├── cli/                 # box-cli: `box` binary
├── plugins/             # plugin binaries (box-http, box-mcp, box-i18n)
├── grammars/            # tree-sitter-box grammar
├── integrations/zed/    # Zed editor extension
├── box/                 # Box's own surface, declared in Box (dogfood)
└── site/                # this site

Syntax highlighting in Zed

1. Open Zed
2. Command Palette → zed: install dev extension
3. Pick integrations/zed/ from your clone

Zed clones the tree-sitter grammar from GitHub on first install (compiles in a few seconds), then highlights any .box file.

Next

• Language at a glance — the grammar in 5 minutes
• SPEC.md — the full reference