Syntax highlighting

GDQL ships a small Prism.js language definition you can drop into any site that uses Prism. It’s also a clean starting point if you want to port the grammar to a different highlighter or editor.

This site uses its own client-side highlighter (you can see it in action on every code block on this page), but the Prism build is the one to use externally.

Use it on your site (Prism.js)#

Add Prism core, a theme, and the GDQL language file to your page:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/prismjs@1/themes/prism-tomorrow.min.css">
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/prismjs@1/prism.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://docs.gdql.dev/js/prism-gdql.js"></script>

Then write GDQL inside gdql code fences:

```gdql
SHOWS FROM 1977 WHERE "Scarlet Begonias" > "Fire on the Mountain";
```

```gdql
SONGS WITH LYRICS("train", "road");
```

```gdql
COUNT "Dark Star" AFTER 1988;
```

If your site loads content dynamically, call Prism.highlightAll() after the DOM is ready.

Download#

The file is small (~30 lines) and self-contained. Drop it into your project’s static/js/ directory or load it from the URL above.

Tokens it recognizes#

• Keywords: SHOWS, SONGS, PERFORMANCES, SETLIST, COUNT, FIRST, LAST, RANDOM, FROM, WHERE, WITH, AT, TOUR, BEFORE, AFTER, ORDER BY, LIMIT, AS, OF, FOR, AND, OR, NOT, PLAYED, GUEST, OPENER, CLOSER, LENGTH, LYRICS, WRITTEN, INTO, THEN, TEASE, plus set positions
• Strings: double-quoted ("Dark Star") and single-quoted ('St Stephen')
• Comments: -- to end of line
• Operators: >, >>, ~>, >=, <=, !=, =
• Numbers: years (1977), dates (5/8/77), durations (20min, 15 sec)
• Eras and formats: PRIMAL, EUROPE72, WALLOFSOUND, HIATUS, BRENT_ERA, VINCE_ERA, JSON, CSV, TABLE, SETLIST

Editor support#

Editor grammars aren’t packaged yet, but the Prism token list is small enough to port. Contributions welcome:

• VS Code — A TextMate grammar (.tmLanguage.json) is the standard route. Use the Prism tokens above as your starting point.
• Vim / Neovim — A syntax/gdql.vim file with syn keyword and syn match rules.
• Sublime Text — A .sublime-syntax YAML file.
• Tree-sitter — A grammar.js would also unlock Neovim, Helix, and Zed.

If you build one, open a PR at github.com/gdql/docs and we’ll add a download link to this page.

Theming#

Prism token names map to standard CSS classes (.token.keyword, .token.string, .token.operator). Swap themes by changing the stylesheet:

<!-- Tomorrow (dark) -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/prismjs@1/themes/prism-tomorrow.min.css">

<!-- Or Solarized Light -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/prismjs@1/themes/prism-solarizedlight.min.css">

Browse all Prism themes at prismjs.com/#themes, or write your own — the tokens are stable.

Why not Hugo’s built-in (Chroma)?#

Chroma is Hugo’s default highlighter and uses Go-based lexers. Adding a GDQL lexer means either forking Chroma or maintaining a custom Hugo build, neither of which is fun. Prism.js loads at runtime, has no build coupling, and the language definition is 30 lines of JavaScript — that was the right tradeoff for a language with a small audience.

If you’d rather have static, build-time highlighting, the same token list ports cleanly to a Chroma lexer in Go. Send a PR if you write one.