Syntax

MRON is designed around key/value-oriented Makrell structure rather than JSON punctuation.

Common ingredients:

• plain scalar values

• lists

• nested object-like structures

• close alignment with MBF

Representative example

owner "Rena Holm"
last_update "2026-04-03"

books [
    {
        title "That Time of the Year Again"
        year 1963
        author "Norton Max"
    }
    {
        title "One for the Team"
        year 2024
        author "Felicia X"
    }
]

The corresponding model is object-like, but the surface syntax stays Makrell-shaped instead of JSON-shaped.

Basic shapes

In practice, MRON documents are usually built from just a few shapes:

• scalar values such as strings, numbers, booleans, and null-like values

• key/value object entries

• square-bracket lists

• nested object-like blocks

Example:

project "Makrell"
active true
count 3
tags ["docs" "formats" "languages"]

Nested structure

Nested objects and lists work by composition rather than by extra punctuation rules.

site {
    title "makrell.dev"
    sections [
        {
            name "concepts"
            public true
        }
        {
            name "tutorials"
            public true
        }
    ]
}

How to read MRON

If you already know JSON, a practical reading strategy is:

• each top-level line resembles an object member

• square brackets still indicate lists

• nested braces still indicate nested object-like structure

• the main difference is that the punctuation is lighter

That makes MRON easier to scan for many configuration and document-shaped cases.