web4

Transpile TOML into clean HTML... Because that's clearly what the world needs right now.

What is web4?

web4 is a small utility that lets you write HTML using TOML.
It's a fun and minimal declarative system for generating HTML documents with structure and attributes defined in simple .toml files.

Think of it like a hand-crafted static templating engine—except your "template" is a TOML config, and the output is HTML5.

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Features

• Write HTML in TOML
• Nest tags using children = [...]
• Add attributes (id, class, etc.) as TOML key-value pairs
• Live preview with --serve and --watch
• Minimal dependencies and zero JavaScript required

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Installation

pip install -r requirements.txt

Requires Python 3.10+

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Usage

python web4.py FILE.toml [--serve] [--watch]
python web4.py --man  # view manpage-style help

Options

Flag	Description
--serve	Launches a local server at localhost:8080
--watch	Rebuilds the HTML whenever the TOML file changes
--man	Displays help in a manpage-like format

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Syntax

Required

• A [root] section with a children = [...] key defining the root elements.

Tags

Each TOML section becomes an HTML tag:

[root]
children = ["html"]

[html]
children = ["head", "body"]

[head]
children = ["title"]

[title]
children = ["Hello, world!"]

[body]
children = ["p"]

[p]
children = ["Welcome to ", "strong", "!"]

[strong]
children = ["web4"]

Generates:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hello, world!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Welcome to <strong>web4</strong>!</p>
  </body>
</html>

Attributes

["div#main"] # TOML limitations require us to use quotes
class = "container"
children = ["p"]

This becomes:

<div id="main" class="container">
  <p>...</p>
</div>

Void Elements

If a section name is a self-closing/void element (like img, meta, br, etc.), and it has no children, it is rendered like this:

[img]
src = "cat.jpg"
alt = "A cute cat"

Output:

<img src="cat.jpg" alt="A cute cat" />

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Files

• *.toml — Input files
• *.html — Output files (same base name)

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License

Let's just say that the license is too much for you to handle. I can't even tell you anything about it. It's because of one of the clauses in the license.