Byte Parser Primitives

Byte.Parser matches a single byte against a streaming byte input — the byte-domain layer over the input-agnostic combinator algebra in swift-parser-primitives. It needs only forward (Streaming) input — no backtracking — so it is efficient on forward-only sources, and composes with every combinator (Map, Many, OneOf, Take, …) the parser algebra provides.

For fixed byte sequences, Byte.Literal.Parser matches a byte literal. The API takes Byte_Primitives.Byte at its surface — the institute reserves UInt8 for arithmetic and Byte for binary-data domains — while the input stream is matched as raw bytes underneath.

---

Key Features

• Single-byte match — Byte.Parser matches one expected Byte; forward-only (Streaming), no backtracking.
• Byte-literal match — Byte.Literal.Parser matches a fixed byte sequence.
• Composes with the algebra — drops into the input-agnostic combinators from swift-parser-primitives.
• Byte at the surface — binary-data domain typing, not UInt8 arithmetic typing.

---

Quick Start

import Byte_Parser_Primitives
import Parser_Primitives_Test_Support

let parser = Byte.Parser<Parser.Test.Input>(0x41)   // matches the byte 0x41
var input = Parser.Test.Input([0x41, 0x42, 0x43])
try parser.parse(&input)                            // input now starts at 0x42

---

Installation

Add the dependency to your Package.swift:

dependencies: [
    .package(url: "https://github.com/swift-primitives/swift-byte-parser-primitives.git", branch: "main")
]

Add the product to your target:

.target(
    name: "App",
    dependencies: [
        .product(name: "Byte Parser Primitives", package: "swift-byte-parser-primitives")
    ]
)

The package is pre-1.0 — depend on branch: "main" until 0.1.0 is tagged. Requires Swift 6.3 and macOS 26 / iOS 26 / tvOS 26 / watchOS 26 / visionOS 26 (or the corresponding Linux / Windows toolchain).

---

Architecture

Product	Contents	When to import
Byte Parser Primitives	Byte.Parser (single-byte matcher) and Byte.Literal.Parser (byte-literal matcher); failure is Either<Parser.EndOfInput.Error, Parser.Match.Error>	The only product — import this

---

Platform Support

Platform	CI	Status
macOS 26	Yes	Full support
Linux	Yes	Full support
Windows	Yes	Full support
iOS/tvOS/watchOS	—	Supported
Swift Embedded	—	Pending (nightly-toolchain follow-up)

---

Related Packages

• swift-parser-primitives — the input-agnostic combinator algebra (Map, Filter, Many, OneOf, Take, FlatMap, …) these byte parsers compose with.
• swift-byte-primitives — the Byte value type at the API surface.
• swift-binary-parser-primitives — byte-stream parsing infrastructure (Binary Input, Binary Parser core); a sibling.

---

Community

License

Apache 2.0. See LICENSE.md.