ChordSketch

A Rust implementation of the ChordPro file format parser and renderer. 100% ChordPro compatible. Supports parsing ChordPro files into a structured AST and rendering to plain text, HTML, and PDF.

• Full ChordPro format parser with zero external dependencies in the core crate
• Three output formats: plain text, HTML, and PDF
• Chord transposition
• Configuration file system (chordsketch.json)
• Inline markup (bold, italic, etc.)
• Chord diagrams and extended {define} directives
• Section environments (verse, chorus, tab, grid, custom)
• Delegate environments (ABC, Lilypond, SVG, textblock)
• Conditional directive selectors (instrument, user)
• Multi-song files ({new_song})
• Font, size, and color directives
• Image directive
• Multi-page PDF with page control

ChordSketch Playground — try ChordPro rendering directly in your browser, no installation required.

npm install @chordsketch/wasm

See the @chordsketch/wasm README for usage with JavaScript/TypeScript.

brew tap koedame/tap
brew install chordsketch

scoop bucket add koedame https://github.com/koedame/scoop-bucket
scoop install chordsketch

winget install koedame.chordsketch

docker run --rm ghcr.io/koedame/chordsketch --version
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/data" ghcr.io/koedame/chordsketch /data/song.cho

cargo install chordsketch

Requires Rust 1.85 or later.

git clone https://github.com/koedame/chordsketch.git
cd chordsketch
cargo install --path crates/cli

# Render to plain text (default)
chordsketch song.cho

# Render to HTML
chordsketch -f html song.cho -o song.html

# Render to PDF
chordsketch -f pdf song.cho -o song.pdf

# Transpose up 2 semitones
chordsketch --transpose 2 song.cho

# Use a custom config file
chordsketch -c myconfig.json song.cho

# Process multiple files
chordsketch -f pdf song1.cho song2.cho -o songbook.pdf

The core parser and renderers are available as separate library crates:

use chordsketch_core::parser::parse;
use chordsketch_render_text::render_song;

let input = "{title: Amazing Grace}\n{subtitle: Traditional}\n\n[G]Amazing [G7]grace, how [C]sweet the [G]sound";
let song = parse(input).unwrap();
let text = render_song(&song);
println!("{text}");

• ChordPro file format specification
• Configuration guide
• Versioning and release process
• SECURITY.md
• CHANGELOG.md

SDK crates (core, renderers, CLI): MIT

Future application layer (Forum, Playground, Desktop): AGPL-3.0-only