The Digital Press

A new HTML-aware ERB parser called Herb has been developed to improve developer tooling for Ruby on Rails applications, especially in the Hotwire era. This parser enables advanced features like formatting, linting, and language server protocol integration tailored for HTML+ERB templates.

Why it matters: Herb fills a long-standing gap by providing smart tooling support for HTML+ERB, enhancing developer productivity in Rails projects.

The big picture: As modern Rails embraces Hotwire and HTML-over-the-wire, quality tooling for the view layer becomes critical for maintaining efficient development.

Quick takeaway: Herb is a hand-written, error-tolerant parser written in C99, designed specifically for tooling rather than browsers, unlocking new developer tools.

Commenters say: Users appreciate Herb’s potential to modernize Ruby view tooling but express curiosity about ecosystem adoption and integration with existing tools.