--- title: Compiler for Query Language | daily.dev description: A live coding session where a solo developer builds a query language compiler for a file-based issue tracker. The tracker stores tasks as markdown files in... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/compiler-for-query-language-hdj5wbaac twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Compiler for Query Language | daily.dev og:description: A live coding session where a solo developer builds a query language compiler for a file-based issue tracker. The tracker stores tasks as markdown files in... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/compiler-for-query-language-hdj5wbaac og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hdJ5WbaAc.png og:image:alt: Compiler for Query Language og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Compiler for Query Language **[Tsoding Daily](https://daily.dev/sources/tsoding_daily)** · 130 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A live coding session where a solo developer builds a query language compiler for a file-based issue tracker. The tracker stores tasks as markdown files in folders within a git repo. To enable complex filtering (by tags, untagged status, boolean combinations), the developer designs a stack-based bytecode VM with opcodes like OP_TAG, OP_NOT, OP_OR, OP_UNTAGGED. The session covers the decision to skip building an AST and instead compile filter expressions directly to bytecode, discusses when ASTs are actually necessary, implements a boolean stack interpreter in C, and adds DA_FIRST and DA_POP helpers to a single-header C library (nob.h). The session ends just before implementing the parser that compiles user-written filter strings into bytecode. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Overengineered calculator: Zig \+ QBE](https://daily.dev/posts/overengineered-calculator-zig-qbe-af2hy5t5q) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Unix "find" expressions compiled to bytecode](https://daily.dev/posts/unix-find-expressions-compiled-to-bytecode-t02hbbur7) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Building a Clang Backend and Porting Doom to my Custom Bytecode VM](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-clang-backend-and-porting-doom-to-my-custom-bytecode-vm-etp6orzgf) · Pointers Gone Wild · 8 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#c](https://daily.dev/tags/c), [#compiler](https://daily.dev/tags/compiler) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/compiler-for-query-language-hdj5wbaac) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Compiler for Query Language","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/compiler-for-query-language-hdj5wbaac","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/compiler-for-query-language-hdj5wbaac"},"datePublished":"2026-03-12T16:13:20.144Z","dateModified":"2026-03-12T16:13:43.233Z","description":"A live coding session where a solo developer builds a query language compiler for a file-based issue tracker. The tracker stores tasks as markdown files in...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8NdRGmp70Go/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8NdRGmp70Go/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Tsoding Daily","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Tsoding Daily","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--6msWm9pp--/f_auto/v1728806157/logos/tsoding_daily","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tsoding_daily"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/compiler-for-query-language-hdj5wbaac","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"c,compiler","timeRequired":"PT130M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Compiler for Query Language","description":"A live coding session where a solo developer builds a query language compiler for a file-based issue tracker. The tracker stores tasks as markdown files in...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8NdRGmp70Go/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-03-12T16:13:20.144Z","duration":"PT130M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/hdJ5WbaAc","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/8NdRGmp70Go"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tsoding Daily","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tsoding_daily"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Compiler for Query Language"}]} ```