---
url: /httpx.zig/web/html.md
---
# HTML & Document Parsing
HTTPX provides high-performance, structured HTML and XML document parsing, DOM manipulation, and CSS selector inspection.
> \[!NOTE]
> HTTPX parses HTML/XML with its native DOM engine (`parsing/html.zig`, `parsing/xml.zig`); Tree-sitter is used for the JSON Feed syntax layer, the template syntax layer, plus the shared incremental-edit vocabulary (`Point`/`SourceRange`/`TextEdit`). Applications normally interact only with HTTPX's HTML/document APIs (`httpx.Parser`, `response.html()`, `doc.select()`). Applications do not need to install or import Tree-sitter directly.
## Parsing Documents
Parse HTML directly from an HTTP response or from a string using `httpx.Parser`:
```zig
const std = @import("std");
const httpx = @import("httpx");
pub fn main() !void {
var gpa: std.heap.DebugAllocator(.{}) = .init;
defer _ = gpa.deinit();
const allocator = gpa.allocator();
const html_content =
\\
\\
\\My Website
\\
\\
\\
\\
;
var parser = httpx.Parser.init(allocator, .{});
var doc = try parser.parseHtml(html_content);
defer doc.deinit();
// Query title, body text, or links
const title = try doc.title();
std.debug.print("Title: {s}\n", .{title});
// CSS Selector query
const headers = try doc.select("#header");
defer allocator.free(headers);
for (headers) |h| {
std.debug.print("Header text: {s}\n", .{h.text()});
}
const links = try doc.select("a.link");
defer allocator.free(links);
for (links) |l| {
std.debug.print("Href: {s}\n", .{l.attr("href") orelse ""});
}
}
```
## Direct Response Parsing
When executing HTTP requests, responses can be parsed directly into an HTML document with `response.html()`:
```zig
var client = httpx.Client.init(allocator, io, .{});
defer client.deinit();
var response = try client.get("http://httpbun.com/html", .{});
defer response.deinit();
var doc = try response.html();
defer doc.deinit();
std.debug.print("Title: {s}\n", .{try doc.title()});
const links = try doc.links();
for (links) |link| {
std.debug.print("Link: {s} -> {s}\n", .{ link.text, link.href });
}
```
## Supported Selectors
* Tag names: `div`, `p`, `h1`
* Class names: `.card`, `.button-primary`, `div.container`
* IDs: `#main-nav`, `#submit-button`, `h1#header`
* Attribute matching: `[target="_blank"]`, `[href]`, `[class*="active"]`
* Descendant combinator: `div.container p`
* Child combinator: `ul > li`
* Selector lists: `h1, h2, h3`
## Incremental Document Updates
For live-reloading and development mode, HTTPX runs Tree-sitter incremental reparses (`htmlLanguage` in `parsing/html.zig`) to obtain structurally changed ranges; `Document.incrementalUpdate` rebuilds the DOM from the new syntax tree. The file watcher (`web/watcher`) uses the same incremental analysis plus template dependency tracking for targeted cache invalidation.
## Related
* [API: Response](/api/response)
* [Example: Parse HTML](/examples/parse-html)
* [Web: Live Reload & Watcher](/web/static-files)