I would recommend most software engineers to avoid inventing a new configuration or other DSL and the parser/lexer for it. This can easily lead to hard-to-debug

I would recommend most software engineers to avoid inventing a new configuration or other DSL and the parser/lexer for it. This can easily lead to hard-to-debug program and long-term technical debt. Always research for existing and well-tested solutions first (even JSON!). Even if you don't invent your language, you can avoid writing a low-level parser/lexer by using a higher-level format, like context-free grammar (see Lark https://github.com/lark-parser/lark https://github.com/lark-parser/lark). Define and maintain a grammar is much easier.