diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/nvim-treesitter/overrides.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/nvim-treesitter/overrides.nix
index 2b8ba7616ae62..4fe658b8207be 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/nvim-treesitter/overrides.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/nvim-treesitter/overrides.nix
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ self: super:
 
 let
   generatedGrammars = callPackage ./generated.nix {
-    buildGrammar = callPackage ../../../../../development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammar.nix { };
+    buildGrammar = callPackage ../../../../../development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/build-grammar.nix { };
   };
 
   generatedDerivations = lib.filterAttrs (_: lib.isDerivation) generatedGrammars;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/README.md b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..5d4e5a2272a7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# tree-sitter libraries, binaries & grammars
+
+This packages tree sitter and its grammars.
+
+The grammar descriptions can be found in [./grammars.toml]().
+
+## Updating tree-sitter
+
+1) change all hashes at the beginning of [./default.nix]().
+2) Update the grammars (see below)
+
+## Updating all grammars
+
+First you need a github Personal Access Token, otherwise it runs into rate limits.
+Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens and generate a classic token, copy the secret.
+
+You generate the update script and run it:
+
+```bash
+$ nix-build -A tree-sitter.updater.update-all-grammars
+$ env GITHUB_TOKEN=<secret token> ./result
+```
+
+This will prefetch all repos mentioned in [./grammars.toml]() and put their new hashes
+into the [./grammars]() directory.
+
+If a new repository was added to the `github.com/tree-sitter` organization,
+the update process will throw an error and you need to add the new repo to
+either `knownTreeSitterOrgGrammarRepos` (if it’s a grammar) or to
+`ignoredTreeSitterOrgRepos`.
+This is to make sure we always package every official grammar.
+
+## Adding a third-party grammar
+
+Add it to the `otherGrammars` section in [./grammars.toml]().
+The grammar name has to be unique among all grammars (upstream and third party).
+
+## Deleting a grammar
+
+In case a grammar needs to be removed, please remove the generated outputs
+in the [./grammar]() directory manually.
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammar.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/build-grammar.nix
similarity index 100%
rename from pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammar.nix
rename to pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/build-grammar.nix
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/default.nix
index dcc8be0640f47..3c59e03db9e9b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/default.nix
@@ -23,13 +23,8 @@
 , extraGrammars ? { }
 }:
 
-# TODO: move to carnix or https://github.com/kolloch/crate2nix
 let
-  # to update:
-  # 1) change all these hashes
-  # 2) nix-build -A tree-sitter.updater.update-all-grammars
-  # 3) Set GITHUB_TOKEN env variable to avoid api rate limit (Use a Personal Access Token from https://github.com/settings/tokens It does not need any permissions)
-  # 4) run the ./result script that is output by that (it updates ./grammars)
+  # to update: see ./README.md
   version = "0.20.7";
   sha256 = "sha256-5ILiN5EfJ7WpeYBiXynfcLucdp8zmxVOj4gLkaFQYts=";
   cargoSha256 = "sha256-V4frCaU5QzTx3ujdaplw7vNkosbzyXHQvE+T7ntVOtU=";
@@ -55,7 +50,7 @@ let
   builtGrammars =
     let
       change = name: grammar:
-        callPackage ./grammar.nix { } {
+        callPackage ./build-grammar.nix { } {
           language = if grammar ? language then grammar.language else name;
           inherit version;
           source = if grammar ? src then grammar.src else fetchGrammar grammar;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars.toml b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..9f9ecd308e3f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,346 @@
+# Grammar list:
+# https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter/blob/master/docs/index.md
+
+# Grammars we want to fetch from the tree-sitter github orga
+knownTreeSitterOrgGrammarRepos = [
+  "tree-sitter-javascript",
+  "tree-sitter-c",
+  "tree-sitter-json",
+  "tree-sitter-cpp",
+  "tree-sitter-ruby",
+  "tree-sitter-go",
+  "tree-sitter-c-sharp",
+  "tree-sitter-python",
+  "tree-sitter-typescript",
+  "tree-sitter-rust",
+  "tree-sitter-bash",
+  "tree-sitter-php",
+  "tree-sitter-java",
+  "tree-sitter-scala",
+  "tree-sitter-ocaml",
+  "tree-sitter-julia",
+  "tree-sitter-agda",
+  "tree-sitter-fluent",
+  "tree-sitter-html",
+  "tree-sitter-haskell",
+  "tree-sitter-regex",
+  "tree-sitter-css",
+  "tree-sitter-verilog",
+  "tree-sitter-jsdoc",
+  "tree-sitter-ql",
+  "tree-sitter-ql-dbscheme",
+  "tree-sitter-embedded-template",
+  "tree-sitter-tsq",
+  "tree-sitter-toml",
+]
+# repos of the tree-sitter github orga we want to ignore (not grammars)
+ignoredTreeSitterOrgRepos = [
+  "tree-sitter",
+  "tree-sitter-cli",
+  # this is the haskell language bindings, tree-sitter-haskell is the grammar
+  "haskell-tree-sitter",
+  # this is the ruby language bindings, tree-sitter-ruby is the grammar
+  "ruby-tree-sitter.old",
+  # this is the (unmaintained) rust language bindings, tree-sitter-rust is the grammar
+  "rust-tree-sitter",
+  # this is the nodejs language bindings, tree-sitter-javascript is the grammar
+  "node-tree-sitter",
+  # this is the python language bindings, tree-sitter-python is the grammar
+  "py-tree-sitter",
+  # afl fuzzing for tree sitter
+  "afl-tree-sitter",
+  # archived
+  "highlight-schema",
+  # website
+  "tree-sitter.github.io",
+  # not maintained
+  "tree-sitter-razor",
+  # rust library for constructing arbitrary graph structures from source code
+  "tree-sitter-graph",
+  # abandoned
+  "tree-sitter-swift",
+]
+
+# Additional grammars that are not in the official github orga.
+# If you need a grammar that already exists in the official orga,
+# make sure to give it a different name.
+#
+# This can be type == "github", then it needs an orga and a repo.
+#
+# Or it can be type == "gitlab", then it needs a projectId,
+# which you can find under the repository name on gitlab.
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-beancount]
+type = "github"
+orga = "polarmutex"
+repo = "tree-sitter-beancount"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-clojure]
+type = "github"
+orga = "sogaiu"
+repo = "tree-sitter-clojure"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-comment]
+type = "github"
+orga = "stsewd"
+repo = "tree-sitter-comment"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-dart]
+type = "github"
+orga = "usernobody14"
+repo = "tree-sitter-dart"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-elisp]
+type = "github"
+orga = "wilfred"
+repo = "tree-sitter-elisp"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-nix]
+type = "github"
+orga = "cstrahan"
+repo = "tree-sitter-nix"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-latex]
+type = "github"
+orga = "latex-lsp"
+repo = "tree-sitter-latex"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-lua]
+type = "github"
+orga = "MunifTanjim"
+repo = "tree-sitter-lua"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-fennel]
+type = "github"
+orga = "travonted"
+repo = "tree-sitter-fennel"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-make]
+type = "github"
+orga = "alemuller"
+repo = "tree-sitter-make"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-markdown]
+type = "github"
+orga = "MDeiml"
+repo = "tree-sitter-markdown"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-rego]
+type = "github"
+orga = "FallenAngel97"
+repo = "tree-sitter-rego"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-rst]
+type = "github"
+orga = "stsewd"
+repo = "tree-sitter-rst"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-svelte]
+type = "github"
+orga = "Himujjal"
+repo = "tree-sitter-svelte"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-sql]
+type = "github"
+orga = "m-novikov"
+repo = "tree-sitter-sql"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-vim]
+type = "github"
+orga = "vigoux"
+repo = "tree-sitter-viml"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-yaml]
+type = "github"
+orga = "ikatyang"
+repo = "tree-sitter-yaml"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-zig]
+type = "github"
+orga = "maxxnino"
+repo = "tree-sitter-zig"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-fish]
+type = "github"
+orga = "ram02z"
+repo = "tree-sitter-fish"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-dot]
+type = "github"
+orga = "rydesun"
+repo = "tree-sitter-dot"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-norg]
+type = "github"
+orga = "nvim-neorg"
+repo = "tree-sitter-norg"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-commonlisp]
+type = "github"
+orga = "thehamsta"
+repo = "tree-sitter-commonlisp"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-cuda]
+type = "github"
+orga = "thehamsta"
+repo = "tree-sitter-cuda"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-glsl]
+type = "github"
+orga = "thehamsta"
+repo = "tree-sitter-glsl"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-dockerfile]
+type = "github"
+orga = "camdencheek"
+repo = "tree-sitter-dockerfile"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-ledger]
+type = "github"
+orga = "cbarrete"
+repo = "tree-sitter-ledger"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-gomod]
+type = "github"
+orga = "camdencheek"
+repo = "tree-sitter-go-mod"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-gowork]
+type = "github"
+orga = "omertuc"
+repo = "tree-sitter-go-work"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-graphql]
+type = "github"
+orga = "bkegley"
+repo = "tree-sitter-graphql"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-pgn]
+type = "github"
+orga = "rolandwalker"
+repo = "tree-sitter-pgn"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-perl]
+type = "github"
+orga = "ganezdragon"
+repo = "tree-sitter-perl"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-kotlin]
+type = "github"
+orga = "fwcd"
+repo = "tree-sitter-kotlin"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-scss]
+type = "github"
+orga = "serenadeai"
+repo = "tree-sitter-scss"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-erlang]
+type = "github"
+orga = "abstractmachineslab"
+repo = "tree-sitter-erlang"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-elixir]
+type = "github"
+orga = "elixir-lang"
+repo = "tree-sitter-elixir"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-surface]
+type = "github"
+orga = "connorlay"
+repo = "tree-sitter-surface"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-heex]
+type = "github"
+orga = "connorlay"
+repo = "tree-sitter-heex"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-supercollider]
+type = "github"
+orga = "madskjeldgaard"
+repo = "tree-sitter-supercollider"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-tlaplus]
+type = "github"
+orga = "tlaplus-community"
+repo = "tree-sitter-tlaplus"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-glimmer]
+type = "github"
+orga = "alexlafroscia"
+repo = "tree-sitter-glimmer"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-pug]
+type = "github"
+orga = "zealot128"
+repo = "tree-sitter-pug"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-vue]
+type = "github"
+orga = "ikatyang"
+repo = "tree-sitter-vue"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-elm]
+type = "github"
+orga = "elm-tooling"
+repo = "tree-sitter-elm"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-yang]
+type = "github"
+orga = "hubro"
+repo = "tree-sitter-yang"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-query]
+type = "github"
+orga = "nvim-treesitter"
+repo = "tree-sitter-query"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-sparql]
+type = "github"
+orga = "bonabeavis"
+repo = "tree-sitter-sparql"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-gdscript]
+type = "github"
+orga = "prestonknopp"
+repo = "tree-sitter-gdscript"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-godot-resource]
+type = "github"
+orga = "prestonknopp"
+repo = "tree-sitter-godot-resource"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-turtle]
+type = "github"
+orga = "bonabeavis"
+repo = "tree-sitter-turtle"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-devicetree]
+type = "github"
+orga = "joelspadin"
+repo = "tree-sitter-devicetree"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-r]
+type = "github"
+orga = "r-lib"
+repo = "tree-sitter-r"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-bibtex]
+type = "github"
+orga = "latex-lsp"
+repo = "tree-sitter-bibtex"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-fortran]
+type = "github"
+orga = "stadelmanma"
+repo = "tree-sitter-fortran"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-cmake]
+type = "github"
+orga = "uyha"
+repo = "tree-sitter-cmake"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-janet-simple]
+type = "github"
+orga = "sogaiu"
+repo = "tree-sitter-janet-simple"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-json5]
+type = "github"
+orga = "joakker"
+repo = "tree-sitter-json5"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-pioasm]
+type = "github"
+orga = "leo60228"
+repo = "tree-sitter-pioasm"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-hjson]
+type = "github"
+orga = "winston0410"
+repo = "tree-sitter-hjson"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-llvm]
+type = "github"
+orga = "benwilliamgraham"
+repo = "tree-sitter-llvm"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-http]
+type = "github"
+orga = "ntbbloodbath"
+repo = "tree-sitter-http"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-prisma]
+type = "github"
+orga = "victorhqc"
+repo = "tree-sitter-prisma"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-org-nvim]
+type = "github"
+orga = "milisims"
+repo = "tree-sitter-org"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-hcl]
+type = "github"
+orga = "MichaHoffmann"
+repo = "tree-sitter-hcl"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-scheme]
+type = "github"
+orga = "6cdh"
+repo = "tree-sitter-scheme"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-tiger]
+type = "github"
+orga = "ambroisie"
+repo = "tree-sitter-tiger"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-nickel]
+type = "github"
+orga = "nickel-lang"
+repo = "tree-sitter-nickel"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-smithy]
+type = "github"
+orga = "indoorvivants"
+repo = "tree-sitter-smithy"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-jsonnet]
+type = "github"
+orga = "sourcegraph"
+repo = "tree-sitter-jsonnet"
+[otherGrammars.tree-sitter-jsonc]
+type = "gitlab"
+projectId = "24426815"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/README.md b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..c5cb0521a1efa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Generated tree-sitter grammars
+
+These grammars have been autogenerated by the update script.
+Please see [../default.nix]() for how to run it.
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/default.nix
index 5b3862082d8f7..7854e69723353 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/default.nix
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
   tree-sitter-jsdoc = lib.importJSON ./tree-sitter-jsdoc.json;
   tree-sitter-json = lib.importJSON ./tree-sitter-json.json;
   tree-sitter-json5 = lib.importJSON ./tree-sitter-json5.json;
+  tree-sitter-jsonc = lib.importJSON ./tree-sitter-jsonc.json;
   tree-sitter-jsonnet = lib.importJSON ./tree-sitter-jsonnet.json;
   tree-sitter-julia = lib.importJSON ./tree-sitter-julia.json;
   tree-sitter-kotlin = lib.importJSON ./tree-sitter-kotlin.json;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/tree-sitter-jsonc.json b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/tree-sitter-jsonc.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..f29175254b485
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/grammars/tree-sitter-jsonc.json
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+{
+  "url": "https://gitlab.com/WhyNotHugo/tree-sitter-jsonc.git",
+  "rev": "02b01653c8a1c198ae7287d566efa86a135b30d5",
+  "date": "2021-03-07T20:32:20+01:00",
+  "path": "/nix/store/hqh4kxw3fp9hr3yglsxv9d2kvcvpzdfa-tree-sitter-jsonc",
+  "sha256": "0mc68i7shwmn88iv3lcqyjvrhy3b62h02k272is7chk2yiw3crw9",
+  "fetchLFS": false,
+  "fetchSubmodules": false,
+  "deepClone": false,
+  "leaveDotGit": false
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update.nix
index ad62530ee31d7..4f140c9497334 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update.nix
@@ -9,367 +9,39 @@
 , xe
 }:
 
-# Grammar list:
-# https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter/blob/master/docs/index.md
 
 let
-  # Grammars we want to fetch from the tree-sitter github orga
-  knownTreeSitterOrgGrammarRepos = [
-    "tree-sitter-javascript"
-    "tree-sitter-c"
-    "tree-sitter-json"
-    "tree-sitter-cpp"
-    "tree-sitter-ruby"
-    "tree-sitter-go"
-    "tree-sitter-c-sharp"
-    "tree-sitter-python"
-    "tree-sitter-typescript"
-    "tree-sitter-rust"
-    "tree-sitter-bash"
-    "tree-sitter-php"
-    "tree-sitter-java"
-    "tree-sitter-scala"
-    "tree-sitter-ocaml"
-    "tree-sitter-julia"
-    "tree-sitter-agda"
-    "tree-sitter-fluent"
-    "tree-sitter-html"
-    "tree-sitter-haskell"
-    "tree-sitter-regex"
-    "tree-sitter-css"
-    "tree-sitter-verilog"
-    "tree-sitter-jsdoc"
-    "tree-sitter-ql"
-    "tree-sitter-ql-dbscheme"
-    "tree-sitter-embedded-template"
-    "tree-sitter-tsq"
-    "tree-sitter-toml"
-  ];
-  knownTreeSitterOrgGrammarReposJson = jsonFile "known-tree-sitter-org-grammar-repos" knownTreeSitterOrgGrammarRepos;
+  grammarsToml = builtins.fromTOML (builtins.readFile ./grammars.toml);
 
-  # repos of the tree-sitter github orga we want to ignore (not grammars)
-  ignoredTreeSitterOrgRepos = [
-    "tree-sitter"
-    "tree-sitter-cli"
-    # this is the haskell language bindings, tree-sitter-haskell is the grammar
-    "haskell-tree-sitter"
-    # this is the ruby language bindings, tree-sitter-ruby is the grammar
-    "ruby-tree-sitter.old"
-    # this is the (unmaintained) rust language bindings, tree-sitter-rust is the grammar
-    "rust-tree-sitter"
-    # this is the nodejs language bindings, tree-sitter-javascript is the grammar
-    "node-tree-sitter"
-    # this is the python language bindings, tree-sitter-python is the grammar
-    "py-tree-sitter"
-    # afl fuzzing for tree sitter
-    "afl-tree-sitter"
-    # archived
-    "highlight-schema"
-    # website
-    "tree-sitter.github.io"
-    # not maintained
-    "tree-sitter-razor"
-    # rust library for constructing arbitrary graph structures from source code
-    "tree-sitter-graph"
-    # abandoned
-    "tree-sitter-swift"
-  ];
-  ignoredTreeSitterOrgReposJson = jsonFile "ignored-tree-sitter-org-repos" ignoredTreeSitterOrgRepos;
-
-  # Additional grammars that are not in the official github orga.
-  # If you need a grammar that already exists in the official orga,
-  # make sure to give it a different name.
-  otherGrammars = {
-    "tree-sitter-beancount" = {
-      orga = "polarmutex";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-beancount";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-clojure" = {
-      orga = "sogaiu";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-clojure";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-comment" = {
-      orga = "stsewd";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-comment";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-dart" = {
-      orga = "usernobody14";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-dart";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-elisp" = {
-      orga = "wilfred";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-elisp";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-nix" = {
-      orga = "cstrahan";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-nix";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-latex" = {
-      orga = "latex-lsp";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-latex";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-lua" = {
-      orga = "MunifTanjim";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-lua";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-fennel" = {
-      orga = "travonted";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-fennel";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-make" = {
-      orga = "alemuller";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-make";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-markdown" = {
-      orga = "MDeiml";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-markdown";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-rego" = {
-      orga = "FallenAngel97";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-rego";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-rst" = {
-      orga = "stsewd";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-rst";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-svelte" = {
-      orga = "Himujjal";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-svelte";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-sql" = {
-      orga = "m-novikov";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-sql";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-vim" = {
-      orga = "vigoux";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-viml";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-yaml" = {
-      orga = "ikatyang";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-yaml";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-zig" = {
-      orga = "maxxnino";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-zig";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-fish" = {
-      orga = "ram02z";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-fish";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-dot" = {
-      orga = "rydesun";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-dot";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-norg" = {
-      orga = "nvim-neorg";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-norg";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-commonlisp" = {
-      orga = "thehamsta";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-commonlisp";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-cuda" = {
-      orga = "thehamsta";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-cuda";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-glsl" = {
-      orga = "thehamsta";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-glsl";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-dockerfile" = {
-      orga = "camdencheek";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-dockerfile";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-ledger" = {
-      orga = "cbarrete";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-ledger";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-gomod" = {
-      orga = "camdencheek";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-go-mod";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-gowork" = {
-      orga = "omertuc";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-go-work";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-graphql" = {
-      orga = "bkegley";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-graphql";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-pgn" = {
-      orga = "rolandwalker";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-pgn";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-perl" = {
-      orga = "ganezdragon";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-perl";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-kotlin" = {
-      orga = "fwcd";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-kotlin";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-scss" = {
-      orga = "serenadeai";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-scss";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-erlang" = {
-      orga = "abstractmachineslab";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-erlang";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-elixir" = {
-      orga = "elixir-lang";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-elixir";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-surface" = {
-      orga = "connorlay";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-surface";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-heex" = {
-      orga = "connorlay";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-heex";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-supercollider" = {
-      orga = "madskjeldgaard";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-supercollider";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-tlaplus" = {
-      orga = "tlaplus-community";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-tlaplus";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-glimmer" = {
-      orga = "alexlafroscia";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-glimmer";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-pug" = {
-      orga = "zealot128";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-pug";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-vue" = {
-      orga = "ikatyang";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-vue";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-elm" = {
-      orga = "elm-tooling";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-elm";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-yang" = {
-      orga = "hubro";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-yang";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-query" = {
-      orga = "nvim-treesitter";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-query";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-sparql" = {
-      orga = "bonabeavis";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-sparql";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-gdscript" = {
-      orga = "prestonknopp";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-gdscript";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-godot-resource" = {
-      orga = "prestonknopp";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-godot-resource";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-turtle" = {
-      orga = "bonabeavis";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-turtle";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-devicetree" = {
-      orga = "joelspadin";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-devicetree";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-r" = {
-      orga = "r-lib";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-r";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-bibtex" = {
-      orga = "latex-lsp";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-bibtex";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-fortran" = {
-      orga = "stadelmanma";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-fortran";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-cmake" = {
-      orga = "uyha";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-cmake";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-janet-simple" = {
-      orga = "sogaiu";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-janet-simple";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-json5" = {
-      orga = "joakker";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-json5";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-pioasm" = {
-      orga = "leo60228";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-pioasm";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-hjson" = {
-      orga = "winston0410";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-hjson";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-llvm" = {
-      orga = "benwilliamgraham";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-llvm";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-http" = {
-      orga = "ntbbloodbath";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-http";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-prisma" = {
-      orga = "victorhqc";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-prisma";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-org-nvim" = {
-      orga = "milisims";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-org";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-hcl" = {
-      orga = "MichaHoffmann";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-hcl";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-scheme" = {
-      orga = "6cdh";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-scheme";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-tiger" = {
-      orga = "ambroisie";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-tiger";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-nickel" = {
-      orga = "nickel-lang";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-nickel";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-smithy" = {
-      orga = "indoorvivants";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-smithy";
-    };
-    "tree-sitter-jsonnet" = {
-      orga = "sourcegraph";
-      repo = "tree-sitter-jsonnet";
-    };
-  };
 
+  # a list of {nixRepoAttrName, type, <type-specific>}
   allGrammars =
     let
+      # All grammars in the tree sitter orga we know of
       treeSitterOrgaGrammars =
         lib.listToAttrs (map
           (repo:
             {
               name = repo;
               value = {
+                type = "github";
                 orga = "tree-sitter";
                 inherit repo;
               };
             })
-          knownTreeSitterOrgGrammarRepos);
+          grammarsToml.knownTreeSitterOrgGrammarRepos);
 
+      merged =
+        mergeAttrsUnique
+          grammarsToml.otherGrammars
+          treeSitterOrgaGrammars;
     in
-    mergeAttrsUnique otherGrammars treeSitterOrgaGrammars;
+      lib.mapAttrsToList
+        (nixRepoAttrName: attrs: attrs // {
+          inherit nixRepoAttrName;
+        })
+        merged;
+
 
   # TODO: move to lib
   mergeAttrsUnique = left: right:
@@ -385,8 +57,6 @@ let
 
 
 
-  jsonFile = name: val: (formats.json { }).generate name val;
-
   # implementation of the updater
   updateImpl = passArgs "updateImpl-with-args" {
       binaries = {
@@ -394,7 +64,7 @@ let
         nix-prefetch-git = "${nix-prefetch-git}/bin/nix-prefetch-git";
         printf = "${coreutils}/bin/printf";
       };
-      inherit
+      inherit (grammarsToml)
         knownTreeSitterOrgGrammarRepos
         ignoredTreeSitterOrgRepos
         ;
@@ -410,11 +80,11 @@ let
       ${script} "$@"
   '';
 
-  foreachSh = attrs: f:
-    lib.concatMapStringsSep "\n" f
-      (lib.mapAttrsToList (k: v: { name = k; } // v) attrs);
-
+  # a list of nix values as a newline-separated json string,
+  # one entry per line
   jsonNewlines = lib.concatMapStringsSep "\n" (lib.generators.toJSON {});
+  # a pretty-printed value as json file
+  jsonFile = name: val: (formats.json { }).generate name val;
 
   # Run the given script for each of the attr list.
   # The attrs are passed to the script as a json value.
@@ -427,9 +97,14 @@ let
   # This will depend on your local environment, but that is intentional.
   outputDir = "${toString ./.}/grammars";
 
+  # final script
   update-all-grammars = writeShellScript "update-all-grammars.sh" ''
     set -euo pipefail
-   ${updateImpl} fetch-and-check-tree-sitter-repos '{}'
+
+    # first make sure we know about all upsteam repos
+    ${updateImpl} fetch-and-check-tree-sitter-repos '{}'
+
+    # Then write one json file for each prefetched repo, in parallel
     echo "writing files to ${outputDir}" 1>&2
     mkdir -p "${outputDir}"
     ${forEachParallel
@@ -437,22 +112,18 @@ let
         (writeShellScript "fetch-repo" ''
             ${updateImpl} fetch-repo "$1"
         '')
-        (lib.mapAttrsToList
-          (nixRepoAttrName: attrs: attrs // {
-            inherit
-              nixRepoAttrName
-              outputDir;
-          })
+        (map
+          (grammar: grammar // { inherit outputDir; })
           allGrammars)
     }
+
+    # finally, write a default.nix that calls all grammars
     ${updateImpl} print-all-grammars-nix-file "$(< ${
-        jsonFile "all-grammars.json" {
-          allGrammars =
-            (lib.mapAttrsToList
-              (nixRepoAttrName: attrs: attrs // {
-                inherit nixRepoAttrName;
-              })
-              allGrammars);
+        jsonFile "repo-attr-names.json" {
+          repoAttrNames =
+            map
+              ({nixRepoAttrName, ...}: nixRepoAttrName)
+              allGrammars;
           inherit outputDir;
         }
     })"
diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update_impl.py b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update_impl.py
index db470617ed9c2..f23c40175aee3 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update_impl.py
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/parsing/tree-sitter/update_impl.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 import subprocess as sub
 import os
 import sys
-from typing import Iterator, Any, Literal, TypedDict
+from typing import Iterator, Any, Literal, NoReturn, TypedDict, cast
 from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
 
 debug: bool = True if os.environ.get("DEBUG", False) else False
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ def log(msg: str) -> None:
     print(msg, file=sys.stderr)
 
 
+def critical(msg: str) -> NoReturn:
+    sys.exit(f"ERROR: {msg}")
+
+
 def atomically_write(file_path: str, content: bytes) -> None:
     """atomically write the content into `file_path`"""
     with NamedTemporaryFile(
@@ -51,20 +55,36 @@ def curl_github_args(token: str | None, url: str) -> Args:
     yield url
 
 
-def curl_result(output: bytes) -> Any | Literal["not found"]:
+def curl_gitlab_args(url: str) -> Args:
+    """Query the gitlab API via curl"""
+    yield bins["curl"]
+    if not debug:
+        yield "--silent"
+    # follow redirects
+    yield "--location"
+    yield url
+
+
+def github_curl_result(output: bytes) -> Any | Literal["not found"]:
     """Parse the curl result of the github API"""
     res: Any = json.loads(output)
     match res:
         case dict(res):
             message: str = res.get("message", "")
             if "rate limit" in message:
-                sys.exit("Rate limited by the Github API")
+                critical("Rate limited by the Github API")
             if "Not Found" in message:
                 return "not found"
     # if the result is another type, we can pass it on
     return res
 
 
+def gitlab_curl_result(output: bytes) -> Any:
+    """Parse the curl result of the gitlab API"""
+    res: Any = json.loads(output)
+    return res
+
+
 def nix_prefetch_git_args(url: str, version_rev: str) -> Args:
     """Prefetch a git repository"""
     yield bins["nix-prefetch-git"]
@@ -86,50 +106,117 @@ def run_cmd(args: Args) -> bytes:
 
 Dir = str
 
+GithubRepo = TypedDict(
+    "GithubRepo", {
+        "orga": str,
+        "repo": str
+    }
+)
+
+GitlabRepo = TypedDict(
+    "GitlabRepo", {
+        "nixRepoAttrName": str,
+        "projectId": str
+    }
+)
+
+FetchRepoArg = TypedDict(
+    "FetchRepoArg", {
+        "type": str,
+        "outputDir": Dir,
+        "nixRepoAttrName": str
+    }
+)
+
 
 def fetchRepo() -> None:
     """fetch the given repo and write its nix-prefetch output to the corresponding grammar json file"""
-    match jsonArg:
-        case {
-            "orga": orga,
-            "repo": repo,
-            "outputDir": outputDir,
-            "nixRepoAttrName": nixRepoAttrName,
-        }:
-            token: str | None = os.environ.get("GITHUB_TOKEN", None)
-            out = run_cmd(
-                curl_github_args(
-                    token,
-                    url=f"https://api.github.com/repos/{quote(orga)}/{quote(repo)}/releases/latest"
-                )
-            )
-            release: str
-            match curl_result(out):
-                case "not found":
-                    # github sometimes returns an empty list even tough there are releases
-                    log(f"uh-oh, latest for {orga}/{repo} is not there, using HEAD")
-                    release = "HEAD"
-                case {"tag_name": tag_name}:
-                    release = tag_name
-                case _:
-                    sys.exit(f"git result for {orga}/{repo} did not have a `tag_name` field")
-
-            log(f"Fetching latest release ({release}) of {orga}/{repo} …")
-            res = run_cmd(
-                nix_prefetch_git_args(
-                    url=f"https://github.com/{quote(orga)}/{quote(repo)}",
-                    version_rev=release
-                )
-            )
-            atomically_write(
-                file_path=os.path.join(
-                    outputDir,
-                    f"{nixRepoAttrName}.json"
-                ),
-                content=res
-            )
+    arg = cast(FetchRepoArg, jsonArg)
+    if debug:
+        log(f"Fetching repo {arg}")
+    match arg["type"]:
+        case "github":
+            res = fetchGithubRepo(cast(GithubRepo, jsonArg))
+        case "gitlab":
+            res = fetchGitlabRepo(cast(GitlabRepo, jsonArg))
+        case other:
+            critical(f'''Do not yet know how to handle the repo type "{other}"''')
+    attrName = jsonArg["nixRepoAttrName"]
+    atomically_write(
+        file_path=os.path.join(
+            arg["outputDir"],
+            f"{attrName}.json"
+        ),
+        content=res
+    )
+
+
+def fetchGithubRepo(r: GithubRepo) -> bytes:
+    token: str | None = os.environ.get("GITHUB_TOKEN", None)
+    orga = r["orga"]
+    repo = r["repo"]
+    out = run_cmd(
+        curl_github_args(
+            token,
+            url=f"https://api.github.com/repos/{quote(orga)}/{quote(repo)}/releases/latest"
+        )
+    )
+    release: str
+    match github_curl_result(out):
+        case "not found":
+            # github sometimes returns an empty list even tough there are releases
+            log(f"uh-oh, latest for {orga}/{repo} is not there, using HEAD")
+            release = "HEAD"
+        case {"tag_name": tag_name}:
+            release = tag_name
+        case _:
+            critical(f"git result for {orga}/{repo} did not have a `tag_name` field")
+
+    log(f"Fetching latest release ({release}) of {orga}/{repo} …")
+    return run_cmd(
+        nix_prefetch_git_args(
+            url=f"https://github.com/{quote(orga)}/{quote(repo)}",
+            version_rev=release
+        )
+    )
+
+
+def fetchGitlabRepo(r: GitlabRepo) -> bytes:
+    projectId = r["projectId"]
+    nixRepoAttrName = r["nixRepoAttrName"]
+    out = run_cmd(
+        curl_gitlab_args(
+            url=f"https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/{quote(projectId)}/repository/tags?order_by=version&sort=desc"
+        )
+    )
+    release: str
+    projectName = f'''"{nixRepoAttrName}" (Gitlab projectId: {projectId})'''
+    match gitlab_curl_result(out):
+        case list([]):
+            log(f"uh-oh, no release find for for {projectName}, using HEAD")
+            release = "HEAD"
+        case list([{"name": tag_name}, *_]):
+            release = tag_name
+        case _:
+            critical(f"tag list for {projectName} did not have a `name` field: {out.decode()}")
+    out = run_cmd(
+        curl_gitlab_args(
+            url=f"https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/{quote(projectId)}"
+        )
+    )
+    url: str
+    match gitlab_curl_result(out):
+        case {"http_url_to_repo": url}:
+            url = url
         case _:
-            sys.exit("input json must have `orga` and `repo` keys")
+            critical(f"repository result for {projectName} did not have a `http_url_to_repo` field: {out.decode()}")
+    log(f"Fetching latest release ({release}) of {projectName} …")
+    return run_cmd(
+        nix_prefetch_git_args(
+            url,
+            version_rev=release
+        )
+    )
 
 
 def fetchOrgaLatestRepos(orga: str) -> set[str]:
@@ -141,9 +228,9 @@ def fetchOrgaLatestRepos(orga: str) -> set[str]:
             url=f"https://api.github.com/orgs/{quote(orga)}/repos?per_page=100"
         )
     )
-    match curl_result(out):
+    match github_curl_result(out):
         case "not found":
-            sys.exit(f"github organization {orga} not found")
+            critical(f"github organization {orga} not found")
         case list(repos):
             res: list[str] = []
             for repo in repos:
@@ -151,8 +238,8 @@ def fetchOrgaLatestRepos(orga: str) -> set[str]:
                 if name:
                     res.append(name)
             return set(res)
-        case _:
-            sys.exit("github result was not a list of repos, but {other}")
+        case other:
+            critical(f"github result was not a list of repos, but {other}")
 
 
 def checkTreeSitterRepos(latest_github_repos: set[str]) -> None:
@@ -163,29 +250,21 @@ def checkTreeSitterRepos(latest_github_repos: set[str]) -> None:
     unknown = latest_github_repos - (known | ignored)
 
     if unknown:
-        sys.exit(f"These repositories are neither known nor ignored:\n{unknown}")
+        critical(f"These repositories are neither known nor ignored:\n{unknown}")
 
 
-Grammar = TypedDict(
-    "Grammar",
-    {
-        "nixRepoAttrName": str,
-        "orga": str,
-        "repo": str
-    }
-)
+NixRepoAttrName = str
 
 
 def printAllGrammarsNixFile() -> None:
     """Print a .nix file that imports all grammars."""
-    allGrammars: list[dict[str, Grammar]] = jsonArg["allGrammars"]
+    repoAttrNames: list[NixRepoAttrName] = jsonArg["repoAttrNames"]
     outputDir: Dir = jsonArg["outputDir"]
 
     def file() -> Iterator[str]:
         yield "{ lib }:"
         yield "{"
-        for grammar in allGrammars:
-            n = grammar["nixRepoAttrName"]
+        for n in repoAttrNames:
             yield f"  {n} = lib.importJSON ./{n}.json;"
         yield "}"
         yield ""
@@ -214,4 +293,4 @@ def fetchAndCheckTreeSitterRepos() -> None:
     case "print-all-grammars-nix-file":
         printAllGrammarsNixFile()
     case _:
-        sys.exit(f"mode {mode} unknown")
+        critical(f"mode {mode} unknown")