diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0894a496f29..f6ef10667f8 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
     <properties>
         <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
         <lucence-version>7.5.0</lucence-version>
+        <jackson-version>2.15.3</jackson-version>
         <exec.mainClass>org.rascalmpl.shell.RascalShell</exec.mainClass>
         <rascal.test.memory>2</rascal.test.memory>
         <maven.compiler.release>11</maven.compiler.release>
@@ -441,5 +442,15 @@
             <artifactId>icu4j</artifactId>
             <version>69.1</version>
         </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat</groupId>
+            <artifactId>jackson-dataformat-toml</artifactId>
+            <version>${jackson-version}</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.module</groupId>
+            <artifactId>jackson-module-parameter-names</artifactId>
+            <version>${jackson-version}</version>
+        </dependency>
     </dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/src/org/rascalmpl/interpreter/utils/RascalToml.java b/src/org/rascalmpl/interpreter/utils/RascalToml.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6648eeb1db1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/org/rascalmpl/interpreter/utils/RascalToml.java
@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+package org.rascalmpl.interpreter.utils;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.Reader;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.jar.JarEntry;
+import java.util.jar.JarFile;
+import java.util.jar.JarInputStream;
+import java.util.zip.ZipEntry;
+
+import org.checkerframework.checker.nullness.qual.Nullable;
+import org.rascalmpl.uri.URIResolverRegistry;
+import org.rascalmpl.uri.URIUtil;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectReader;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.toml.TomlMapper;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.module.paramnames.ParameterNamesModule;
+
+import io.usethesource.vallang.ISourceLocation;
+
+public class RascalToml {
+    private final String version;
+
+    private final Project project;
+    private final @Nullable Main main;
+
+
+    private static class Project {
+        private final String name;
+        private final List<String> sources;
+        private final @Nullable List<String> libraries;
+
+        private Project(String name, @Nullable List<String> sources, @Nullable List<String> libraries) {
+            this.name = name;
+            this.sources = (sources == null || sources.isEmpty()) ? Collections.singletonList("src") : Collections.unmodifiableList(sources);
+            this.libraries = (libraries == null || libraries.isEmpty()) ? null : Collections.unmodifiableList(libraries);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static class Main {
+        private final @Nullable String module;
+        private final @Nullable String function;
+
+        private Main(@Nullable String module, @Nullable String function) {
+            this.module = module;
+            this.function = function;
+        }
+    }
+
+    
+    private RascalToml(String version, Project project, @Nullable Main main) {
+        this.version = version;
+        this.project = project;
+        this.main = main;
+    }
+
+    public String getVersion() {
+        return version;
+    }
+
+    public @Nullable String getProjectName() {
+        return project.name;
+    }
+
+    public @Nullable String getMainModule() {
+        return main.module;
+    }
+
+    public @Nullable String getMainFunction() {
+        return main.function;
+    }
+
+    public List<String> getSource() {
+        return project.sources;
+    }
+
+    public @Nullable List<String> getRequireLibraries() {
+        return project.libraries;
+    }
+
+    public static RascalToml parse(JarInputStream from) throws IOException {
+        return parse(tomlFile(from));
+    }
+
+    public static RascalToml parse(Class<?> from) throws IOException {
+        return parse(tomlFile(from));
+    }
+
+    public static RascalToml parse(File from) throws IOException {
+        return parse(tomlFile(from));
+    }
+    
+    public static RascalToml parse(ISourceLocation from) throws IOException {
+        return parse(tomlFile(from));
+    }
+
+    private static ObjectReader tomlMapper = new TomlMapper()
+        .registerModule(new ParameterNamesModule())
+        .readerFor(RascalToml.class);
+
+    public static RascalToml parse(Reader from) throws IOException {
+        return tomlMapper.readValue(from);
+    }
+
+    public static RascalToml parse(InputStream from) throws IOException {
+        return tomlMapper.readValue(from);
+    }
+
+    private static final String TOML_LOCATION = "META_INF/rascal.toml";
+
+    private static InputStream tomlFile(JarInputStream stream) throws IOException {
+        try {
+            JarEntry next = null;
+            while ((next = stream.getNextJarEntry()) != null) {
+                if (next.getName().equals(TOML_LOCATION)) {
+                    return stream; // the stream now behaves as an input stream for this file entry
+                }
+            }
+            throw new IOException("Could not find: " + TOML_LOCATION);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new IOException("Error iterating jar for " + TOML_LOCATION, e);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static InputStream tomlFile(File jarFile) throws IOException {
+        try (var file = new JarFile(jarFile)) {
+            return file.getInputStream(new ZipEntry(TOML_LOCATION));
+        }
+        catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new IOException("Error loading " + TOML_LOCATION +" from " + jarFile, e);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static InputStream tomlFile(Class<?> clazz) throws IOException {
+        var result = clazz.getResourceAsStream("/" + TOML_LOCATION);
+        if (result == null) {
+            throw new IOException("Error loading " + TOML_LOCATION + " from " + clazz);
+        }
+        return result;
+    }
+
+    private static Reader tomlFile(ISourceLocation root) throws IOException {
+        try {
+            return URIResolverRegistry.getInstance()
+                .getCharacterReader(URIUtil.getChildLocation(RascalManifest.jarify(root), TOML_LOCATION));
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new IOException("Error loading " + TOML_LOCATION +" from " + root, e);
+        }
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/test/org/rascalmpl/test/util/RascalTomlTests.java b/test/org/rascalmpl/test/util/RascalTomlTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e632d239a16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/org/rascalmpl/test/util/RascalTomlTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+package org.rascalmpl.test.util;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.StringReader;
+import java.util.Collections;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.rascalmpl.interpreter.utils.RascalToml;
+
+public class RascalTomlTests {
+    
+    private static RascalToml parse(String s) throws IOException {
+        System.out.println(s);
+        return RascalToml.parse(new StringReader(s));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void parserWorks() throws IOException {
+        var toml = parse(
+            "version='1.0' \n" +
+
+            "[project]\n" +
+            "name = 'test-project'\n" +
+            "sources = [ 'src/main/rascal']\n" +
+            "libraries = [ '|lib://typepal|']\n" +
+
+            "[main]\n" +
+            "module = 'lang::testing::Mod'\n" +
+            "function = 'main'\n"
+        );
+        assertEquals("1.0", toml.getVersion());
+        assertEquals("test-project", toml.getProjectName());
+        assertEquals(Collections.singletonList("src/main/rascal"), toml.getSource());
+        assertEquals(Collections.singletonList("|lib://typepal|"), toml.getRequireLibraries());
+    }
+}