axml-parser

Android binary XML (AXML) parser for Node.js.

When you build an Android APK, every XML file — the manifest, layouts, resources — gets compiled into a compact binary format called AXML. Unzipping an APK gives you these binary files, not human-readable XML. This library parses them back into a typed element tree.

Install

npm install android-axml-parser

Requires Node.js ≥ 20.

Usage

import { parseAxml } from "android-axml-parser";

// buffer is the raw bytes of a binary AXML file
const doc = parseAxml(buffer);

console.log(doc.root?.name); // "manifest"

for (const child of doc.root?.children ?? []) {
  console.log(child.name, child.attributes);
}

API

parseAxml(buffer: Buffer): AXmlDocument

Parses an Android binary XML buffer and returns the document tree.

Throws if the buffer is not a valid AXML file (wrong magic bytes, truncated chunks, out-of-bounds references).

Types

interface AXmlDocument {
  strings: string[];       // full string pool — every string in the file
  root: AXmlElement | null;
}

interface AXmlElement {
  name: string;
  attributes: AXmlAttribute[];
  children: AXmlElement[];
}

interface AXmlAttribute {
  name: string;
  value: string | undefined;
}

Attribute values are decoded from their typed representation:

| AXML type | Decoded as | |-----------|------------| | String | string pool lookup | | Boolean | "true" / "false" | | Decimal integer | "42" | | Hex integer | "0xff" | | Float | "3.14" | | Resource reference | "@0x7f040001" | | Theme attribute | "?0x01010001" |

License

MIT