---
title: "XML Parsing Utilities"
description: "Parse sitemap XML from strings or streams with @nuxtjs/sitemap/utils."
canonical_url: "https://nuxtseo.com/docs/sitemap/api/xml-parsing"
last_updated: "2026-07-21T17:07:56.728Z"
---

The `@nuxtjs/sitemap/utils` export provides parsers for URL sets and sitemap indexes.

## Parse a string

Use `parseSitemapXml` when the complete XML string is already in memory.

```ts
import { parseSitemapXml } from '@nuxtjs/sitemap/utils'

const { urls, warnings } = await parseSitemapXml(xml)
```

A closed, empty `<urlset>` returns `{ urls: [], warnings: [] }`. Invalid XML and documents without a URL set throw an error.

`parseSitemapIndex` parses an index string. `isSitemapIndex` provides a quick string check when the document is already buffered.

## Parse a stream

`parseSitemapStream` accepts a `ReadableStream`, including `Response.body`. It also accepts strings, `Uint8Array` values, and sync or async iterables of either chunk type.

The first event identifies the document. Later events contain URL entries, index entries, or validation warnings.

```ts
import { parseSitemapStream } from '@nuxtjs/sitemap/utils'

const response = await fetch('https://example.com/sitemap.xml')
if (!response.body)
  throw new Error('Missing response body')

const urls = []
events:
for await (const event of parseSitemapStream(response.body)) {
  if (event._tag === 'kind') {
    console.log(event.kind) // "urlset" or "index"
    continue
  }
  if (event._tag !== 'url')
    continue

  urls.push(event.url)
  if (urls.length === 50_000)
    break events
}
```

Breaking iteration cancels the response body, so unread bytes are not downloaded or parsed. The unread tail is not validated. Reading through completion validates the closing root element.

Use `parseSitemapXmlStream` when only a URL set is accepted. Use `parseSitemapIndexStream` when only an index is accepted. These variants omit the initial `kind` event.

Each entry and the incomplete XML buffer are capped at 1 MiB by default. Pass `{ maxEntryBytes, maxBufferBytes }` to set different bounds.