diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index fdda267..2301050 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ description = "Procedural macros for converting between enums and strings"
 proc-macro = true
 
 [dependencies]
+proc-macro2 = "1.0"
 syn = "1.0"
 quote = "1.0"
 
diff --git a/src/attribute.rs b/src/attribute.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cea9060
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/attribute.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+
+use syn::{Ident, Lit, Token};
+use syn::parse::{Parse, ParseBuffer, ParseStream};
+use syn::parse::discouraged::Speculative;
+use syn::token::Token;
+
+pub(crate) enum Value {
+    None,
+    Lit(Lit),
+    Ident(Ident),
+}
+
+pub(crate) struct Dict {
+    pub(crate) inner: HashMap<String, Value>
+}
+
+impl Dict {
+    fn require_keys(&self, keys: &[&str]) -> Result<(), String> {
+        match keys.iter().find(|key| !self.inner.contains_key(**key)) {
+            Some(absent_key) => Err(absent_key.to_string()),
+            None => Ok(())
+        }
+    }
+
+    fn allow_keys(&self, keys: &[&str]) -> Result<(), String> {
+        match self.inner.keys().find(|key| !keys.contains(&key.as_str())) {
+            Some(disallowed_key) => Err(disallowed_key.clone()),
+            None => Ok(())
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl Parse for Dict {
+    fn parse(input: ParseStream) -> syn::Result<Self> {
+        Ok(Dict {
+            inner: input
+                .parse_terminated::<KeyValPair, Token![,]>(KeyValPair::parse)?
+                .into_iter()
+                .map(|pair| (pair.key, pair.val))
+                .collect::<HashMap<_, _>>()
+        })
+    }
+}
+
+struct KeyValPair {
+    key: String,
+    val: Value,
+}
+
+impl Parse for KeyValPair {
+    fn parse(input: ParseStream) -> syn::Result<Self> {
+        let key = input
+            .parse::<Ident>()?
+            .to_string();
+
+        let val = if input.peek(Token![=]) {
+            input.parse::<Token![=]>()?;
+            if let Ok(lit) = speculative_parse::<Lit>(input) {
+                Value::Lit(lit)
+            } else if let Ok(ident) = speculative_parse::<Ident>(input) {
+                Value::Ident(ident)
+            } else {
+                return Err(input.error(format!("expected either a literal or identifier as the value corresponding to the key \"{}\", but found neither", key)));
+            }
+        } else {
+            Value::None
+        };
+
+        Ok(KeyValPair { key, val })
+    }
+}
+
+fn speculative_parse<T>(input: ParseStream) -> syn::Result<T> where T: Parse {
+    match fork_and_parse(input) {
+        Ok((fork, parsed)) => {
+            input.advance_to(&fork);
+            Ok(parsed)
+        }
+        Err(err) => Err(err)
+    }
+}
+
+fn fork_and_parse<T>(input: ParseStream) -> syn::Result<(ParseBuffer, T)> where T: Parse {
+    let fork = input.fork();
+    T::parse(&fork).map(move |parsed| (fork, parsed))
+}