Currently ArcadeDB's Cypher engine is based on a project created by Neo4j to transform Cypher into Gremlin. Unfortunately, this open source project is not supported and there is no community around it.

I'd love to create a native Cypher engine that doesn't transform Cypher into Gremlin or SQL, but rather works directly with the underlying database engine.

The grammar is Apache 2 licensed by Neo4j as ANTLR, so that should be a good starting point.

The new engine will be registered as "opencypher' and will be available next to the current "cypher" (Cypher->Gremlin) until the new Open Cypher implementation is rock solid and can be switched.