One embodiment includes a network device, including hardware parsers to receive data of a header section of a packet, the header section including respective headers, parser configuration registers to store a default parsing configuration data set, wherein at least one of the hardware parsers is configured to parse at least one of the headers responsively to the default parsing configuration data set, yielding first parsed data, a packet processing engine to select a selected parsing configuration data set from a selection of parsing configuration data sets responsively to the first parsed data, cause loading of the selected parsing configuration data set into the parser configuration registers, and wherein ones of the hardware parsers are configured to parse respective ones of the headers responsively to the selected parsing configuration data set, yielding second parsed data, and process the packet responsively to the second parsed data.