Another variation that doesn't produce the expected output:

our %HASH;

my $grammar = <<'END_OF_GRAMMAR';

    startrule : from_clause 

    from_clause : 'from' dir(s)
                { print "-->$item{dir}<--\n"; }

    dir : "hello"
        | "world"

END_OF_GRAMMAR


my $parser = Parse::RecDescent->new($grammar);
$parser->startrule("from hello world"); 
use Data::Dumper;
say Dumper(\%HASH);

--output:--
--><--
$VAR1 = {};
[download]

Expected output:

-->SOMETHING<--

$VAR1 = {
   "dirs" => "SOMETHING";
};
[download]