tree-grepper

Works like grep, but uses tree-sitter to search for structure instead of strings. Here's a longer introduction to the tool as a blog post.

Installing

Use nix to install:

cachix use tree-grepper # if you have cachix installed installed
nix-env -if https://github.com/BrianHicks/tree-grepper/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz

If you have a Rust toolchain set up, you can also clone this repo and run cargo build.

Usage

Use it like grep (or really, more like ack/ag/pt/rg.)

$ tree-grepper -q elm '(import_clause (import) (upper_case_qid)@name)'
./src/Main.elm:4:7:name:Browser
./src/Main.elm:6:7:name:Html
./src/Main.elm:8:7:name:Html.Events
...

By default, tree-grepper will output one match per (newline-delimited) line. The columns here are filename, row, column, match name, and match text.

Note, however, that if your query includes a match with newlines in the text they will be included in the output! If this causes problems for your use case, try asking for JSON output (-f json) instead.

tree-grepper uses Tree-sitter's s-expressions to find matches. See the tree-sitter docs on queries for what all you can do there.

We add one important thing on top of the standard query stuff (including #eq? and #match?): if you name a pattern starting with an underscore, it will not be returned in the output. This is primarily useful for filtering out matches you don't really care about. For example, to match JavaScript calls to require but not other functions, you could do this:

(call_expression (identifier)@_fn (arguments . (string)@import .) (#eq? @_fn require))

In addition to text output, we support JSON output for scripting: just specify -f json. You also get more info (the match's end location and node kind) by asking for JSON output. This is handy for discovery: if you want to see the node names for your target language, try something like tree-grepper -q rust '(_)' -f json, replacing rust with the language of your choice.

Supported Languages

• C++
• Elixir
• Elm
• Haskell
• JavaScript
• PHP
• Ruby
• Rust
• TypeScript

... and your favorite? We're open to PRs for adding whatever language you'd like!

For development, there's a nix-shell setup that'll get you everything you need. Set up nix (just Nix, not NixOS) and then run nix-shell in the root of this repository.

After that, you just need to add a tree-sitter grammar to the project. The tree-sitter project keeps an up-to-date list, so you may not even need to write your own!

1. Add your grammar as a subtree to this repo: git subtree add --squash --prefix vendor/tree-sitter-LANGUAGE https://github.com/ORG/tree-sitter-LANG BRANCH (where BRANCH is whatever main branch the project uses) Add the update command to script/update-subtrees.sh as well!
2. Set up compilation in build.rs by following the pattern there.
3. Set up a new target in src/language.rs by following the patterns there.
4. Add a test like all_LANG in src/main.rs
5. Try to run with insta: cargo insta test and then cargo insta review. If the output looks right, open a PR!
6. Add the language to the list of supported languages in this readme.

License

See LICENSE in the source.