tree-sitter-graph

tree-sitter-graph is a Rust library and CLI that layers a graph DSL on top of tree-sitter parse trees—turning syntax nodes into arbitrary graphs with nodes, edges, and attributes. We rate it assess: essential when you are building static-analysis or IDE pipelines that need custom semantic graphs (GitHub uses it in the CodeQL stack), but overkill if you only need parsing or simple AST walks.

Blurb

The tree-sitter-graph library defines a DSL for constructing arbitrary graph structures from source code that has been parsed using tree-sitter.

Summary

tree-sitter gives you fast, incremental concrete syntax trees; tree-sitter-graph adds stanzas—tree-sitter query patterns plus statements that emit graph nodes, link edges, and attach attributes. That separation lets tools map many languages through shared grammar work while encoding language-specific semantics in the graph rules (control flow, data flow, name resolution, etc.).

Typical consumers are security analyzers, linters with cross-file models, and language tooling that outgrows ad hoc AST visitors. You need comfort with tree-sitter queries and the graph DSL before committing; most application teams should depend on a finished analyzer rather than embed this directly.

Details

• Depends on: tree-sitter parsers and grammars for each language you target.
• Delivery: Rust crate with optional CLI (cargo install --features cli tree-sitter-graph); graphs can serialize to JSON for downstream tools.
• Mental model: syntax nodes (from the parse) vs graph nodes (your derived model); stanzas bridge the two.
• When to skip: one-off scripts, simple formatters, or projects where tree-sitter alone plus hand-written visitors is enough.
• Pair with: tree-sitter (parser foundation); lives under Library in the Code category.