tree-sitter
Python bindings to the Tree-sitter parsing library
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. tree-sitter is actively maintained, has no runtime dependencies, ships pre-built wheels for all major platforms, carries a permissive license, and ranks in the top 1000 PyPI packages by downloads. It is worth installing if you need syntax tree analysis, pattern matching on code, or incremental re-parsing for editor integration.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.10 or later.
- Language implementations must be installed separately as pre-compiled wheels.
- Medium install friction due to compiled wheels, but pre-built binaries are available for all major platforms.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Permissive license treatment allows commercial and private use without restriction.
last release 2026-06-30 (45 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-08 · 1,485 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 78,950,267 downloads/mo, #430 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install tree-sitter
from tree_sitter import Language, Parser
parser = Parser()
tree = parser.parse(b'def foo():\n pass')- Performance characteristics for parsing large files or deeply nested syntax trees
- Memory overhead compared to other parsing approaches
- How language implementations are loaded and configured after installation
What it is and what it does
tree-sitter is a Python wrapper around the tree-sitter incremental parsing library, which builds and maintains syntax trees for source code. It provides a low-level interface to parse code into abstract syntax trees, traverse those trees efficiently using cursors, and re-parse edited code incrementally without rebuilding from scratch. The library itself has no runtime dependencies and ships with pre-compiled wheels for modern Python versions on all major platforms.
You use tree-sitter by creating a Parser, configuring it with a language, and parsing source code as bytes. Once you have a tree, you can inspect nodes by type and position, walk the tree with a cursor for efficient traversal, apply pattern-matching queries to find specific syntax patterns, and re-parse edited code while preserving unchanged portions of the tree for speed.
Use it for
- Build code analysis tools that need to understand syntax structure without full compilation
- Implement incremental parsing in editors or IDEs to keep syntax trees in sync with live edits
- Search for specific syntax patterns across codebases using tree queries
- Implement linters, formatters, or refactoring tools that operate on syntax trees
- Traverse and inspect syntax trees to extract semantic information from source code
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
tree-sitter is actively maintained, has no runtime dependencies, ships pre-built wheels for all major platforms, carries a permissive license, and ranks in the top 1000 PyPI packages by downloads. It is worth installing if you need syntax tree analysis, pattern matching on code, or incremental re-parsing for editor integration.
Install
tree-sitter on PyPI
Before you install
Medium install friction due to compiled wheels, but pre-built binaries are available for all major platforms. Active maintenance with a release 45 days ago and 1485 repository stars.
Requires Python 3.10 or later. Language implementations must be installed separately as pre-compiled wheels.
License in practice
Permissive license treatment allows commercial and private use without restriction.
Quickstart
pip install tree-sitter
from tree_sitter import Language, Parser
parser = Parser()
tree = parser.parse(b'def foo():\n pass')Verify before relying
- Performance characteristics for parsing large files or deeply nested syntax trees
- Memory overhead compared to other parsing approaches
- How language implementations are loaded and configured after installation
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Medium. Platform-specific wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 45 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 78,950,267 / month, #430 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Intended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: CProgramming Language :: PythonTopic :: Software Development :: CompilersTopic :: Text Processing :: LinguisticTyping :: Typed |
Evidence: tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_31_riscv64.manylinux_2_39_riscv64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp310-cp310-win_arm64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_31_riscv64.manylinux_2_39_riscv64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp311-cp311-win_arm64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_13_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp312-cp312-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp312-cp312-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; tree_sitter-0.26.0-cp312-cp312-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl
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See also tree-sitter-languages · tree-sitter-python · tree-sitter-swift · tree-sitter-cmake · tree-sitter-java · tree-sitter-go · tree-sitter-ruby · tree-sitter-groovy · tree-sitter-zig · tree-sitter-c-sharp