tree-sitter-c

What it is and what it does

tree-sitter-c is a grammar module for the tree-sitter parsing framework that provides syntax tree representation of C source code. It is adapted from the ISO C99 standard grammar and enables incremental parsing and structural code analysis. The package ships as precompiled binaries for common platforms (x86_64, ARM, Windows, macOS), reducing installation friction.

Developers use it to build tools that need to understand C code structure—linters, code formatters, refactoring tools, or static analysis systems. The package supplies only the C language grammar rules and requires the tree-sitter core framework to function. No runtime dependencies are declared in the package metadata.

Use it for:

• Build a C code linter or style checker that understands syntactic structure.
• Implement code analysis for an IDE or editor plugin.
• Extract function signatures or variable declarations from C source files.
• Create a code refactoring tool that preserves C syntax during transformations.
• Analyze C codebases for code quality or structural patterns.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Provides a C language grammar for tree-sitter, enabling incremental parsing and syntax tree analysis of C code.

Yes, if you need to parse or analyze C code and are already using tree-sitter. The grammar is actively maintained with no known vulnerabilities and ships with broad platform support. Requires Python 3.10 or later and the tree-sitter core framework to be available.

Install

tree-sitter-c on PyPI

pip install tree-sitter-c

uv add tree-sitter-c

poetry add tree-sitter-c

Installing tree-sitter-c

Before you install

Medium install friction with precompiled wheels for major platforms. Active maintenance with last commit 2026-07-20. Requires Python 3.10 or later.

License in practice

MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution in both open-source and proprietary projects.

Quickstart

pip install tree-sitter-c

Requires Python 3.10 or later; tree-sitter core library must be available separately.

Verify before relying

• Whether tree-sitter core is automatically installed as a dependency or must be installed separately.
• How to load and use the C grammar module once installed.
• Performance characteristics for parsing large C files or codebases.
• Compatibility with C standards beyond C99.

Package facts

Evidence: tree_sitter_c-0.24.2-cp310-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter_c-0.24.2-cp310-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; tree_sitter_c-0.24.2-cp310-abi3-manylinux1_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.manylinux_2_5_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter_c-0.24.2-cp310-abi3-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; tree_sitter_c-0.24.2-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; tree_sitter_c-0.24.2-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; tree_sitter_c-0.24.2-cp310-abi3-win_amd64.whl; tree_sitter_c-0.24.2-cp310-abi3-win_arm64.whl

Keywords: incremental, parsing, tree-sitter, c

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