---
id: tree-sitter-c
version: "0.24.2"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# tree-sitter-c — C grammar for tree-sitter

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 11.0M/mo

## 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 above — 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

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

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 11.0M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

c parser tree-sitter, incremental c parsing, c syntax tree analysis, tree-sitter grammar c, c code parsing, c language grammar, syntax tree c, parsing, c-language, syntax-analysis

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/tree-sitter-c) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/tree-sitter-c/)