---
id: tree-sitter-cpp
version: "0.23.4"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# tree-sitter-cpp — C++ grammar for tree-sitter

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 4.8M/mo

## What it is and what it does

tree-sitter-cpp is a C++ language grammar for the tree-sitter incremental parsing framework. It translates C++ source code into syntax trees that can be traversed and analyzed programmatically. The package ships as prebuilt binary wheels for major platforms, avoiding compilation on installation.

The grammar enables use cases like code analysis, refactoring tools, linters, and IDE features that need to understand C++ structure. It integrates with tree-sitter's ecosystem and follows the C++ BNF specification, supporting incremental updates when code changes rather than reparsing from scratch.

Use it for:

- Build code analysis and linting tools that need to parse and inspect C++ syntax trees.
- Implement IDE features like syntax highlighting, code navigation, and refactoring for C++ editors.
- Analyze C++ codebases to extract metrics, dependencies, or patterns without invoking a full compiler.
- Create documentation generators or code transformation tools that operate on C++ ASTs.
- Develop static analysis or security scanning tools that examine C++ code structure.

## 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 generation for C++ code.

Yes, if you need C++ parsing within a Python application and are already using or planning to use tree-sitter. The permissive MIT license, active maintenance, and prebuilt wheels for common platforms make it a low-friction choice. No known security vulnerabilities. Verify that your use case aligns with tree-sitter's incremental parsing model and that you have or will install the core tree-sitter Python bindings separately.

## Install

pip install tree-sitter-cpp
uv add tree-sitter-cpp
poetry add tree-sitter-cpp

## Installing tree-sitter-cpp

Before you install: Medium install friction due to binary wheels for multiple platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows, ARM); prebuilt binaries available for Python 3.9+ reduce compilation overhead. Repository is actively maintained with recent commits.

License in practice: MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution in both open-source and commercial projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install tree-sitter-cpp

from tree_sitter_cpp import language

parser = language.parser()
tree = parser.parse(b'int main() { return 0; }')

Requires Python 3.9 or later; prebuilt wheels available for common platforms but may require compilation on unsupported architectures.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package provides direct parsing APIs or requires a separate tree-sitter Python binding to be installed alongside it.
- Performance characteristics and memory overhead for parsing large C++ files or codebases.
- Completeness of C++ standard coverage (C++11, C++17, C++20, etc.) in the grammar.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 4.8M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

c++ parsing grammar, tree-sitter c++ language, incremental c++ parser, syntax tree c++, c++ code analysis, tree-sitter language binding, c++ ast generation, parsing, c++-grammar, syntax-analysis

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