---
id: tree-sitter-yaml
version: "0.7.2"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# tree-sitter-yaml — YAML grammar for tree-sitter

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 6.1M/mo

## What it is and what it does

tree-sitter-yaml is a grammar definition for the tree-sitter incremental parsing framework, enabling structured parsing of YAML 1.2 files. It produces a syntax tree representation rather than direct data deserialization, making it useful for tools that need to analyze, transform, or navigate YAML structure without evaluating its content.

The package is distributed as precompiled wheels for modern Python versions (3.10+) across Linux, macOS, and Windows architectures. It has no runtime dependencies and integrates into the tree-sitter ecosystem, requiring the tree-sitter Python library to be used for actual parsing. Maintenance is active with recent updates, and it carries no known security vulnerabilities.

Use it for:

- Building YAML linters or code formatters that need to preserve and manipulate document structure
- Creating IDE plugins or editor extensions that provide YAML syntax highlighting and navigation
- Analyzing YAML configuration files programmatically without executing their content
- Implementing YAML refactoring tools that transform configuration schemas
- Developing documentation generators that extract and process YAML metadata

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

A tree-sitter parser grammar for YAML files that enables incremental parsing and syntax tree extraction from YAML 1.2 documents.

Yes, if you are building tools that need to parse and analyze YAML structure at the syntax-tree level. Install it alongside tree-sitter Python bindings. Not recommended if you simply need to read or write YAML data—use PyYAML or similar instead. No license or security concerns; medium install friction is typical for compiled grammars.

## Install

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

## Installing tree-sitter-yaml

Before you install: Medium install friction due to compiled wheel distribution across multiple platforms (x86_64, ARM, Windows). Requires Python 3.10 or later. Active maintenance with recent commits and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice: MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and proprietary projects.

Quickstart:

pip install tree-sitter-yaml

import tree_sitter_yaml
# Use with tree-sitter Python bindings to parse YAML documents

Requires Python 3.10 or later; tree-sitter Python bindings must be installed separately to use the grammar for actual parsing.

Verify before relying:

- How to integrate this grammar with tree-sitter Python bindings for practical parsing workflows
- Performance characteristics compared to standard PyYAML or other YAML parsers
- Whether this package provides a high-level API or is primarily for advanced tree-sitter users

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 6.1M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

yaml parser tree-sitter, incremental yaml parsing, yaml syntax tree, yaml grammar parser, tree-sitter yaml grammar, yaml ast extraction, yaml document parsing, parsing, syntax-trees, yaml

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