Node Type Selectors¶

Sitting Duck offers three levels of type specificity for matching AST nodes. Choose the right level depending on whether you need cross-language portability or tree-sitter precision.

Three Tiers of Type Selectors¶

-- These are different:
.if                -- ALL conditionals (if + elif + else + switch + case + match)
if                 -- just if and if_* variants
if_statement       -- exactly if_statement (most specific)

Dotted selectors (`.semantic`) — Cross-language, broadest¶

Match by semantic category. Works identically across all 27 languages:

.func              -- all function definitions (any language)
.if                -- all conditionals: if, elif, else, switch, case, match
.loop              -- all loops: for, while, do-while
.call              -- all function/method calls
.import            -- all import statements

.if includes elif, else, switch, case — the entire conditional family. Both .func and .FUNC work (case-insensitive).

See Semantic Type Aliases for the full alias table (~80 aliases).

Bare keywords — Language-specific, medium¶

Match by tree-sitter node type prefix. if matches if (the keyword token) AND if_statement, if_clause, etc.:

if                 -- if keyword + if_statement + if_clause
return             -- return keyword + return_statement
for                -- for keyword + for_statement + for_in_clause
class              -- class keyword + class_definition

Bare keywords are narrower than dotted selectors but broader than exact types.

Exact types — Tree-sitter specific, narrowest¶

Match the exact tree-sitter node type name:

function_definition       -- exactly this type, nothing else
method_definition         -- exactly this type
class_declaration         -- exactly this type (JS/TS)

Discovering Node Types¶

Use ast_type_map() to explore what node types are available and how they map to semantic categories:

-- All Python function-related types
SELECT node_type, semantic_type, name_role, is_scope
FROM ast_type_map('python')
WHERE kind = 'definition';

assignment                DEFINITION_VARIABLE   definition   false
async_function_definition DEFINITION_FUNCTION   definition   true
class_definition          DEFINITION_CLASS      definition   true
function_definition       DEFINITION_FUNCTION   definition   true
lambda                    DEFINITION_FUNCTION   definition   true
...

-- What does `for_statement` map to across languages?
SELECT language, semantic_type, is_scope
FROM ast_type_map()
WHERE node_type = 'for_statement'
ORDER BY language;

-- All node types that create scopes
SELECT language, node_type, semantic_type
FROM ast_type_map()
WHERE is_scope
ORDER BY language, node_type;

-- All reference-type nodes in JavaScript
SELECT node_type, semantic_type
FROM ast_type_map('javascript')
WHERE name_role = 'reference';