Semantic Type Aliases¶

The . selector accepts ~80 aliases organized by category. These map to Sitting Duck's semantic type system, which normalizes tree-sitter node types across all 27 supported languages.

All aliases are case-insensitive: .func, .Func, and .FUNC all work.

How the Hierarchy Works¶

Sitting Duck organizes node types into three levels:

Kind — The broadest category (e.g., definition, control_flow, error_handling)
Super-type — A subcategory within a kind (e.g., DEFINITION_FUNCTION, CONTROL_CONDITIONAL)
Type — The language-specific tree-sitter node type (e.g., function_definition, if_statement)

A .semantic selector matches at the super-type level by default. Kind-level aliases (like .def, .flow, .error) match everything in that kind.

Definitions¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.func`	`.fn`, `.function`, `.method`	Function/method definitions
`.class`	`.cls`, `.struct`, `.trait`, `.interface`	Class definitions
`.var`	`.variable`, `.let`, `.const`	Variable definitions
`.mod`	`.module`, `.package`, `.namespace`, `.ns`	Module/namespace definitions
`.def`	`.definition`	All definitions (kind level)

Control Flow¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.if`	`.cond`, `.conditional`	All conditionals
`.loop`	`.for`, `.while`	All loops
`.jump`	`.return`, `.break`, `.continue`, `.yield`	All jumps
`.flow`	`.control`	All control flow (kind level)

Error Handling¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.try`		Try blocks
`.catch`	`.except`, `.rescue`	Catch/except handlers
`.throw`	`.raise`	Throw/raise statements
`.finally`	`.ensure`, `.defer`	Finally blocks
`.error`	`.err`	All error handling (kind level)

Names and References¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.id`	`.ident`, `.identifier`	Plain identifiers
`.qualified`	`.dotted`	Qualified names (module.attr)
`.self`	`.this`	Self/this references
`.call`	`.invoke`	Function/method calls
`.member`	`.attr`, `.field`, `.prop`	Member access

Literals¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.str`	`.string`	String literals
`.num`	`.number`	Numeric literals
`.bool`	`.boolean`	Boolean literals
`.coll`	`.list`, `.dict`, `.array`, `.map`, `.set`, `.tuple`	Collection literals
`.lit`	`.literal`, `.value`	All literals (kind level)

Names and Labels¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.label`		Label / attribute name nodes

External¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.import`	`.require`, `.use`	Import statements
`.export`	`.pub`	Export declarations
`.external`	`.ext`	All external references (kind level)

Operators¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.op`	`.operator`	All operators (kind level)
`.arith`	`.math`	Arithmetic operators
`.cmp`	`.comparison`	Comparison operators
`.logic`	`.logical`	Logical operators

Transforms and Comprehensions¶

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.comp`	`.comprehension`	Comprehensions / query-style transforms
`.transform`	`.xform`	All transforms (kind level)

Other Kind-Level Aliases¶

These match entire kinds when you want the broadest possible filter:

Alias	Alternatives	Matches
`.typedef`	`.type`	All type definitions
`.pattern`	`.pat`	Pattern-matching constructs
`.statement`	`.stmt`	Statement-like constructs
`.syntax`	`.syn`	Syntax tokens (keywords, punctuation)

Discovering Mappings¶

Use ast_type_map() to see exactly which tree-sitter types map to which semantic categories for a given language:

-- What node types does .func match in Python?
SELECT node_type, semantic_type, is_scope
FROM ast_type_map('python')
WHERE semantic_type = 'DEFINITION_FUNCTION';

-- All semantic types available in JavaScript
SELECT DISTINCT semantic_type, kind
FROM ast_type_map('javascript')
ORDER BY kind, semantic_type;