.. image:: docs/source/_static/logo/horizontal.svg :width: 600 px :alt: LibCST

A Concrete Syntax Tree (CST) parser and serializer library for Python

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.. intro-start

LibCST parses Python 3.0, 3.1, 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 or 3.8 source code as a CST tree that keeps all formatting details (comments, whitespaces, parentheses, etc). It's useful for building automated refactoring (codemod) applications and linters.

.. intro-end

.. why-libcst-intro-start

LibCST creates a compromise between an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) and a traditional Concrete Syntax Tree (CST). By carefully reorganizing and naming node types and fields, we've created a lossless CST that looks and feels like an AST.

.. why-libcst-intro-end

You can learn more about the value that LibCST provides <https://libcst.readthedocs.io/en/latest/why_libcst.html>__ and our motivations for the project <https://libcst.readthedocs.io/en/latest/motivation.html>__ in our documentation <https://libcst.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html>. Try it out with notebook examples <https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/Instagram/LibCST/master?filepath=docs%2Fsource%2Ftutorial.ipynb>.

Example expression::

1 + 2

CST representation::

BinaryOperation(
    left=Integer(
        value='1',
        lpar=[],
        rpar=[],
    ),
    operator=Add(
        whitespace_before=SimpleWhitespace(
            value=' ',
        ),
        whitespace_after=SimpleWhitespace(
            value=' ',
        ),
    ),
    right=Integer(
        value='2',
        lpar=[],
        rpar=[],
    ),
    lpar=[],
    rpar=[],
)

Getting Started

Examining a sample tree

To examine the tree that is parsed from a particular file, do the following::

python -m libcst.tool print <some_py_file.py>

Alternatively, you can import LibCST into a Python REPL and use the included parser and pretty printing functions:

import libcst as cst from libcst.tool import dump print(dump(cst.parse_expression("(1 + 2)"))) BinaryOperation( left=Integer( value='1', ), operator=Add(), right=Integer( value='2', ), lpar=[ LeftParen(), ], rpar=[ RightParen(), ], )

For a more detailed usage example, see our documentation <https://libcst.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorial.html>__.

Installation

LibCST requires Python 3.6+ and can be easily installed using most common Python packaging tools. We recommend installing the latest stable release from PyPI <https://pypi.org/project/libcst/>_ with pip:

.. code-block:: shell

pip install libcst

Further Reading

• Static Analysis at Scale: An Instagram Story. <https://instagram-engineering.com/static-analysis-at-scale-an-instagram-story-8f498ab71a0c>_
• Refactoring Python with LibCST. <https://chairnerd.seatgeek.com/refactoring-python-with-libcst/>_

Development

Start by setting up and activating a virtualenv:

.. code-block:: shell

git clone [email protected]:Instagram/LibCST.git libcst
cd libcst
python3 -m venv ../libcst-env/  # just an example, put this wherever you want
source ../libcst-env/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip  # optional, if you have an old system version of pip
pip install -r requirements.txt -r requirements-dev.txt
# If you're done with the virtualenv, you can leave it by running:
deactivate

We use isort <https://isort.readthedocs.io/en/stable/>_ and black <https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/>_ to format code. To format changes to be conformant, run the following in the root:

.. code-block:: shell

tox -e autofix

To run all tests, you'll need to install tox <https://tox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>_ and do the following in the root:

.. code-block:: shell

tox -e py37

You can also run individual tests by using unittest and specifying a module like this:

.. code-block:: shell

python -m unittest libcst.tests.test_batched_visitor

See the unittest documentation <https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.html>_ for more examples of how to run tests.

We use Pyre <https://github.com/facebook/pyre-check>_ for type-checking.

To set up pyre check environment:

1. Copy the example Pyre config: cp .pyre_configuration.example .pyre_configuration.
2. In the config file, add your venv site-packages dir to "search_path". (e.g. add "/workspace/libcst-env/lib/python3.7/site-packages") Note: venv dir must not be inside the libcst dir
3. Remove installed LibCST and install from the source code:

.. code-block:: shell

pip uninstall -y libcst
pip install -e .

To verify types for the library, do the following in the root:

.. code-block:: shell

pyre check

To generate documents, do the following in the root:

.. code-block:: shell

tox -e docs

Future

• Advanced full repository facts providers like fully qualified name and call graph.

License

LibCST is MIT licensed <LICENSE>_, as found in the LICENSE file.

.. fb-docs-start

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

• Privacy Policy <https://opensource.facebook.com/legal/privacy>_
• Terms of Use <https://opensource.facebook.com/legal/terms>_

.. fb-docs-end

Acknowledgements

• Guido van Rossum for creating the parser generator pgen2 (originally used in lib2to3 and forked into parso).
• David Halter for parso which provides the parser and tokenizer that LibCST sits on top of.
• Zac Hatfield-Dodds for hypothesis integration which continues to help us find bugs.
• Zach Hammer improved type annotation for Mypy compatibility.