highlight

Highlight a file using syntax highlighting

The highlight command runs syntax highlighting on an arbitrary file. It can output colors directly to your terminal using ANSI escape codes, or produce HTML.

tree-sitter highlight [OPTIONS] [PATHS]...

Aliases: hi

For more information about syntax highlighting, see Syntax Highlighting.

Input Sources

File Paths

Pass file paths directly:

tree-sitter highlight example.js

Paths File

Use --paths to provide a file containing paths:

tree-sitter highlight --paths file-list.txt

Standard Input

If no paths are provided, input is read from stdin:

echo "const x = 42;" | tree-sitter highlight --scope source.js

Output Formats

Terminal (ANSI)

By default, outputs colored text to the terminal:

tree-sitter highlight example.js

HTML

Generate an HTML document with syntax highlighting:

tree-sitter highlight --html example.js > output.html

HTML with CSS Classes

Generate HTML with CSS classes instead of inline styles:

tree-sitter highlight --html --css-classes example.js > output.html

Options

Output Options

-H, --html · flag

Output an HTML document with syntax highlighting.

--css-classes · flag

Output HTML with CSS classes instead of inline styles. Must be used with --html.

-q, --quiet · flag

Suppress main output.

-t, --time · flag

Print the time taken to highlight the file.

Validation Options

--check · flag

Check that the highlighting captures conform strictly to the standards.

--captures-path · path

The path to a file with captures. These captures are considered the “standard” captures to compare against when using --check.

Query Options

--query-paths · paths

The paths to query files to use for syntax highlighting. These should end in highlights.scm. Can be specified multiple times.

Input Options

--paths · file

The path to a file that contains paths to source files to highlight.

-p, --grammar-path · path

The path to the directory containing the grammar. Implies --rebuild.

--scope · scope

The language scope to use for syntax highlighting. Useful when the language is ambiguous.

--encoding · encoding

The encoding of the input files. One of utf8, utf16-le, utf16-be.

-n, --test-number · number

Highlight the contents of a specific test.

Build Options

-r, --rebuild · flag

Force a rebuild of the parser before highlighting.

--config-path · path

The path to an alternative configuration (config.json) file. See init-config.

Examples

Highlight to Terminal

tree-sitter highlight example.js

Generate HTML

tree-sitter highlight --html example.js > output.html

Generate HTML with CSS Classes

tree-sitter highlight --html --css-classes example.js > output.html

Highlight Multiple Files

tree-sitter highlight src/**/*.js

Highlight with Custom Query

tree-sitter highlight --query-paths custom-highlights.scm example.js

Check Highlight Conformance

tree-sitter highlight --check --captures-path standard-captures.txt example.js

Highlight with Performance Measurement

tree-sitter highlight --time example.js

Theme Configuration

Colors are controlled by the theme in your config file. See init-config for information on configuring the theme.