> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# 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.

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight [OPTIONS] [PATHS]...
```

**Aliases:** `hi`

For more information about syntax highlighting, see [Syntax Highlighting](https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/syntax-highlighting).

## Input Sources

### File Paths

Pass file paths directly:

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight example.js
```

### Paths File

Use `--paths` to provide a file containing paths:

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight --paths file-list.txt
```

### Standard Input

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

```bash theme={null}
echo "const x = 42;" | tree-sitter highlight --scope source.js
```

## Output Formats

### Terminal (ANSI)

By default, outputs colored text to the terminal:

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight example.js
```

### HTML

Generate an HTML document with syntax highlighting:

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight --html example.js > output.html
```

### HTML with CSS Classes

Generate HTML with CSS classes instead of inline styles:

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight --html --css-classes example.js > output.html
```

## Options

### Output Options

<ParamField path="-H, --html" type="flag">
  Output an HTML document with syntax highlighting.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--css-classes" type="flag">
  Output HTML with CSS classes instead of inline styles. Must be used with `--html`.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="-q, --quiet" type="flag">
  Suppress main output.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="-t, --time" type="flag">
  Print the time taken to highlight the file.
</ParamField>

### Validation Options

<ParamField path="--check" type="flag">
  Check that the highlighting captures conform strictly to the standards.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--captures-path" type="path">
  The path to a file with captures. These captures are considered the "standard" captures to compare against when using `--check`.
</ParamField>

### Query Options

<ParamField path="--query-paths" type="paths">
  The paths to query files to use for syntax highlighting. These should end in `highlights.scm`. Can be specified multiple times.
</ParamField>

### Input Options

<ParamField path="--paths" type="file">
  The path to a file that contains paths to source files to highlight.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="-p, --grammar-path" type="path">
  The path to the directory containing the grammar. Implies `--rebuild`.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--scope" type="scope">
  The language scope to use for syntax highlighting. Useful when the language is ambiguous.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--encoding" type="encoding">
  The encoding of the input files. One of `utf8`, `utf16-le`, `utf16-be`.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="-n, --test-number" type="number">
  Highlight the contents of a specific test.
</ParamField>

### Build Options

<ParamField path="-r, --rebuild" type="flag">
  Force a rebuild of the parser before highlighting.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--config-path" type="path">
  The path to an alternative configuration (`config.json`) file. See [init-config](/cli/init-config).
</ParamField>

## Examples

### Highlight to Terminal

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight example.js
```

### Generate HTML

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight --html example.js > output.html
```

### Generate HTML with CSS Classes

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight --html --css-classes example.js > output.html
```

### Highlight Multiple Files

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight src/**/*.js
```

### Highlight with Custom Query

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight --query-paths custom-highlights.scm example.js
```

### Check Highlight Conformance

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight --check --captures-path standard-captures.txt example.js
```

### Highlight with Performance Measurement

```bash theme={null}
tree-sitter highlight --time example.js
```

## Theme Configuration

Colors are controlled by the theme in your config file. See [init-config](/cli/init-config#theme) for information on configuring the theme.