tags

Generate a list of tags for symbol navigation

The tags command runs symbol tagging on an arbitrary file and outputs a list of tags. This is useful for code navigation features.

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

For more information, see Code Navigation - Tagging and Captures.

Input Sources

File Paths

Pass file paths directly:

tree-sitter tags example.js

Paths File

Use --paths to provide a file containing paths:

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

Standard Input

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

echo "function hello() {}" | tree-sitter tags --scope source.js

Output Format

The command outputs tags in a format suitable for code navigation tools. Each tag includes:

• Symbol name
• Symbol kind (e.g., function, class, variable)
• Location (file, line, column)
• Scope information

Options

Input Options

--paths · file

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

-p, --grammar-path · path

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

--scope · scope

The language scope to use for symbol tagging. Useful when the language is ambiguous.

-n, --test-number · number

Generate tags from the contents of a specific test.

Output Options

-q, --quiet · flag

Suppress main output.

-t, --time · flag

Print the time taken to generate tags for the file.

Build Options

-r, --rebuild · flag

Force a rebuild of the parser before running tags.

--config-path · path

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

Examples

Generate Tags for a File

tree-sitter tags example.js

Generate Tags for Multiple Files

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

Generate Tags with Performance Measurement

tree-sitter tags --time example.js

Generate Tags from File List

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

Generate Tags with Specific Scope

tree-sitter tags --scope source.typescript example.ts

Tag Queries

Tags are generated using the queries/tags.scm query file in your grammar repository. This file defines patterns for extracting symbols.

Example tag query:

(function_declaration
  name: (identifier) @name) @definition.function

(class_declaration
  name: (type_identifier) @name) @definition.class

For more information on writing tag queries, see the Code Navigation documentation.