tree-sitter-cfml

Tree-sitter grammars for ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML).

There are four grammars: three for CFML in .cfc, .cfm, and .cfs files, and one for SQL inside <cfquery> (embedded dialect).

Grammar	Scope	File types	Description
cfml	source.cfml	.cfc	ColdFusion components - CFScript inside a component {} block or tag-based component files
cfhtml	source.cfhtml	.cfm	CFML template files - HTML with embedded CF tags and hash expressions
cfscript	source.cfscript	.cfs	Pure CFScript files
cfquery	source.cfquery	(embedded)	SQL inside <cfquery> bodies (including QueryExecute-style usage), with #hash# interpolation and CF tags in the body

Playground

Browser demo: cfmleditor.github.io/tree-sitter-cfml

Installation

Node.js

npm install @cfmleditor/tree-sitter-cfml

const {
  cfml,
  cfhtml,
  cfscript,
  cfquery,
} = require("@cfmleditor/tree-sitter-cfml");
const Parser = require("tree-sitter");

const parser = new Parser();
parser.setLanguage(cfhtml.language);

const tree = parser.parse("<cfif condition>#value#</cfif>");
console.log(tree.rootNode.toString());

Rust

[dependencies]
tree-sitter = "0.25"
tree-sitter-cfml = "0.26.7"

The tree-sitter crate should be 0.25+ so the ABI matches the generated parsers (see LANGUAGE_VERSION in cf*/src/parser.c).

use tree_sitter_cfml::LANGUAGE_CFML;

let mut parser = tree_sitter::Parser::new();
parser.set_language(&LANGUAGE_CFML.into())
    .expect("Error loading CFML grammar");
// LANGUAGE_CFHTML, LANGUAGE_CFSCRIPT, LANGUAGE_CFQUERY load the same way.

Python

pip install tree-sitter-cfml

import tree_sitter_cfml as ts_cfml
from tree_sitter import Language, Parser

# cfhtml for .cfm template files
parser = Parser(Language(ts_cfml.language_cfhtml()))
tree = parser.parse(b'<cfif x GT 0>#x#</cfif>')

# cfml for .cfc component files
parser = Parser(Language(ts_cfml.language_cfml()))

# cfscript for .cfs pure script files
parser = Parser(Language(ts_cfml.language_cfscript()))

# cfquery SQL dialect (embedded)
parser = Parser(Language(ts_cfml.language_cfquery()))

Go

import (
    tree_sitter_cfml "github.com/cfmleditor/tree-sitter-cfml/bindings/go"
    sitter "github.com/tree-sitter/go-tree-sitter"
)

// cfml for .cfc component files
parser := sitter.NewParser()
parser.SetLanguage(sitter.NewLanguage(tree_sitter_cfml.LanguageCfml()))

// cfhtml for .cfm template files
parser.SetLanguage(sitter.NewLanguage(tree_sitter_cfml.LanguageCfhtml()))

// cfscript for .cfs pure script files
parser.SetLanguage(sitter.NewLanguage(tree_sitter_cfml.LanguageCfscript()))

// cfquery SQL dialect (embedded)
parser.SetLanguage(sitter.NewLanguage(tree_sitter_cfml.LanguageCfquery()))

Development

Each dialect has grammar.js, generated C under src/, corpus tests under test/corpus/, and queries under queries/. Shared scanner code is under common/. The multi-grammar CLI and playground config is tree-sitter.json. Upstream docs: Creating parsers, CLI.

Setup

git clone https://github.com/cfmleditor/tree-sitter-cfml.git
cd tree-sitter-cfml

Use Node >=18 and <24 (package.json engines). Optional: .nvmrc with nvm / fnm (nvm use).

npm install

That installs dependencies, builds the Node native addon (node-gyp-build), and runs postinstall, which downloads the tree-sitter CLI binary into node_modules/tree-sitter-cli/ when needed. Repo npm scripts do not require a global tree-sitter on PATH.

npm test          # all four grammars
npm run lint      # ESLint
npm run build     # regenerate parsers + rebuild native addon (after grammar edits)

Windows

Put GCC from MinGW-w64 on your PATH (gcc / g++). This repo uses GCC for npm test (tree-sitter compile), the Node native binding, Python extension builds, and Go CGO — not MSVC.

Standalone toolchain (recommended): install WinLibs with winget, then add the extracted mingw64\bin directory (contains gcc.exe) to your user PATH, open a new terminal, and verify:

gcc --version

Example package (UCRT, POSIX threads):

winget install BrechtSanders.WinLibs.POSIX.UCRT

The installer path varies by machine; locate mingw64\bin under the WinLibs folder (or under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Packages\ after install) and add that bin to PATH.

Alternatively: MSYS2 with pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc, then prepend msys64\mingw64\bin to PATH (or develop from an MSYS2 MinGW64 shell).

If node-gyp still picks Visual Studio instead of MinGW, set CC / CXX to your MinGW gcc / g++ for npm install / npm rebuild, or keep MinGW’s bin before MSVC entries on PATH.

macOS

Install the Xcode command-line tools:

xcode-select --install

Homebrew

brew install gcc

Linux

Install a C/C++ toolchain (for example build-essential on Debian/Ubuntu, gcc / clang plus development headers on other distributions).

CI

CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml): npm install, npm test, npm run lint on Ubuntu, macOS, and Windows. It does not run npm run build; generated cf*/src/ files are committed.

Tree-sitter CLI

Scripts use scripts/tree-sitter-cli.cjs (node node_modules/tree-sitter-cli/cli.js). A global tree-sitter-cli install is optional. If the binary is missing after install:

node scripts/ensure-tree-sitter-cli-binary.js

From a dialect directory (after npm install at repo root):

cd cfml
node ../node_modules/tree-sitter-cli/cli.js test
node ../node_modules/tree-sitter-cli/cli.js generate
node ../node_modules/tree-sitter-cli/cli.js parse path/to/file.cfc

Dependency versions

Pinned in package.json / tree-sitter.json; approximate roles:

Role	Package	Version
Native binding (peer / dev)	tree-sitter	0.25.0
Parser CLI	tree-sitter-cli	0.26.7
Native addon	node-addon-api	^8.3.0
Native addon	node-gyp-build	^4.8.4
Prebuild	prebuildify	^6.0.1
Runtime	Node.js	>=18 <24

CFML engines

Corpus and behavior are checked mainly against Lucee. Overlapping Adobe ColdFusion syntax should still parse in a reasonable way. Avoid Adobe-only or Lucee-only assumptions in examples or grammar design where portable CFML is enough.

Building

After changing common/define-grammar.js or a grammar.js:

npm run build

On Unix, make generate at the repo root works if tree-sitter is on your PATH; otherwise use npm run build.

tree-sitter generate may warn about “unnecessary conflicts” (expressions vs _property_name, cfscript declaration / primary_expression, cfquery hash rules, etc.). Those come from common/define-grammar.js. If npm run build and npm test succeed, the warnings can be ignored.

Testing and helpers

See Setup for npm test, npm run lint, and npm run build.

npm run testbindings  # Node binding smoke test

One grammar only: run test via the CLI from that dialect’s directory (above), or npm test for all four.

Parse a file: from the dialect folder (e.g. cfml for .cfc), use the parse subcommand with the same node ../node_modules/.../cli.js pattern.

Playground / WebAssembly (WASM)

• npm start — playground at repo root (tree-sitter.json). Run npm run prestart first if WASM is stale.
• npm run prestart — tree-sitter build --wasm
• npm run playground — playground in each of cfml/, cfhtml/, cfscript/, cfquery/
• npm run docswasm — writes docs/tree-sitter-{cfml,cfhtml,cfscript,cfquery}.wasm for docs/ (e.g. GitHub Pages)

Grammar structure

Shared rules: common/define-grammar.js. External scanner: common/scanner.h (implicit end tags, CF tag names, hash expressions, raw text).

common/
  define-grammar.js
  scanner.h
  tag.h

cfml/          # .cfc
  grammar.js
  src/         # generated
  queries/

cfhtml/        # .cfm
  grammar.js
  src/
  queries/

cfscript/      # .cfs
  grammar.js
  src/
  queries/

cfquery/       # embedded SQL
  grammar.js
  src/
  queries/

Queries

Grammar	Highlights	Indents	Injections	Tags
cfml	yes	yes	yes	yes
cfhtml	yes	yes	yes	yes
cfscript	yes	no	no	yes
cfquery	yes	no	no	yes

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Security

See SECURITY.md.

Agent and AI assistant guidance

See AGENTS.md.

License

MIT