Changelog

0.12.0

Added

JSON output for mix ex_ast.search, mix ex_ast.replace, and mix ex_ast.diff via --format json / --json, backed by Jason.Encoder protocol implementations for ExAST result structs.
%ExAST.CompiledPattern{} metadata for compiled patterns, including candidate signatures, structural terms, and broad/multi-node flags.
<code>ExAST.Pattern.compile_ast/1</code> for callers that need the normalized pattern AST.
ExAST.rewrite_plan/4 and ExAST.Rewriter for inspecting replacement plans before applying patches, with overlapping-replacement conflict detection.
File-level parallelism for unbounded ExAST.search/3 and search_many/3, configurable with :concurrency.
Conservative source-text prefiltering using index terms to avoid parsing files that cannot match a pattern.
ExAST.Comments.associated/3 for retrieving comments related to a source range (:before, :after, :inside, :inline, or aggregate :comment).
Import-aware call matching for imported functions such as import Ecto.Query, only: [from: 2] matching Ecto.Query.from(_, _).
Reach, ExSlop, and ExDNA-backed static analysis hardening in CI via an isolated tools/reach_runner project.

Changed

<code>ExAST.Pattern.compile/1</code> now returns %ExAST.CompiledPattern{} instead of a raw normalized AST. Use <code>ExAST.Pattern.compile_ast/1</code> for the old AST shape.
ExAST.search/3 results now include the matched :range.
ExAST.replace/4 now plans rewrites before applying them and supports format: true; the CLI exposes this as --format-output.
Syntax-aware diffing now treats same-body function renames as function updates rather than delete+insert pairs.
mix ci now includes explicit ExSlop smell analysis and Reach smell/dead-code checks in addition to existing compile, format, Credo, Dialyzer, tests, and ExDNA checks.

0.11.2

Fixed

Wildcard _ and _name now match function names in def/defp patterns with arguments. Previously defp _(_), do: _ would not match defp helper(x), do: x + 1 because the wildcard in head position couldn't match the atom :helper when arguments were present.

0.11.1

Added

piped() selector predicate — matches only when the selected node is a pipe expression (|>). Since ExAST normalizes pipes during matching, there was previously no way to distinguish piped from direct call forms. Use where(piped()) to match only piped calls, or where(not piped()) for direct calls only.

0.11.0

Added

ExAST.Index.plan/1, ExAST.Index.terms/1, and structural index plan structs for building external candidate indexes while keeping ExAST as the semantic verifier.
ExAST.Index.Terms.from_source/1, from_ast/1, from_pattern/1, and term signal classification helpers.
ExAST.Selector.requires_source?/1, requires_comments?/1, find_all/3, and match?/3 for source-aware selector planning and verification.
ExAST.Comments.extract/1 and ExAST.Comments.text/1 for comment extraction with source position metadata.
ExAST.Symbols.definitions/1 and ExAST.Symbols.references/1 for syntactic definition/reference extraction.
Symbol helpers for stable qualified names and optional BEAM-native MFA tuples: ExAST.Symbols.qualified_name/1, mfa/1, and matches?/2.
Indexing and code intelligence guide.

0.10.1

Fixed

Restored pipe-aware pattern matching after the 0.10.0 candidate prefilter optimization. Piped calls such as data |> Enum.map(fun) now match direct call patterns like Enum.map(_, _) again.

0.10.0

Added

ExAST.Patcher.find_many/3 for running multiple named AST pattern checks in a single traversal where possible, returning matches tagged with :pattern.
ExAST.search_many/3 for searching files with multiple named patterns while preserving search/3 options such as :limit.

Changed

Optimized repeated single-node pattern matching by compiling patterns once, normalizing candidate nodes once per traversal, and using conservative call signature prefilters for common local, remote, piped, and nested call patterns.

0.9.1

Changed

Restructured documentation: short README with topic-based guides (Getting Started, Pattern Language, Querying, CLI Reference, Diff)

0.9.0

Added

Capture guards — where/2 now accepts ^pin syntax to filter on captured values, similar to Ecto's parameter references:
```
from("Enum.take(_, count)")
|> where(match?({:-, _, [_]}, ^count))
```
Supports match?/2 for structural checks, plain comparisons (^event == :click), multi-capture expressions (^left == ^right), and composition with existing structural predicates.
Source text in match results — Patcher.find_all/3 now includes a :source field with the matched source snippet. nil for AST/zipper input.
Module attribute pattern matching — attribute names are now captureable:
```
Patcher.find_all(source, "@name Application.get_env(_, _)")
```
Previously @env Application.get_env(...) would not match a pattern with a different attribute name, even as a capture variable.

0.8.1

Fixed

CLI commands now handle closed stdout pipes cleanly, so commands like mix ex_ast.search ... | head no longer emit EPIPE writer crash messages.

0.8.0

Added

Comment predicates — queries can now filter by associated source comments with comment/1, comment_before/1, comment_after/1, comment_inside/1, and comment_inline/1. Comment matchers accept strings, regexes, and explicit text matchers like prefix/2, suffix/2, and text/2. CLI comment filters detect /.../ and ~r/.../ regex syntax.

0.7.0

Added

SQL-like query API via ExAST.Query: from/1, where/2, find/2, find_child/2, contains/1, inside/1, sibling predicates (follows/1, precedes/1, immediately_follows/1, immediately_precedes/1), positional predicates (first/0, last/0, nth/1), and boolean predicate combinators (any/1, all/1).
Selector alternatives — query starts can now accept a list of alternative patterns, e.g. from(["def _ do ... end", "defp _ do ... end"]).
Search limits and broad-query guard — ExAST.search/3 and mix ex_ast.search now support limit: n / --limit n and refuse unbounded from("_") searches unless allow_broad: true / --allow-broad is passed.
Query-style CLI flags — mix ex_ast.search and mix ex_ast.replace now support --contains, sibling filters (--follows, --precedes, --immediately-follows, --immediately-precedes), and position filters (--first, --last, --nth).

Fixed

Selector negation now works Ecto-style without import hacks — where(not ...) is rewritten by the selector DSL, so users no longer need import Kernel, except: [not: 1].
Search result rendering no longer fails when the current project formatter config references unavailable import_deps.
Selector descendant traversal now walks nested AST shapes reliably, fixing missed matches for remote calls nested inside assignments and control flow.
Alias-aware matching expands local alias directives so canonical remote-call patterns like AshPhoenix.Form.for_update(...) match alias-based call sites like Form.for_update(...).
Grouped alias handling now supports real-world forms such as alias Phoenix.Socket.{Broadcast, Message, Reply}.
Alias collection no longer misclassifies ordinary variables named alias as alias directives.

0.6.0

Added

CSS-like AST selectors — build relationship-aware selectors with ExAST.Selector:

import ExAST.Selector

pattern("defmodule _ do ... end")
|> descendant("def _ do ... end")
|> child("IO.inspect(_)")

Selector predicates — filter selected nodes with where/2 and Ecto-style not/1: parent/1, ancestor/1, has_child/1, has_descendant/1, and has/1.
CLI relationship filters for mix ex_ast.search and mix ex_ast.replace: --parent, --ancestor, --has-child, --has-descendant, --has, and corresponding --not-* flags.

0.5.0

Added

Ellipsis (...) — matches zero or more nodes in function args, lists, and block bodies: IO.inspect(...), foo(first, ..., last), def run(_) do ... end
~p sigil — compile-time pattern parsing via import ExAST.Sigil

0.4.0

Added

Syntax-aware diff — ExAST.diff/3, ExAST.diff_files/3, ExAST.apply_diff/1
- GumTree-inspired AST matching: functions matched by name/arity, nodes by kind/label/signature
- Edit classification: :insert, :delete, :update, :move
- Function reorder detection reported as :move edits
- Child suppression: edits covered by a parent update/insert/delete are rolled up
- Inline line-level diffs within updated nodes (Myers algorithm via List.myers_difference)
- Patch application: ExAST.apply_diff/1 produces patched source from a diff result
mix ex_ast.diff CLI task
- Colored output with -/+ markers (red/green, auto-detected)
- --no-color, --no-moves, --summary, --json flags
- Human-readable labels (def create/1 instead of {:def, :create, 1})
AST and zipper input — Patcher.find_all/3 and Patcher.replace_all/4 now accept source strings, Sourceror.Zipper, or raw AST as input. Source-string variants return strings, AST/zipper variants return AST.
Quoted expressions as patterns — patterns and replacements can be strings or quoted expressions:
```
Patcher.find_all(source, quote(do: IO.inspect(_)))
Patcher.replace_all(ast, quote(do: IO.inspect(expr)), quote(do: dbg(expr)))
```
inside/not_inside options also accept quoted.
Ellipsis (...) — matches zero or more nodes in args, lists, and block bodies. IO.inspect(...) matches any arity, foo(first, ..., last) captures surrounding args, def run(_) do ... end matches any body.
~p sigil — compile-time pattern parsing via import ExAST.Sigil: ~p"IO.inspect(...)" returns parsed AST with no runtime overhead.
ex_dna added to CI checks

0.3.0

Pipe awareness: data |> Enum.map(f) matches Enum.map(data, f)
Where conditions: --inside, --not-inside filters
Multi-node patterns: a = Repo.get!(_, _); Repo.delete(a)

0.2.0

Initial release with search and replace

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