Configuration

Downloaded parser binaries go in the cache directory. The default:

~/.cache/tree-sitter-language-pack/<version>/libs/

You can customize the cache location, pre-download languages on startup, and wire up automatic discovery through a TOML file, the programmatic API, or CLI commands.

Language-pack.toml

Create language-pack.toml in your project root:

language-pack.toml

languages = ["python", "javascript", "typescript", "rust"]

# Optional: language groups (web, systems, data, jvm, functional, scripting)
# groups = ["web", "systems"]

# Optional: custom cache directory
# cache_dir = ".cache/ts-pack"

Run ts-pack init to generate this file interactively, or create it by hand.

Configuration discovery

The library searches for language-pack.toml in this order:

1. Current directory and parent directories (up to 10 levels)
2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tree-sitter-language-pack/config.toml (~/.config/tree-sitter-language-pack/config.toml on Linux/macOS)

CLI flags override config file settings.

Monorepo example

# language-pack.toml (at repo root)
languages = [
    # Backend
    "python",

    # Frontend
    "javascript",
    "typescript",
    "jsx",
    "tsx",

    # Utilities
    "rust",
    "bash",
    "dockerfile",
    "yaml",
    "json",
]

# Shared cache across all sub-projects
cache_dir = ".cache/tree-sitter"

Programmatic API

Python

from tree_sitter_language_pack import init, configure, PackConfig
from pathlib import Path

# Pre-download specific languages
init(languages=["python", "javascript", "rust"])

# Download by language group
init(groups=["web"])      # JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS
init(groups=["systems"])  # C, C++, Rust, Go
init(groups=["data"])     # Python, R, SQL, JSON

# Combine languages and groups
init(languages=["python"], groups=["web", "systems"])

# Set custom cache directory (call before first parse)
configure(cache_dir="/opt/ts-pack-cache")

# Load from language-pack.toml
config = PackConfig.from_toml_file(Path("language-pack.toml"))
if config.languages:
    init(languages=config.languages)

# Discover in current dir and parents
config = PackConfig.discover()
if config and config.languages:
    init(languages=config.languages)

Node.js

import { init, configure, PackConfig } from "@xberg-io/tree-sitter-language-pack";

await init({ languages: ["python", "javascript", "rust"] });
await init({ groups: ["web"] });
await configure({ cacheDir: "/opt/ts-pack-cache" });

Rust

use tree_sitter_language_pack::PackConfig;
use std::path::Path;

// Programmatic configuration
let config = PackConfig {
    cache_dir: Some(Path::new("/opt/cache").to_path_buf()),
    languages: Some(vec!["python".to_string(), "rust".to_string()]),
    groups: None,
};

// Load from file
let config = PackConfig::from_toml_file(Path::new("language-pack.toml"))?;

// Discover in parent directories
if let Some(config) = PackConfig::discover() {
    println!("Found languages: {:?}", config.languages);
}

Build-time environment variables

build.rs reads these at compile time, not at runtime. See Building from source for full details.

Variable	Description
TSLP_LANGUAGES	Comma-separated languages to compile statically into the binary
TSLP_LINK_MODE	dynamic (default), static, or both
PROJECT_ROOT	Override directory search for sources/language_definitions.json
WASI_SYSROOT	WASI sysroot path for wasm32-wasi cross-compilation
TSLP_BUILD	Set to 1 to force rebuild of the Elixir NIF native extension

CLI commands

ts-pack init

Create a language-pack.toml:

# Interactive
ts-pack init

# With specific languages
ts-pack init --languages python,javascript,typescript,rust

# With custom cache directory
ts-pack init --cache-dir ./local-cache --languages python

ts-pack cache-dir

Print the effective cache directory:

ts-pack cache-dir
# /home/user/.cache/tree-sitter-language-pack/<version>/libs/

# Use in scripts
CACHE=$(ts-pack cache-dir)
du -sh "$CACHE"

ts-pack download

# Languages from config
ts-pack download

# Specific languages
ts-pack download python rust javascript

# All available languages
ts-pack download --all

# Clear cache and re-download
ts-pack download --fresh

# By group
ts-pack download --groups web,systems

ts-pack list

# All available languages
ts-pack list

# Cached only
ts-pack list --downloaded

# Filter by name
ts-pack list --filter python

TLS trust store

The downloader trusts the host OS trust store by default — the same set of CAs that curl, pip, and git use on each platform (/etc/ssl/certs on Linux, Keychain on macOS, SChannel on Windows). This works out of the box in corp environments where GitHub HTTPS traffic is presented with a chain rooted in a locally trusted CA (TLS-intercepting proxies, internal mirrors, WSL2 with Windows-managed certs, RHEL/UBI with extra anchors).

Set TREE_SITTER_LANGUAGE_PACK_TLS_ROOTS=webpki to force the downloader to trust only the bundled Mozilla webpki roots (the historical pre-fix default). Use this on hosts whose platform trust store is intentionally narrowed or where you need byte-for-byte build reproducibility against a known root set:

TREE_SITTER_LANGUAGE_PACK_TLS_ROOTS=webpki python -c "import tree_sitter_language_pack; tree_sitter_language_pack.get_parser('python')"

Set TREE_SITTER_LANGUAGE_PACK_TLS_ROOTS=platform to make the default explicit. Any other value falls back to the default (no hard error).

Troubleshooting

Downloads failing

ts-pack cache-dir           # verify the cache path
ts-pack download python     # retry the download
ts-pack clean               # clear a corrupted cache

UnknownIssuer / invalid peer certificate errors mean the chain GitHub serves is not in the trust store the downloader is configured to use. The default (Platform mode) already reads the host trust store; if you set TREE_SITTER_LANGUAGE_PACK_TLS_ROOTS=webpki explicitly, switch back to platform (or unset the variable). If curl https://github.com also fails on the same host with the same error, fix the host trust store first — the language pack honours it.

For offline environments: pre-download on a machine with network access, then copy the cache directory to the target machine. See Docker for baking parsers into a container image.

Disk space

du -sh ~/.cache/tree-sitter-language-pack

# Move the cache to a larger drive
mv ~/.cache/tree-sitter-language-pack /mnt/large-drive/ts-pack-cache
ln -s /mnt/large-drive/ts-pack-cache ~/.cache/tree-sitter-language-pack

Next steps

• Building from source — compile-time flags and environment variables
• Docker — bake parsers into container images
• Parsing code — syntax trees after languages finish downloading