PSL AST Layers

The PSL parser (packages/1-framework/2-authoring/psl-parser) produces a three-layer syntax tree. Each layer has exactly one job — pick the right one and the code stays lossless, typed, and cheap.

Layer	Types	Job	Use in consumer code?
Green tree	GreenNode, GreenToken (syntax/green.ts)	Immutable, position-independent storage. Foundation only.	Never
Red tree	SyntaxNode, SyntaxToken (syntax/red.ts, syntax/navigation.ts)	Navigation with offsets and parents: findAncestor(), tokenAtOffset(), nextToken/prevToken, nonTriviaSibling()	Navigation outside the current node
Typed AST	ModelDeclarationAst, FieldDeclarationAst, … (syntax/ast/)	Structural information about a known node via getters (name(), fields(), lbrace(), value())	Default choice

Everything is exported from @internal/psl-parser/syntax. parse(source) returns { document: DocumentAst, diagnostics, sourceFile } — you start in the typed layer.

Choosing a layer

1. You know what the node is (you hold a ModelDeclarationAst, a FieldAttributeAst, …) and want its parts → call the typed getters. Never dig through children yourself.

2. You need to move outward or sideways (find the enclosing model, the previous declaration, the token after the cursor) → use the red tree's navigation helpers, then immediately re-enter the typed layer with a static cast:

   // enclosing model (tests the node itself first, then walks ancestors)
   const model = node.syntax.findAncestor(ModelDeclarationAst.cast);
   
   // enclosing model OR composite type — combine casts with any(…)
   const owner = node.syntax.findAncestor(
     any(ModelDeclarationAst.cast, CompositeTypeDeclarationAst.cast),
   );
   

   Sideways and token-level movement all have dedicated helpers — do not hand-roll the walks:

   • nextSiblingOrToken / prevSiblingOrToken — adjacent element within the same parent (works from both nodes and tokens)
   • token.nextToken / token.prevToken — document order, crossing node boundaries
   • nonTriviaSibling(element, 'next' | 'prev'), skipTriviaToken(token, direction), isTrivia(token) (from syntax/navigation.ts) — trivia-aware movement; never write your own whitespace/comment-skipping loop

3. You genuinely don't know the node's type yet (e.g. resolving a cursor position in the language server) → anchor on the red tree, then cast back into the typed layer immediately:

   // cursor → token: seam-aware, no descendant scanning
   const token = document.syntax.tokenAtOffset(offset).leftBiased();
   const attr = token?.parent.findAncestor(FieldAttributeAst.cast);
   
   // selection range → smallest enclosing element
   const covering = document.syntax.coveringElement(start, end);
   

   tokenAtOffset returns a TokenAtOffset that models the offset-on-a-seam case explicitly — pick leftBiased() or rightBiased() deliberately (completions usually want left, hover often wants right). Reach for a manual descendants() walk only when no offset anchors the search, and even then the loop body's first move is a cast (castExpression(child), ModelDeclarationAst.cast(child), …).

4. Green tree → only inside psl-parser itself (parser, GreenNodeBuilder, red-tree internals). If consumer code touches node.green, that's a bug.

Every typed AST class exposes readonly syntax: SyntaxNode (the AstNode interface), so switching layers is always one property access away — there is no excuse to stay in the wrong layer.

Adding missing getters instead of working around them

If a typed AST class lacks a getter for the structure you need, add the getter to the class in syntax/ast/ (test-first, exported via exports/syntax.ts) rather than hand-rolling child iteration at the call site. The helpers findChildToken, findFirstChild, and filterChildren from ast-helpers.ts are the building blocks for those getters — they belong inside AST classes, not scattered through consumer code.

Anti-patterns

1. Re-stringifying the AST to extract information

Never round-trip through text: neither printSyntax(node) nor slicing the SourceFile by offsets, followed by string matching / regex / re-parsing. The tree already holds the structure; text extraction throws away parsing work and breaks on comments, whitespace, and escapes.

// BAD: stringify then string-hack
const text = printSyntax(attr.syntax);
const isUnique = text.includes('@unique');

// BAD: slicing the source file by offsets
const raw = source.slice(node.syntax.offset, node.syntax.offset + node.syntax.textLength);
const name = raw.split(' ')[1];

// GOOD: ask the tree
const isUnique = attr.name()?.identifier()?.token()?.text === 'unique';
const name = model.name()?.token()?.text;

Same rule for values: StringLiteralExprAst.value() returns the decoded string (escapes resolved, quotes stripped); slicing quotes off raw text yields wrong results for \n, \u…., etc.

printSyntax and SourceFile offsets have legitimate uses — producing output for humans: error-message snippets, formatter output, positionAt for LSP ranges. Extracting structural facts from that text is the anti-pattern.

2. Reading through the green tree

node.green exists so the red tree can do its job. Consumer code must not inspect green children, kinds, or text — green elements have no offsets and no parents, so any information you pull from them is positionally blind and will not survive refactors of the storage layer.

// BAD: peeking into green storage
const first = model.syntax.green.children[0];
if (first?.type === 'token' && first.text === 'model') { … }

// GOOD: red/typed access
const keyword = model.keyword(); // SyntaxToken with a real offset

3. Collecting child iterators into arrays

children(), childNodes(), descendants(), fields(), attributes(), declarations() are lazy generators on purpose. Materializing them just to index or filter allocates for nothing and hides intent.

// BAD: collect then poke
const fields = Array.from(model.fields());
const idField = fields.filter((f) => f.name()?.token()?.text === 'id')[0];

// GOOD: iterate lazily, stop early
let idField: FieldDeclarationAst | undefined;
for (const field of model.fields()) {
  if (field.name()?.token()?.text === 'id') {
    idField = field;
    break;
  }
}

4. Red-tree spelunking on a node of known type

If you already know the node is a ModelDeclarationAst, iterating its red children to find tokens or sub-nodes manually re-implements the typed getters — badly.

// BAD: manual token hunt on a known node
let lbrace: SyntaxToken | undefined;
for (const child of model.syntax.children()) {
  if (child instanceof SyntaxToken && child.kind === 'LBrace') {
    lbrace = child;
    break;
  }
}

// GOOD: the getter already exists
const lbrace = model.lbrace();

Likewise use field.typeAnnotation(), attr.argList()?.args(), kv.value() — and if the getter you want is missing, add it to the AST class (see above) instead of spelunking.

The same rule applies to navigation: a hand-written ancestor loop, whitespace-skipping loop, or offset-scanning descendants() walk re-implements findAncestor, skipTriviaToken / nonTriviaSibling, or tokenAtOffset / coveringElement. Use the helper.

Quick reference

• Parse: parse(source) → ParseResult { document, diagnostics, sourceFile }
• Enter typed layer from red: SomeAst.cast(syntaxNode) (returns undefined on kind mismatch), castExpression(node) for expression unions, any(CastA, CastB, …) to combine casts into one predicate
• Drop to red from typed: astNode.syntax
• Upward: findAncestor(cast) (checks self first), ancestors(), parent
• Sideways: nextSiblingOrToken / prevSiblingOrToken; trivia-aware: nonTriviaSibling, skipTriviaToken, isTrivia
• Token order: token.nextToken / token.prevToken (crosses node boundaries); subtree edges: node.firstToken / node.lastToken
• Offsets: tokenAtOffset(offset) (seam-aware TokenAtOffset), coveringElement(start, end), endOffset, isInside(offset) / isOutside(offset)
• Positions for humans/LSP: sourceFile.positionAt(token.offset) / sourceFile.offsetAt(position) — offsets live only on red SyntaxToken / SyntaxNode, never green
• Getter helpers for building AST classes: findChildToken, findFirstChild, filterChildren, any, and the BracedBlock interface (for lbrace()/rbrace() blocks) in syntax/ast-helpers.ts