How do I get Babel to output a file's AST?

Question

Is there a way I can get Babel to output the AST of a file, as a JSON or similar, rather than condense it back into JS?

The reason is that I want to be able to do some simple static analysis / code gen, and while I aim to eventually do it within a plugin for Babel (or similar), I feel it would simplify things significantly if I can start with a static model.

Answer 1

There's babylon, babel's own parser:

npm install -g babylon

babylon your_file.js > ast.json

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Node API example and source: https://github.com/babel/babel/tree/master/packages/babylon

Also the babel plugin handbook might come in handy for AST reference, and to get started with plugin development.