AST workflows

Use Wenmode’s parsed tree as application data for storage, indexing, diagnostics, or custom processing.

---

Use Node.to_ast() when another service or storage layer needs plain dictionary data. Use wenmode.ast helpers when Python code should inspect node objects directly.

Convert the AST to JSON

Node.to_ast() returns plain Python dictionaries and lists, so you can serialize the parsed tree with the standard json module.

import json

from wenmode import Wenmode

text = 'A [link](https://example.com).'

root = Wenmode().parse(text)
payload = json.dumps(root.to_ast(), ensure_ascii=False)

assert '"type": "root"' in payload
assert '"url": "https://example.com"' in payload

For node shape details, see Node model.

Inspect AST nodes

Use wenmode.ast helpers when you want to inspect parsed node objects directly instead of first converting them to dictionaries.

from wenmode import Wenmode
from wenmode.ast import find_all, plain_text, walk
from wenmode.nodes import Heading
from wenmode.presets import github

text = '''
# Title

## Usage

A [link](https://example.com).
'''

root = Wenmode(github).parse(text)

headings = find_all(root, Heading)
links = find_all(root, 'link')
node_types = [node.type for node in walk(root)]

assert [plain_text(heading) for heading in headings] == ['Title', 'Usage']
assert links[0].url == 'https://example.com'
assert node_types[:3] == ['root', 'heading', 'text']