AppleScript — ZedExt

AppleScript for Zed

AppleScript language support for the Zed editor.

Install

From inside Zed: cmd-shift-P → zed: extensions → search for AppleScript → Install.

Features

Syntax highlighting (line + block comments, strings, numbers, operators, command names, parameters, handlers, control flow, ObjC-bridge calls, raw-data literals, date literals, …)
Code outline (handlers, properties, script objects, tell targets, use imports)
Auto-indent for every block form (tell, if, repeat, try, considering, ignoring, with timeout, with transaction, using terms from, script)
Bracket matching for (), {}, (* *), ""
Vim text objects — @function, @class, @comment (line and block forms)
Run scripts from the editor: full-file run, individual handler, or compile to .scpt
Language injection — Bash inside do shell script "…"; AppleScript or JavaScript-for-Automation inside run script "…" based on content sniffing; AppleScript inside markdown fences
Shebang detection for #!/usr/bin/osascript

Quick reference

Editor surface

Feature	Status	Notes
Highlights	✅	`languages/applescript/highlights.scm`
Outline	✅	Handlers, `script` objects, properties, `tell` targets, `use` imports
Indents	✅	Inside every block construct; outdents on `end`
Brackets	✅	`()`, `{}`; auto-close also for `(* *)` and `""`
Text objects	✅	Vim-style `gc`, `if`, `ic`, etc.
Scope overrides	✅	Comments and strings (suppresses autocomplete, etc.)
Runnables	✅	Run script, compile to `.scpt`, run individual handler (zero-arg only)
Injections	✅	bash / javascript / applescript inside string literals; markdown fence injection works out of the box
Shebang detection	✅	`^#!.*\bosascript\b`
Code folding for block comments	⚠️	Limited — Zed has no extension-side fold-query convention; see `CHANGELOG.md` v1.7.3
Snippets	❌	None shipped
Language-server features (completion, hover, rename, diagnostics, formatter, debugger)	❌	No maintained AppleScript LSP exists

Grammar coverage

Provided by tree-sitter-applescript, pinned by commit in extension.toml.

Construct	Status
Handlers — `on` / `to`, positional + labeled (`given …:`) params	✅
Tell — block form and one-line `tell X to …`	✅
Conditionals — `if`/`then`/`else if`/`else` and one-line `if … then …`	✅
Loops — all `repeat` forms	✅
Error handling — `try` / `on error` with error parameter clauses	✅
Scoping — `considering`, `ignoring`, `with timeout`, `with transaction`, `using terms from`	✅
Declarations — `property`, `global`, `local`, `set`, `copy`	✅
Script objects — `script … end script` with `parent` clause	✅
`use` — application / framework / scripting additions, with aliases / `version` / `with importing`	✅
Commands — `command_name`, named parameters, `with`/`without` flags, `given` clause	✅
Object specifiers — `element_type`, references, indexing, ranges, `whose`/`where`	✅
Literals — string, number (incl. ordinal `1st`/`2nd`), boolean, list, record, date, `missing value`, raw data `«class fold»`	✅
Special refs — `me`, `it`, `its`, `result`, `current application`, `my <expr>`	✅
Possessive `'s` and ObjC bridge — `receiver's selector:arg [label:arg …]`	✅
Pipe-delimited identifiers — `	name with spaces
Line continuation `¬`	✅
Coercion (`as type`), operators (full synonym table), text attributes	✅
Multi-word app-dictionary names — `current view`, `name extension`, `text item delimiters`, etc.	⚠️ Curated vocabulary + 6-word compound names; truly novel 7+-word app constants may split
ObjC-style handler defs (`on selector:arg byLabel:arg`)	✅
Folder-action handler shapes (`on adding folder items to …`)	✅

Real-world corpus

The grammar is exercised against 36 real AppleScript files drawn from Apple's /Library/Scripts/, decompiled folder-action and printing scripts, plus hand-crafted ASObjC and edge-case samples.

Current state: 36/36 active corpus files parse with zero ERROR and zero MISSING nodes. Total reduction from baseline: 732 → 0. The known-limits/ quarantine directory is empty.

A categorized history of which parser changes unblocked which files lives in CHANGELOG.md.

Example

use AppleScript version "2.4"
use scripting additions

property greeting : "Hello"

on greet(name)
    return greeting & ", " & name & "!"
end greet

on main()
    tell application "System Events"
        display dialog greet("World")
    end tell
end main

main()

More samples in example/ — including a markdown injection smoke-test (example/injection.md) and a construct showcase (example/showcase.applescript).

Dev workflow

The extension is declarative — no Rust or WASM — so the dev loop is fast.

just init       # one-time: pull the grammar submodule
just install    # symlink this dir into Zed's extensions/installed/
just dev        # verify queries, then open Zed in the example/ folder
just verify     # check every .scm node reference resolves against the grammar
just test       # run the grammar's 94-fixture test suite
just release X.Y.Z   # bump version, fast-forward grammar, verify, commit, tag
just push       # push main + tags

After just install, every change to a .scm file is picked up by Zed on the next file reload (or via cmd-shift-P → zed: rebuild dev extension). Grammar changes need a just update-grammar to advance the pin in extension.toml.

For a fresh contributor who'd rather have Zed compile the extension via its own builder (instead of the symlink trick), use just install-via-ui for instructions.

Documentation

CHANGELOG.md — version history and per-release notes.
docs/references/ — cached upstream documentation (Apple's AppleScript Language Guide, tree-sitter authoring docs, Zed extension docs, external-scanner reference). Useful when extending the grammar.

Contributing

CLAUDE.md — repo-internal contract for AI coding agents (and any human who wants the same context). Covers the release process, what just update-grammar actually does, and the grammar ↔ extension coupling. AGENTS.md is a symlink to this file so Codex picks it up too.
The just recipes — run just --list for the full set, or just status for a quick health snapshot (current version, grammar pin, submodule sync state).