Instead of ast-grep
ast-grep alternatives
ast-grep is a free, open-source tool for searching code by syntax patterns, linting with configurable rules, and previewing or applying rewrites across many files. Its YAML rules support several matching conditions, it covers more than 20 languages, and it offers editor integrations, JavaScript and WebAssembly APIs, and a browser playground. The FAQ notes two limits: some advanced static analysis information is unsupported, and a rule cannot target multiple languages at once.
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Chromium
Free plan Open source AndroidExtensioniPhone+3People building or working on a web browser — Chromium develops the V8 JavaScript engine and Blink rendering engine rather than offering code search, linting, or rewriting.
Open source Visit site - 2
Code Search
Free plan APILinuxMac+3Teams searching and changing code across repositories — Code Search adds multi-repository bulk changes, code-host integrations, and SCIP symbol navigation, rather than ast-grep’s AST rules.
Free plan · pricing on request Visit site - 3
GNU GLOBAL
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1Source navigation through tags and references — GNU GLOBAL tags functions, macros, structs, and classes for navigation, rather than matching AST patterns to lint or rewrite code.
Free plan Visit site - 4
OpenGrok
Free plan APILinuxMac+3Web-based browsing and cross-referencing of source trees — OpenGrok provides a read-only web interface with full-text, history, and cross-reference search, not ast-grep’s rule-based rewriting.
Open source Visit site - 5
Shebe
Free plan APILinuxMac+2Local ranked full-text search and coding-agent tools — Shebe searches local repositories with BM25 and MCP tools, rather than using AST patterns for linting and rewrites.
Free plan Visit site - 6
sqry
Free plan LinuxMacWindowsSymbol relationships, graph queries, and AI assistants — sqry builds a symbol graph for caller, callee, implementation, and dependency queries, beyond ast-grep’s pattern-based structural search.
Free plan Visit site - 7
Chatterbox TTS
by Chatterbox TTSFree plan Open source APILinuxMac+2Research and development with open-source speech models — Chatterbox TTS is a family of text-to-speech models, not a source-code search or rewriting tool.
Free plan Visit site - 8
CodART
Free plan APILinuxSelf-hosted+1 - 9
CodeRush
Free plan ExtensionLinuxMac+1 - 10
Coccinelle
Free plan LinuxMac - 11
Moderne
Free plan APILinuxMac+3 - 12
Comby
Free plan APILinuxMac+2 - 13
jSparrow
Free plan LinuxMacWindows - 14
jscodeshift
Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted+1 - 15
ReSharper
Free plan ExtensionLinuxMac+1 - 16
Konveyor
Free plan ExtensionLinuxSelf-hosted+1 - 17
Roslynator
Free plan ExtensionLinuxMac+1 - 18
OpenRewrite
Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted - 19
PolyglotPiranha
Free plan APIiPhoneLinux+2 - 20
Sourcery
Free plan APIExtensionLinux+4 - 21
Spoon
Free plan APILinuxSelf-hosted - 22
Refrax
Free plan LinuxMacWindows - 23
OpenProperty
Free plan Self-hostedWeb - 24
RepeaterFinder
Free plan LinuxMacWindows - 25
Scalafix
Free plan LinuxMacWindows - 26
DMS Software Reengineering Toolkit
Paid LinuxMacWindows - 27
BrontoSource
Paid Web - 28
Kodebaze
Paid Self-hosted
The alternatives here take different approaches, and some are not code-search tools at all. Code Search handles multi-repository search and bulk changes; sqry traces symbol relationships; GNU GLOBAL and OpenGrok focus on locating and navigating code. Shebe uses local full-text search instead of AST patterns. Chromium is a browser project, while Chatterbox TTS is a family of speech models, so neither replaces ast-grep’s code workflows. When choosing, weigh structural matching and rewriting against repository scale, navigation, local processing, integrations, deployment, and price.