HN Showcase
Back to browse
GitHub Repository
4 starsRust

Neatify – A universal scriptable formatter using Tree-sitter/Rust/Rhai

by its-a-new-world·Feb 12, 2026·2 points·1 comment
Visit ProjectView on HN

AI Analysis

●●SolidBig BrainNiche Gem

Tree-sitter + Rhai scripts replace opinionated formatters, but beta stability and language coverage remain questions.

Strengths
  • •Genuinely clever: Rhai scripts give formatters semantic control without hiding rules in config; this is a real idea.
  • •Tree-sitter coverage is expansive in theory; decoupling formatter logic from language grammar is sound architecture.
  • •Self-tested on Rust/Rhai; author demonstrated the concept by using AI to learn both languages while building the tool.
Weaknesses
  • •Beta status with explicit warnings about edge cases and file-in-place modification — not production-ready yet.
  • •Prettier, Biome, and language-specific formatters already saturate this space; no evidence of faster, better, or uniquely flexible output.
Target Audience

Polyglot teams managing multiple code languages

Similar To

Prettier (opinionated JS/TS formatter) · Biome (Rust-based multi-language formatter) · dprint (tree-based formatter with plugin system)

Similar Projects

Developer Tools●●Solid

A universal code formatter using Rust, Tree-sitter, and Rhai

Neatify exposes AST-level formatting as live Rhai scripts, so you write real code to shape output instead of tweaking a dozen JSON flags. The Tree-sitter backbone means any language with a grammar can be targeted, and the repo-first flavoring plus LLM-assisted script generation is a smart, practical twist. It's clearly early-stage (defaults modify files in-place and coverage is limited), but the architecture is an interesting alternative to opinionated, black-box formatters.

WizardryNiche Gem
its-a-new-world
233mo ago