nvim-treesitter / nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter-textobjects

Function to map query name into user friendly name

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enhancement
Dominant language
Tree-sitter Query
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Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I'm switching to the main branch and all is good, but when defining mappings as documented https://github.com/nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter-textobjects/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#text-objects-select it would be great if we could get "user friendly" descriptions for each text object.

Describe the solution you'd like
A function we can import that converts @function.outer, etc into something a bit more "friendly", eg: "outer function" at it's simplest. But ideally each text object would have a "description" defined that could be retrieved and used for keymaps/etc.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Right now I'm just converting @foo.bar into bar foo using gsub:

local keymaps = {
  -- You can use the capture groups defined in textobjects.scm
  ['af'] = '@function.outer',
  ['if'] = '@function.inner',
  ['ac'] = '@class.outer',
  ['ic'] = '@class.inner',
}

for keys, query in pairs(keymaps) do
  -- Convert "@foo.bar" into "bar foo"
  local desc = query:sub(2):gsub('(%a+).(%a+)', '%2 %1')
  vim.keymap.set({ "x", "o" }, keys, function()
    select.select_textobject(query, "textobjects")
  end, { desc = desc })
end

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the text-objects select documentation linked in the issue and the select.select_textobject entry point shown in its mapping example. Determine where text-object names or definitions can expose descriptions, then provide an importable function that maps queries such as @function.outer to friendly text. Done means callers can use the returned descriptions for keymap labels.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
lua
Domain
developer-experience, tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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