JavaScript/TSX Invalid Node Type "function_expression"

[babucarr32]

Summary

When I pulled from master yesterday the syntax highlighting was broken for js, ts, and tsx. When I checked the logs I saw the following error

helix_core::syntax [ERROR] Failed to compile highlights for 'javascript': invalid node type "function_expression"

The commit logs from master shows that its comming from here
Checking out a few commits before this commit fixed the issue for me.

Reproduction Steps

Pull from master HEAD de0518d0e631f1984dc7229b76c2bdadf2bffe5d

I tried this:

1. hx

I expected this to happen:

Instead, this happened:

Helix log

helix_core::syntax [ERROR] Failed to compile highlights for 'javascript': invalid node type "function_expression"

Platform

macOS

Terminal Emulator

Warp

Installation Method

source

Helix Version

helix 25.07.1 (a05c151)

[m4rch3n1ng]

does hx --grammar fetch and hx --grammar build fix this? sounds like your queries are up-to-date while the grammar is not.

[babucarr32]

does hx --grammar fetch and hx --grammar build fix this? sounds like your queries are up-to-date while the grammar is not.

Thanks for your reply. Nope, it doesn't. I tried this command multiple times. I Deleted the repo and runtime folder ~/.config/helix/runtime, cloned the project and built from scratch, removed my local languages.toml file (~/.config/helix/languages.toml) but still the issue persist.

[m4rch3n1ng]

ok hm not quite sure then, can you try out the following, so i can potentially troubleshoot:

1. what is the output of hx -V?
2. can you give me the output of cat ~/.config/helix/runtime/grammars/sources/javascript/.git/HEAD, please?
3. is there still a local ~/.config/helix/languages.toml file? if yes can you give me its content? if you have deleted it, have you run hx --grammar fetch and build after you have deleted it?
4. i have no idea about macos and if it even has that command, but can you run strings <path to your hx binary> | grep -C1 "name = \"javascript\""?
5. can you give me the full error message for it? there should be like 3 or so more lines after the Failed to compile highlights for 'javascript' line.

thanks! and i'll hopefully be able to help you then ...

[babucarr32]

Here.
~/.config/helix/helix.log

2025-10-29T14:31:50.832 helix_core::syntax [ERROR] Failed to compile highlights for 'tsx': invalid node type "function_expression"
  --> 48:4
    |
 47 |   (arrow_function)
 48 |   (function_expression)
    |    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 49 |   (function_declaration)
    |

2025-10-29T14:32:45.115 helix_core::syntax [ERROR] Failed to compile highlights for 'javascript': invalid node type "function_expression"
  --> 26:4
    |
 25 |   (arrow_function)
 26 |   (function_expression)
    |    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 27 |   (function_declaration)
    |

2025-10-29T14:33:04.836 helix_core::syntax [ERROR] Failed to compile highlights for 'typescript': invalid node type "function_expression"
  --> 46:4
    |
 45 |   (arrow_function)
 46 |   (function_expression)
    |    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 47 |   (function_declaration)
    |

hx --version
helix 25.07.1 (a05c151b)

cat ~/.config/helix/runtime/grammars/sources/javascript/.git/HEAD
f772967f7b7bc7c28f845be2420a38472b16a8ee

pwd
~/.config/helix
ls
config.toml	guages.toml	runtime

I renamed languages.toml to guages.toml just for debugging purpose. I don't want to loose my configs 😉.

strings ~/.cargo/bin/hx | grep -C1 "name = \"javascript\""
[[language]]
name = "javascript"
scope = "source.js"
--
[[grammar]]
name = "javascript"
source = { git = "https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter-javascript", rev = "3a837b6f3658ca3618f2022f8707e29739c91364" }

strings ~/.cargo/bin/hx | grep -C1 "name = \"typescript\""
[[language]]
name = "typescript"
scope = "source.ts"
--
[[grammar]]
name = "typescript"
source = { git = "https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter-typescript", rev = "75b3874edb2dc714fb1fd77a32013d0f8699989f", subpath = "typescript" }

[babucarr32]

My guages.toml(languages.toml) can be found here

[m4rch3n1ng]

ok i think i know what the problem is:

hx --version
helix 25.07.1 (a05c151b)
``

that commit, a05c151, is not the latest master but the commit of the 25.7.01 release. it seems that your hx binary does not point to ~/.cargo/bin/hx (maybe that isn't in the path), but instead picks up the version downloaded via your system package manager or app store or whatever.

the ~/.cargo/bin/hx correctly points to the new version of tree-sitter-javascript (3a837b6f3658ca3618f2022f8707e29739c91364).

as a last thing, can you run which hx? that should give you a path, that is not ~/.cargo/bin/hx, but somewhere else.

not entirely sure how to fix that (since i have no clue about macos), but i would first of all look at the $PATH variable, and if you can't find ~/.cargo/bin in there, i would put export PATH=$PATH:~/.cargo/bin/ in your .zshrc.

[babucarr32]

Yup, which hx shows that I installed helix with homebrew previously /opt/homebrew/bin/hx. After uninstalling it brew uninstall helix it picked up /Users/USER/.cargo/bin/hx. It's working fine now.
Thank you @m4rch3n1ng for your time! I appreciate it.

[m4rch3n1ng]

no problem, glad you got it fixed. felt a little responsible for this, since i was the one that submitted the pr, that broke your javascript highlighting ...

(also can you mark that as the answer on github, so it doesn't show up as unanswered when filtering through the discussions, thanks)