How Can I Effectively Navigate an AST to Find Specific Elements?

Check out this old project I came across; it might give you some ideas: https://github.com/scalar/scalar/tree/main/packages%2Fts-to-openapi

Keep in mind that express routes aren't inherently suited for static analysis, so achieving perfection is really difficult. For example, routes can be built dynamically using loops or organized through sophisticated methods, like fetching them from a database. It's crucial to have your users write their express routes in a structured way that allows for easier static analysis. For instance, require them to use string literals for route registration and have all routes at the top level of a module, avoiding placing them inside conditional statements or loops.

It's important to realize that this isn't just a traversal issue. The key problem lies in the complexity of Turing-complete languages; no analyzer can be 100% precise. I suggest using various heuristics until your analyzer works as intended. Alternatively, consider running your file in a virtual machine to construct an express object dynamically and retrieve the routes from an actual array.

To help clarify what you're trying to find, could you share some sample code that includes the expressions you want to match? This would serve as a good starting point for understanding your needs.

Take a piece of code that you want to parse and write a test that states what output you expect from it. Use test-driven development so that your AI can help you refine the process until the tests pass. Since code transformations are pure functions, unit testing them should be straightforward.