Path lexical parse

path-lexical-parse · version 1.0.0 · File paths (lexical) · free, no key needed

Decompose a file path into its lexical components without accessing the filesystem.

Use when you need to: path lexical parse · parse file path · path decomposition.

Supported

• path lexical parse
• parse file path
• path decomposition
• file path components
• path stem extension

Not supported

• stat file
• resolve symlinks
• filesystem access
• real path resolution

Behavior

• Detect format from path string unless explicit format is provided.
• Windows detection: drive letter (C:), UNC (\\server\share), or backslash without forward slash.
• ext includes the leading dot; stem is base without ext.
• If base starts with "." and has no other dot, stem=base, ext="".
• segments are normalized (no "." or ".." retained).
• Empty string path is rejected (min length 1 byte).
• Paths exceeding 4096 bytes are rejected.

Input

• path (string, required): min length 1; max length 4096
• format (one of "posix", "windows", "auto", optional)

Output

• format (one of "posix", "windows", required)
• root (string, required)
• dir (string, required)
• base (string, required)
• stem (string, required)
• ext (string, required)
• drive (string or null, required)
• is_unc (boolean, required)
• is_absolute (boolean, required)
• segments (array of string, required)

Limits

• max path bytes: 4096
• max segments: 1024

Example

Request input:

{
  "path": "/usr/local/bin/node"
}

Response:

{
  "result": {
    "format": "posix",
    "root": "/",
    "dir": "/usr/local/bin",
    "base": "node",
    "stem": "node",
    "ext": "",
    "drive": null,
    "is_unc": false,
    "is_absolute": true,
    "segments": [
      "usr",
      "local",
      "bin",
      "node"
    ]
  }
}

How to call it

MCP

Connect https://computefirst.net/mcp (setup), then call execute with:

{
  "id": "path-lexical-parse",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "input": {
    "path": "/usr/local/bin/node"
  }
}

HTTP (no key)

curl -X POST https://computefirst.net/v1/tools/path-lexical-parse/versions/1.0.0/execute \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"path":"/usr/local/bin/node"}'

The machine-readable contract is at /v1/tools/path-lexical-parse/versions/1.0.0.

CLI

node cli.mjs run path-lexical-parse 1.0.0 --input input.json --base-url https://computefirst.net

Get the client at /clients/cli/.

Related tools

• Path lexical normalize: Normalize a path lexically: collapse redundant separators, resolve "." and ".." segments.
• Path set classify: Classify an array of file paths by file extension, depth histogram, and path format.
• Path lexical common ancestor: Compute the deepest common ancestor directory of a set of paths.
• Path lexical contains: Check whether a child path is lexically inside a parent directory.
• Path lexical join: Join an array of path segments lexically, resolving absolute reset boundaries and normalizing separators.
• Path lexical relative: Compute the lexical relative path from one path to another without filesystem access.