Apply Structural Codemods Across Large Codebases With Comby

---
name: "Apply structural codemods across large codebases with Comby"
slug: "apply-structural-codemods-across-large-codebases-with-comby"
description: "Rewrite recurring code patterns with syntax-aware matching so agents can run migration codemods more safely than plain regex search and replace."
github_stars: 2626
verification: "security_reviewed"
source: "https://github.com/comby-tools/comby"
author: "comby-tools"
publisher_type: "organization"
category: "Developer Tools"
framework: "Multi-Framework"
tool_ecosystem:
  github_repo: "comby-tools/comby"
  github_stars: 2626
---

# Apply structural codemods across large codebases with Comby

Rewrite recurring code patterns with syntax-aware matching so agents can run migration codemods more safely than plain regex search and replace.

## Prerequisites

Comby CLI

## Installation

Use the upstream install or setup path that matches your environment:
- docker run -a stdin -a stdout -a stderr -i comby/comby '(:[emoji] hi)' 'bye :[emoji]' lisp -stdin <<< '(👋 hi)'
- git clone https://github.com/comby-tools/comby
- make
- make test

Requirements and caveats from upstream:
- ### Docker
- docker pull comby/comby
- <summary>click to expand an example invocation for the docker image</summary>

Basic usage or getting-started notes:
- ### See the [usage documentation](https://comby.dev).
- [A short example below](https://github.com/comby-tools/comby#isnt-a-regex-approach-like-sed-good-enough) shows how comby simplifies matching and rewriting compared to regex approaches like sed.
- ### Mac OS X

- Source: https://github.com/comby-tools/comby
- Extracted from upstream docs: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/comby-tools/comby/HEAD/README.md

## Documentation

- https://comby.dev/

## Source

- [Agent Skill Exchange](https://agentskillexchange.com/skills/apply-structural-codemods-across-large-codebases-with-comby/)