doc: add disclaimer for what ast-grep cannot do

HerringtonDarkholme · HerringtonDarkholme · commit 433c76ea250f · 2024-11-04T00:14:32.000-05:00
diff --git a/website/advanced/faq.md b/website/advanced/faq.md
@@ -201,4 +201,26 @@ pattern:
   selector: field_definition     # select the effective pattern
 ```
 
-Note the rule above is one single pattern rule, instead of two. The `context` field provides the full unambiguous code snippet of `class`. So the `a = 123` will be parsed as `field_definition`. The `selector` field then selects the `field_definition` node as the [effective pattern](/advanced/pattern-parse.html#steps-to-create-a-pattern) matcher.
+Note the rule above is one single pattern rule, instead of two. The `context` field provides the full unambiguous code snippet of `class`. So the `a = 123` will be parsed as `field_definition`. The `selector` field then selects the `field_definition` node as the [effective pattern](/advanced/pattern-parse.html#steps-to-create-a-pattern) matcher.
+
+## Does ast-grep support some advanced static analysis?
+
+Short answer: **NO**.
+
+Long answer: ast-grep at the moment does not support the following information:
+* [scope analysis](https://eslint.org/docs/latest/extend/scope-manager-interface)
+* [type information](https://semgrep.dev/docs/writing-rules/pattern-syntax#typed-metavariables)
+* [control flow analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control-flow_analysis)
+* [data flow analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data-flow_analysis)
+* [taint analysis](https://semgrep.dev/docs/writing-rules/data-flow/taint-mode)
+* [constant propagation](https://semgrep.dev/docs/writing-rules/data-flow/constant-propagation)
+
+More concretely, it is not easy, or even possible, to achieve the following tasks in ast-grep:
+
+* Find variables that are not defined/used in the current scope.
+* Find variables of a specific type.
+* Find code that is unreachable.
+* Find code that is always executed.
+* Identify the flow of user input.
+
+Also see [tool comparison](/tool-comparison.html) for more information.
diff --git a/website/advanced/tool-comparison.md b/website/advanced/tool-comparison.md
@@ -17,6 +17,12 @@ The author is grateful to these predecessor tools for inspiring ast-grep! The re
 **Cons**:
 * It is still young and under development. It may have some bugs or limitations that need to be fixed or improved.
 * It does not have deep semantic information or comparison equivalence. It only operates on the syntactic level of the code, which may miss some matches or may be too cumbersome to match certain code.
+* More specifically, ast-grep at the moment does not support the following information:
+  * [type information](https://semgrep.dev/docs/writing-rules/pattern-syntax#typed-metavariables)
+  * [control flow analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control-flow_analysis)
+  * [data flow analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data-flow_analysis)
+  * [taint analysis](https://semgrep.dev/docs/writing-rules/data-flow/taint-mode)
+  * [constant propagation](https://semgrep.dev/docs/writing-rules/data-flow/constant-propagation)
 
 ## [Semgrep](https://semgrep.dev/)
 
