Some lisp helper functions for doing XPATH-like queries on org-mode files

org-element-path-api.el

(defun org-element-path (path list-of-asts)
  "Select all contents of LIST-OF-ASTS matching PATH"
  (message (format "%s" path))
  (defun --subpath-match (p)
    (org-element--select-contents (car p) list-of-asts))
  (if (cadr path)
      (org-element-path (cdr path) (--subpath-match path))
    (--subpath-match path)))
    
(defun --flatten (list-of-lists)
  "Flatten a LIST-OF-LISTS into one list"
  (apply 'seq-concatenate 'list list-of-lists))

(defun org-element--all-contents (list-of-asts)
  "Get a flat list of the contents of all ASTs in LIST-OF-ASTS"
  (--flatten (seq-map 'org-element-contents list-of-asts)))

(defun org-element--type-eq (type element)
  "Test whether ELEMENT is of TYPE"
  (eq type (org-element-type element)))

(defun org-element--select-contents (descriptor list-of-asts)
  "Selector all contents of ASTs in LIST-OF-ASTS matching DESCRIPTOR"
  (cond ((and (symbolp descriptor)
	      (string-prefix-p ":" (symbol-name descriptor)))
	 (seq-map (lambda (x) (org-element-property descriptor x)) list-of-asts))
	(t (org-element--contents-of-type descriptor list-of-asts))))

(defun org-element--filter-contents (pred list-of-asts)
  "Filter all contents of ASTs in LIST-OF-ASTS by PRED"
  (seq-filter pred
	      (org-element--all-contents list-of-asts)))

(defun org-element--contents-of-type (type list-of-asts)
  "Select all contents of ASTs in LIST-OF-ASTS matching TYPE"
  (org-element--filter-contents
   (lambda (c) (org-element--type-eq type c))
   list-of-asts))

;; For example if the file was:
;; * Lisp
;;
;; #+NAME: foo
;; #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
;; "test 1"
;; #+END_SRC
;;
;; #+NAME: bar
;; #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
;; "test 2"
;; #+END_SRC
;;
;; then

(org-element-path '(headline section src-block :name) (list (org-element-parse-buffer)))

;; would return
;; ("foo" "bar")