Helper for traversing ALISTs in depth

geta.lisp

(defun geta (alist key)
  "Similar to assoc-value... but operates in depth!
key can be a list or a single key."
  (when (and alist key)
    (etypecase key
      ((or string symbol)
       (alexandria:assoc-value alist key :test 'string=))
      (cons
       ;; associate in depth
       (if (cdr key)
           (geta (alexandria:assoc-value alist (car key) :test 'string=)
                 (cdr key))
           ;; else: only one key in list.
           (alexandria:assoc-value alist (car key) :test 'string=))))))

Note: This assumes the alexandria library is loaded.
Of course, assoc-value is the same as (cdr (assoc key alist :test ...))

Of course this can be improved so you pass the test function to use, and remove the dependency on alexandria. I am posting this as a quick and dirty way to traverse the alists.