each document must contain one root node (html) with an optional "base" attribute if the "base" attribute is present, then the specified file will be processed first, then each child of the root node containing one of the following attributes:

replace, append, prepend, before, after, surround, merge

will be inserted into a copy of the base document, in a manner determined by which attribute is used. The value of the attribute should be an xpath targetting the node in the base document to be replaced etc. If multiple nodes are targeted the action will be performed for each of them.

replace: Replace the matched node with this one. The "keep-contents" attribute can be set to "true" to indicate that the contents of the original node should be appended to this node after replacement. append: Insert this node at the end of the matched node. prepend: Insert this node at the start of the matched node. before: Insert this node before the matched node. after: Insert this node after the matched node. surround: Insert this node as a sibling of the matched node then move the matched node into this node. The "where" attribute can be set to "top" or "bottom" to indicate if the target node should be placed before or after the contents of this node (if any). If the "where" attribute is omitted the target node will be placed after the contents of this node. merge: Copy the attributes of this node onto the target node, replacing any existing attributes. The contents of this node are ignored. remove: Remove the targetted node. The type, attributes and contents of this node are ignored.

directives are processed in order, and the results of an earlier directive can be targetted by a later directive, for example:

base.html:

override.html:

result for override.html:

thus it follows that you cannot replace a node then later target the replaced node

see the contents of the sample/ directory for examples