diff --git a/ifex/model/ifex_ast.py b/ifex/model/ifex_ast.py
index a6d8a31..5ed153c 100644
--- a/ifex/model/ifex_ast.py
+++ b/ifex/model/ifex_ast.py
@@ -1,23 +1,26 @@
 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2022 MBition GmbH.
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
 
+# Module contains Vehicle Service Catalog abstract syntax tree
+# implemented using python dataclasses.
+#
+# The specification can be found here, but the rules will be generated from
+# this file.  This file is the formal definition of the language.
+# https://github.com/COVESA/vehicle_service_catalog/blob/master/syntax.md
+
 from dataclasses import dataclass, field
 from typing import List, Optional, Any
-
+import inspect, sys
 
 # shortcut to reduce code duplication for default_factory
 # parameter in field()
 def EmptyList():
     return []
 
-
-# Module contains Vehicle Service Catalog abstract syntax tree
-# implemented using python dataclasses.
-#
-# The specification can be found here, but the rules will be generated from
-# this file.  This file is the formal definition of the language.
-# https://github.com/COVESA/vehicle_service_catalog/blob/master/syntax.md
-
+# This small helper function returns a list of all the dataclass names -
+# in other words all the AST node types. There are no other classes in this file.
+def get_ast_node_type_names():
+    return [x[0] for x in inspect.getmembers(sys.modules[__name__], inspect.isclass)]
 
 @dataclass
 class Argument:
diff --git a/ifex/templates/IFEX/README.md b/ifex/templates/IFEX/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a26654
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ifex/templates/IFEX/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# templates/IFEX
+
+This directory contains templates that generate IFEX - in other words probably
+used in translators from another format to IFEX.  Other template directories
+usually generate other formats _from_ IFEX.
+
+Specifically, these templates are likely to generate IFEX Core IDL, but some of
+them may be designed to generate other Layer Types.
diff --git a/ifex/templates/TemplateDir.py b/ifex/templates/TemplateDir.py
index 9107aad..f2a919b 100644
--- a/ifex/templates/TemplateDir.py
+++ b/ifex/templates/TemplateDir.py
@@ -9,28 +9,12 @@
 # Needed globally by setup.py
 TemplatePath = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
 
-# NOTE: Common module variable.  We're not expecting this module to have
-# concurrent access from more than one.  If that changes, re-wrap this in a
-# class so that we use instance methods and instance variables instead!
-classes_list = set()
-
 def find_matching_template_files(directory : str, recurse = False, absolute = False):
     """Search in given directory to find any files that match (start with) any of the given class names.
     Return a dict that maps each class name to its corresponding template file name.
     If there is more than one matching file, the last found one will remain in result."""
 
-    # Reuse walk_type_tree() from documentation generator, which gives us each of the
-    # node classes in the ifex AST definition.  More correctly, its like the
-    # visitor pattern, so the function we provide (collector) will be called once
-    # for each found class.
-
-    # clear variable for collector => function can be called more than once (but not concurrently!)
-    global classes_list
-    classes_list = set()
-    ifex_ast_doc.walk_type_tree(ifex_ast.AST, collector, {})
-
-    # Now all classes are collected in the classes_list variable
-    classes = classes_list
+    classes = ifex_ast.get_ast_node_type_names()
 
     templates = {}  # Dict maps node name to the template file name
     if recurse:
@@ -58,13 +42,6 @@ def abs_template_path(p):
         # Relative to this file (i.e. template root)
         return os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)), p)
 
-# collector: Small helper that grabs each output from the walk function,
-# and in the process converting each class object to its name string
-# Reusing type_name() from ifex_ast_doc takes care of ForwardRef type correctly.
-def collector(x):
-    global classes_list
-    classes_list.add(ifex_ast_doc.type_name(x))
-
 # Some test code - print out result from template-dir as arg
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     template_dir = sys.argv[1]