diff --git a/lib/astutils.h b/lib/astutils.h
index 18fe9dc4e..f3923f8b6 100644
--- a/lib/astutils.h
+++ b/lib/astutils.h
@@ -56,11 +56,9 @@ void visitAstNodes(T *ast, const TFunc &visitor)
     if (!ast)
         return;
 
-    std::vector<T *> tokensContainer;
     // the size of 8 was determined in tests to be sufficient to avoid excess allocations. also add 1 as a buffer.
     // we might need to increase that value in the future.
-    tokensContainer.reserve(8 + 1);
-    std::stack<T *, std::vector<T *>> tokens(std::move(tokensContainer));
+    std::stack<T *, SmallVector<T *, 8 + 1>> tokens;
     T *tok = ast;
     do {
         ChildrenToVisit c = visitor(tok);