Cool module. The next time I'm parsing XML I'll definitely give it a try. Have you considered using Class::XPath to offer XPath searching of the element tree? Looking at the USAGE summary, I see this:

    my $addr1 = $XML->{server}('type','eq','suse'){address}[1] ;

If you used Class::XPath in XML::Smart this could be written:

    my ($addr1) = $XML->match('/server[@type="suse"]/address[1]');

It may not be shorter, but for people that know XPath it might be easier.

-sam