Plugins#

Mdformat offers an extensible plugin system for both code fence content formatting and Markdown parser extensions (like GFM tables). This document explains how to use plugins. If you want to create a new plugin, refer to the contributing docs.

Code formatter plugins#

Mdformat features a plugin system to support formatting of Markdown code blocks where the coding language has been labeled. For instance, if mdformat-black plugin is installed in the environment, mdformat CLI will automatically format Python code blocks with Black.

For stability, mdformat Python API behavior will not change simply due to a plugin being installed. Code formatters will have to be explicitly enabled in addition to being installed:

import mdformat

unformatted = "```python\n'''black converts quotes'''\n```\n"
# Pass in `codeformatters` here! It is an iterable of coding languages
# that should be formatted
formatted = mdformat.text(unformatted, codeformatters={"python"})
assert formatted == '```python\n"""black converts quotes"""\n```\n'

Existing plugins#

Plugin Supported languages Notes
mdformat-beautysh bash, sh
mdformat-black python
mdformat-config json, toml, yaml
mdformat-gofmt go Requires Go installation
mdformat-rustfmt rust Requires rustfmt installation
mdformat-shfmt bash, sh Requires either shfmt or Docker installation
mdformat-web javascript, js, css, html, xml

Parser extension plugins#

Markdown-it-py offers a range of useful extensions to the base CommonMark parser (see the documented list).

Mdformat features a plugin system to support the loading and rendering of such extensions.

For stability, mdformat Python API behavior will not change simply due to a plugin being installed. Extensions will have to be explicitly enabled in addition to being installed:

import mdformat

unformatted = "content...\n"
# Pass in `extensions` here! It is an iterable of extensions that should be loaded
formatted = mdformat.text(unformatted, extensions={"tables"})

Existing plugins#

Plugin Syntax Extensions Description
mdformat-admon admonition Adds support for python-markdown admonitions
mdformat-deflist deflist Adds support for Pandoc-style definition lists
mdformat-footnote footnote Adds support for Pandoc-style footnotes
mdformat-frontmatter frontmatter Adds support for front matter, and formats YAML front matter
mdformat-gfm gfm Changes target specification to GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM)
mdformat-mkdocs mkdocs Changes target specification to MKDocs. Indents lists with 4-spaces instead of 2
mdformat-myst myst Changes target specification to MyST
mdformat-tables tables Adds support for GitHub Flavored Markdown style tables
mdformat-toc toc Adds the capability to auto-generate a table of contents