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https://github.com/executablebooks/mdformat

CommonMark compliant Markdown formatter
https://github.com/executablebooks/mdformat

cli codeformatter commonmark formatter markdown mdformat pre-commit python

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CommonMark compliant Markdown formatter

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README 

        



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# ![mdformat](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/executablebooks/mdformat/master/docs/_static/logo.svg)



> CommonMark compliant Markdown formatter






Mdformat is an opinionated Markdown formatter

that can be used to enforce a consistent style in Markdown files.

Mdformat is a Unix-style command-line tool as well as a Python library.



Find out more in the [docs](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io).



## Installing



Install with [CommonMark](https://spec.commonmark.org/current/) support:



```bash

pipx install mdformat

```



Install with [GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM)](https://github.github.com/gfm/) support:



```bash

pipx install mdformat

pipx inject mdformat mdformat-gfm

```



Note that GitHub's Markdown renderer supports syntax extensions not included in the GFM specification.

For full GitHub support do:



```bash

pipx install mdformat

pipx inject mdformat mdformat-gfm mdformat-frontmatter mdformat-footnote mdformat-gfm-alerts

```



Install with [Markedly Structured Text (MyST)](https://myst-parser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/using/syntax.html) support:



```bash

pipx install mdformat

pipx inject mdformat mdformat-myst

```



## Command line usage



### Format files



Format files `README.md` and `CHANGELOG.md` in place



```bash

mdformat README.md CHANGELOG.md

```



Format `.md` files in current working directory recursively



```bash

mdformat .

```



Read Markdown from standard input until `EOF`.

Write formatted Markdown to standard output.



```bash

mdformat -

```



### Check formatting



```bash

mdformat --check README.md CHANGELOG.md

```



This will not apply any changes to the files.

If a file is not properly formatted, the exit code will be non-zero.



### Options



```console

foo@bar:~$ mdformat --help

usage: mdformat [-h] [--check] [--version] [--number] [--wrap {keep,no,INTEGER}]

                [--end-of-line {lf,crlf,keep}] [--exclude PATTERN]

                [paths ...]



CommonMark compliant Markdown formatter



positional arguments:

  paths                 files to format



options:

  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  --check               do not apply changes to files

  --version             show program's version number and exit

  --number              apply consecutive numbering to ordered lists

  --wrap {keep,no,INTEGER}

                        paragraph word wrap mode (default: keep)

  --end-of-line {lf,crlf,keep}

                        output file line ending mode (default: lf)

  --exclude PATTERN     exclude files that match the Unix-style glob pattern (multiple allowed)

```



The `--exclude` option is only available on Python 3.13+.



## Documentation



This README merely provides a quickstart guide for the command line interface.

For more information refer to the [documentation](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io).

Here's a few pointers to get you started:



- [Style guide](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/style.html)

- [Python API usage](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/installation_and_usage.html#python-api-usage)

- [Usage as a pre-commit hook](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/installation_and_usage.html#usage-as-a-pre-commit-hook)

- [Plugin usage](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/plugins.html)

- [Plugin development guide](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/contributors/contributing.html)

- [List of code block formatter plugins](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/plugins.html#existing-plugins)

- [List of parser extension plugins](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/plugins.html#id1)

- [Changelog](https://mdformat.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/changelog.html)



## Frequently Asked Questions



### Why not use [Prettier](https://github.com/prettier/prettier) instead?



Mdformat is pure Python code!

Python is pre-installed on macOS and virtually any Linux distribution,

meaning that typically little to no additional installations are required to run mdformat.

This argument also holds true when using together with

[pre-commit](https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit) (also Python).

Prettier on the other hand requires Node.js/npm.



Prettier suffers from

[numerous](https://github.com/prettier/prettier/issues?q=is%3Aopen+label%3Alang%3Amarkdown+label%3Atype%3Abug+)

bugs,

many of which cause changes in Markdown AST and rendered HTML.

Many of these bugs are a consequence of using

[`remark-parse`](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark/tree/main/packages/remark-parse)

v8.x as Markdown parser which,

according to the author themselves,

is [inferior to markdown-it](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark/issues/75#issuecomment-143532326) used by mdformat.

`remark-parse` v9.x is advertised as CommonMark compliant

and presumably would fix many of the issues,

but is not used by Prettier (v2.4.0) yet.



Prettier (v2.4.0), being able to format many languages other than Markdown,

is a large package with 65 direct dependencies

(mdformat only has one in Python 3.11+).

This can be a disadvantage in many environments,

one example being size optimized Docker images.



Mdformat's parser extension plugin API allows not only customization of the Markdown specification in use,

but also advanced features like [automatic table of contents generation](https://github.com/hukkin/mdformat-toc).

Also provided is a code formatter plugin API enabling integration of embedded code formatting for any programming language.



### What's wrong with the mdformat logo? It renders incorrectly and is just terrible in general.



Nope, the logo is actually pretty great – you're terrible.

The logo is more a piece of art than a logo anyways,

depicting the horrors of poorly formatted text documents.

I made it myself!



That said, if you have any graphic design skills and want to contribute a revised version, a PR is more than welcome 😄.