remark-parse

remark plugin to add support for parsing from markdown.

Contents

• What is this?
• When should I use this?
• Install
• Use
• API
  • unified().use(remarkParse)
• Examples
  • Example: support GFM and frontmatter
  • Example: turning markdown into a man page
• Syntax
• Syntax tree
• Types
• Compatibility
• Security
• Contribute
• Sponsor
• License

What is this?

This package is a unified (remark) plugin that defines how to take markdown as input and turn it into a syntax tree.

See the monorepo readme for info on what the remark ecosystem is.

When should I use this?

This plugin adds support to unified for parsing markdown. If you also need to serialize markdown, you can alternatively use remark, which combines unified, this plugin, and remark-stringify.

If you just want to turn markdown into HTML (with maybe a few extensions), we recommend micromark instead. If you don’t use plugins and want to access the syntax tree, you can directly use mdast-util-from-markdown. remark focusses on making it easier to transform content by abstracting these internals away.

You can combine this plugin with other plugins to add syntax extensions. Notable examples that deeply integrate with it are remark-gfm, remark-mdx, remark-frontmatter, remark-math, and remark-directive. You can also use any other remark plugin after remark-parse.

Install

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 16+), install with npm:

npm install remark-parse

In Deno with esm.sh:

import remarkParse from 'https://esm.sh/remark-parse@11'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import remarkParse from 'https://esm.sh/remark-parse@11?bundle'
</script>

Use

Say we have the following module example.js:

import rehypeStringify from 'rehype-stringify'
import remarkGfm from 'remark-gfm'
import remarkParse from 'remark-parse'
import remarkRehype from 'remark-rehype'
import {unified} from 'unified'

const doc = `
# Mercury

**Mercury** is the first planet from the [Sun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun)
and the smallest planet in the Solar System.
`

const file = await unified()
  .use(remarkParse)
  .use(remarkGfm)
  .use(remarkRehype)
  .use(rehypeStringify)
  .process(doc)

console.log(String(file))

…then running node example.js yields:

<h1>Mercury</h1>
<p><strong>Mercury</strong> is the first planet from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun">Sun</a>
and the smallest planet in the Solar System.</p>

API

This package exports no identifiers. The default export is remarkParse.

unified().use(remarkParse)

Add support for parsing from markdown.

Parameters

There are no parameters.

Returns

Nothing (undefined).

Examples

Example: support GFM and frontmatter

We support CommonMark by default. Non-standard markdown extensions can be enabled with plugins.

This example shows how to support GFM features (autolink literals, footnotes, strikethrough, tables, tasklists) and frontmatter (YAML):

import rehypeStringify from 'rehype-stringify'
import remarkFrontmatter from 'remark-frontmatter'
import remarkGfm from 'remark-gfm'
import remarkParse from 'remark-parse'
import remarkRehype from 'remark-rehype'
import {unified} from 'unified'

const doc = `---
layout: solar-system
---

# Hi ~~Mars~~Venus!
`

const file = await unified()
  .use(remarkParse)
  .use(remarkFrontmatter)
  .use(remarkGfm)
  .use(remarkRehype)
  .use(rehypeStringify)
  .process(doc)

console.log(String(file))

Yields:

<h1>Hi <del>Mars</del>Venus!</h1>

Example: turning markdown into a man page

Man pages (short for manual pages) are a way to document CLIs (example: type man git-log in your terminal). They use an old markup format called roff. There’s a remark plugin, remark-man, that can serialize as roff.

This example shows how to turn markdown into man pages by using unified with remark-parse and remark-man:

import remarkMan from 'remark-man'
import remarkParse from 'remark-parse'
import {unified} from 'unified'

const doc = `
# titan(7) -- largest moon of saturn

Titan is the largest moon…
`

const file = await unified().use(remarkParse).use(remarkMan).process(doc)

console.log(String(file))

Yields:

.TH "TITAN" "7" "September 2023" "" ""
.SH "NAME"
\fBtitan\fR - largest moon of saturn
.P
Titan is the largest moon…

Syntax

Markdown is parsed according to CommonMark. Other plugins can add support for syntax extensions. If you’re interested in extending markdown, more information is available in micromark’s readme.

Syntax tree

The syntax tree used in remark is mdast.

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports the additional type Options (which is currently empty).

Compatibility

Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with maintained versions of Node.js.

When we cut a new major release, we drop support for unmaintained versions of Node. This means we try to keep the current release line, remark-parse@^11, compatible with Node.js 16.

Security

As markdown can be turned into HTML and improper use of HTML can open you up to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, use of remark can be unsafe. When going to HTML, you will combine remark with rehype, in which case you should use rehype-sanitize.

Use of remark plugins could also open you up to other attacks. Carefully assess each plugin and the risks involved in using them.

For info on how to submit a report, see our security policy.

Contribute

See contributing.md in remarkjs/.github for ways to get started. See support.md for ways to get help. Join us in Discussions to chat with the community and contributors.

This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.

Sponsor

Support this effort and give back by sponsoring on OpenCollective!

License

MIT © Titus Wormer