@jacquesramphal/smart-quotes

Convert straight quotes (’ and ”) into Unicode smart quotes (‘ ’ “ ”) in human-readable content, without mangling code.

Why

Pasted copy often introduces straight quotes into titles, labels, and prose. If you “smart quote” blindly, you can break things like markup delimiters:

title="I'm "Jacques""

This package gives you:

• A small API you can call on any string
• A CLI to scan Markdown/MDX (and template-like files you choose) while avoiding code blocks, inline code, and other unsafe regions

It’s framework-agnostic: it runs in any Node project and does not require any framework runtime.

Install / run

Install (recommended for projects):

npm i -D @jacquesramphal/smart-quotes

Run once without installing:

npx smart-quotes --check

CLI

By default the CLI scans the current directory in check mode (prints files that need changes and exits with code 1).

smart-quotes
smart-quotes --check

Apply fixes in-place:

smart-quotes --write

Scan a specific file or directory:

smart-quotes README.md --check
smart-quotes content/ --write

Control what gets scanned:

smart-quotes --paths src,content --ext .md,.mdx --write

Stdin mode (string transform):

echo "\"I'm \\\"Jacques\\\"\"" | smart-quotes --stdin

Stdin mode, preserving the outer attribute quotes (useful when your input string includes its own delimiter quotes):

echo "\"I'm \\\"Jacques\\\"\"" | smart-quotes --stdin --attr

API

const { toSmartQuotes, toSmartQuotesInsideAttributeValue } = require("@jacquesramphal/smart-quotes");

toSmartQuotes(`I'm "Jacques"`); // → I’m “Jacques”

// Preserves the outer delimiter quotes (safe for attribute-value strings)
toSmartQuotesInsideAttributeValue(`"I'm \"Jacques\""`); // → "I’m “Jacques”"

What it will (and won’t) touch

• Markdown / MDX: skips fenced code blocks, inline code, raw HTML tags, and link destinations.
• General guidance: run this on prose/content files, not on source code (JS/TS/etc).

Automate (optional)

• CI: fail the build when files need changes:

npx smart-quotes --check

• Pre-commit: auto-fix then stage:

npx smart-quotes --write
git add -A

Notes / expectations

• This is heuristic, not a full typography engine.
• Always review diffs after running --write.