@mirrordown/mdit-squeeze-paragraphs

Part of Mirrordown — a suite of markdown syntax extensions for the unified and markdown-it ecosystems.

A markdown-it plugin for the squeeze-paragraphs syntax extension.

Overview

The squeeze-paragraphs plugin removes paragraphs that are empty or contain only whitespace. A paragraph counts as empty when it has no children, or when every child is whitespace-only text.

CommonMark never emits an empty paragraph on its own, so this plugin does nothing to ordinary hand-written Markdown. Its job is to run after other transforms that can leave an empty <p> behind — for example a comment stripper that removes a paragraph's only content, or a plugin that lifts an element out of its wrapping paragraph. Adding squeeze-paragraphs last tidies up that residue.

Before (a prior transform emptied the middle paragraph):

<p>Kept.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Also kept.</p>

After:

<p>Kept.</p>
<p>Also kept.</p>

Syntax

There is no syntax and no visible change for normal Markdown — paragraphs with real content are always preserved:

A paragraph with text.

A paragraph with _emphasis_ and an image ![icon](https://picsum.photos/16/16) is not empty either.

[!NOTE] Because empty paragraphs cannot be written directly in Markdown, the removal behaviour only shows up when another plugin produces one. Place squeeze-paragraphs last in your pipeline so it sees that residue.

[!NOTE] This is a rehype plugin (rehype-*), not a remark plugin. Add it after remarkRehype — and after any plugin whose residue it should clean up.

Install

npm install @mirrordown/mdit-squeeze-paragraphs

Standalone

import MarkdownIt from "markdown-it";
import { squeezeParagraphs } from "@mirrordown/mdit-squeeze-paragraphs";

const md = new MarkdownIt().use(squeezeParagraphs);

VitePress

// .vitepress/config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "vitepress";
import { squeezeParagraphs } from "@mirrordown/mdit-squeeze-paragraphs";

export default defineConfig({
  markdown: {
    config: (md) => md.use(squeezeParagraphs)
  }
});

Documentation

Full documentation, more examples, and configuration options: github.com/mirrordown/mirrordown (dedicated docs site coming soon).

License

MIT © Drake Costa