ikihsjs

Native syntax highlight for Node.js. A drop-in API for Shiki users.

npm install ikihsjs

// Before: Shiki
import { createHighlighter } from "shiki";
const h = await createHighlighter({ themes: [darkPlus], langs: ["rust"] });
const tokens = h.codeToTokensBase(code, { lang: "rust", theme: "dark-plus" });

// After: ikihsjs
import { createHighlighter } from "ikihsjs";
const h = await createHighlighter({ themes: [darkPlus], langs: ["rust"] });
const tokens = h.codeToTokensBase(code, { lang: "rust", theme: "dark-plus" });

Themes, grammars, and the API are the same as Shiki. codeToHtml, getLoadedLanguages, getLoadedThemes, loadTheme, loadLanguage, and getTheme work as expected.

Differences from Shiki

• Node.js only in v1. A browser build (WASM) is planned for v2.
• Prebuilt binary per platform (napi-rs). No WASM startup cost. No interpreter overhead.
• Grammar output differs on some edge cases. See the compatibility table for details.

API

import { createHighlighter, Highlighter } from "ikihsjs";
import type { ThemeRegistration, ThemedToken } from "ikihsjs/shiki-types";

const h: Highlighter = await createHighlighter({
  themes: [theme], // ThemeRegistration[]
  langs: ["rust", "js"], // string[]
});

// Tokenize code
const tokens: ThemedToken[][] = h.codeToTokensBase(source, { lang, theme });
// Each token: { content, offset, color?, fontStyle?, scope, category }

// Get HTML
const html: string = h.codeToHtml(source, { lang, theme });

// Load resources dynamically
h.loadLanguage("python");
h.loadTheme(myTheme);
h.getLoadedLanguages(); // string[]
h.getLoadedThemes(); // string[]
h.getTheme("dark-plus"); // ThemeRegistration

How it works

ikihsjs is a native Node addon built with napi-rs. The crate compiles the Ikihs Rust engine into a .node binary. Node loads this binary directly. There is no child process, no WASM, and no JS fallback.