lil-marky

A lightweight, fast Markdown parser for JavaScript that converts Markdown text into an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) with built-in HTML and plain text renderers.

🎯 Features

• 🪶 Lightweight: Minimal dependencies, focused on core Markdown parsing
• ⚡ Fast: Two-stage parsing (block → inline) for optimal performance
• 🔧 Extensible: Schema-driven architecture allows custom element definitions
• 🎨 Flexible Rendering: Built-in HTML and plain text renderers with customization options
• 📦 Dual Module Support: Works with both CommonJS and ES modules
• ✅ Comprehensive: Supports all standard Markdown elements plus common extensions

📥 Installation

npm install lil-marky

🚀 Quick Start

const marky = require('lil-marky');

// Create a parser instance
const md = marky.create();

// Parse to AST
const ast = md.parse('# Hello *world*!');

// Parse and render to HTML
const html = md.parse('# Hello *world*!', marky.html());
// Output: <h1>Hello <em>world</em>!</h1>

// Parse and render to plain text
const text = md.parse('# Hello *world*!', marky.plain());
// Output: Hello world!

🎪 ES Module Usage

import marky from './esm/lil-marky.js';

const md = marky.create();
const result = md.parse('**Bold text**', marky.html());

📝 Supported Markdown Elements

📰 Headings

Supports ATX-style (# H1 through ###### H6) and Setext-style headings:

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3

Alt Heading 1
=============

Alt Heading 2
-------------

💪 Emphasis

Multiple emphasis styles for text formatting:

*italic* or _italic_
**bold** or __bold__
***bold italic***
~~strikethrough~~

📋 Lists

Unordered and ordered lists with full nesting support:

- Item 1
- Item 2
  - Nested item
  - Another nested item

1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item

🔗 Links

Multiple link formats including auto-linking:

[Link text](https://example.com)
[Link with title](https://example.com "Title")
<https://example.com>
<[email protected]>
[Email with text](mailto:[email protected]?subject=Hello)

Auto-linking can be enabled with marky.create({ autoLink: true }).

🖼️ Images

Standard markdown image syntax:

![Alt text](image.jpg)
![Alt text](image.jpg "Image title")

💻 Code

Inline code and fenced code blocks with optional syntax highlighting:

Inline `code` in text

```javascript
// Fenced code block
const x = 42;

### 💬 Blockquotes
Blockquotes with nesting support:

```markdown
> Single quote
>
> Multiple paragraphs

> Outer quote
>> Nested quote

➖ Horizontal Rules

Create horizontal rules with:

---
___

↩️ Line Breaks

Manual line breaks and paragraph separation:

Line 1
Line 2 (two spaces at end of line 1)

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2 (blank line separates paragraphs)

🎨 Custom Renderers

You can create custom renderers that receive the AST:

function customRenderer(nodes) {
  // Process AST nodes and return custom output
  return processNodes(nodes);
}

const result = md.parse(text, customRenderer);

🌳 AST Structure

The parser generates a hierarchical AST with nodes containing:

• type: Element type (heading, paragraph, bold, etc.)
• props: Element properties (level, url, etc.)
• children: Child nodes for container elements

// Example AST for "# Hello *world*!"
[{
  type: 'heading',
  props: { level: 1 },
  children: [
    { type: 'text', props: { value: 'Hello ' } },
    { 
      type: 'italic',
      children: [{ type: 'text', props: { value: 'world' } }]
    },
    { type: 'text', props: { value: '!' } }
  ]
}]