payload-paste-as-markdown

A reusable Payload CMS 3.x Lexical editor feature that lets authors paste raw Markdown into the rich-text editor via a toolbar button, slash command, or keyboard-free drawer.

Compatibility

• Payload CMS: 3.x only. This package is not compatible with Payload 2.x.
• React: 19.x (via peer dependencies).

If you're browsing this repository on GitHub, please tag it with the payload-plugin topic so it surfaces in Payload community plugin listings.

This is a Lexical editor feature rather than a top-level buildConfig plugin, so it is configured inside lexicalEditor({ features: [...] }).

Features

• Toolbar button in both fixed and inline toolbars
• Slash-menu item (/markdown, /md, /paste)
• Modal drawer with a monospace textarea for raw Markdown input
• Inserts converted Markdown at the exact cursor position, splitting the current paragraph when needed
• Zero backend code — it is a pure client Lexical feature

Installation

npm install payload-paste-as-markdown
# or
pnpm add payload-paste-as-markdown
# or
yarn add payload-paste-as-markdown

This package expects payload, @payloadcms/richtext-lexical, @payloadcms/ui, react, and react-dom to already be installed in your project.

Usage

Import the server feature and add it to the features array of any lexicalEditor:

import { MarkdownPasteFeature } from 'payload-paste-as-markdown'
import { lexicalEditor } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical'
import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'

export const Posts: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: 'posts',
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'content',
      type: 'richText',
      editor: lexicalEditor({
        features: ({ defaultFeatures }) => [
          ...defaultFeatures,
          MarkdownPasteFeature(),
        ],
      }),
    },
  ],
}

After installing, regenerate Payload's import map:

npx payload generate:importmap

How it works

1. The server feature registers a client feature string that Payload resolves through the import map.
2. The client feature adds a toolbar button, slash-menu group, and a plugin.
3. The plugin opens a React-portal drawer when the command is dispatched.
4. When the author confirms, the raw Markdown is converted using Lexical's markdown transformers and inserted at the original cursor position.

Peer dependencies

• payload ^3.0.0
• @payloadcms/richtext-lexical ^3.0.0
• @payloadcms/ui ^3.0.0
• react ^19.0.0
• react-dom ^19.0.0

License

MIT Sponsored by: Onion Creative