remark-lini

```lini fences in Markdown and MDX, compiled to inline SVG at build time.

Published on npm as remark-lini-lang — npm rejects remark-lini as too close to remark-lint.

Lini is one small language for diagrams: flowcharts, charts, sequences, mindmaps, trees, ER schemas, circuit schematics and dimensioned technical drawings all come out of the same fence. This plugin draws them wherever remark runs.

npm install remark-lini-lang

The compiler is linked as a WebAssembly module, not shelled out to — installing this package is the whole toolchain. No binary on PATH, no Docker, no network at build time.

Use it

import { unified } from 'unified';
import remarkParse from 'remark-parse';
import remarkRehype from 'remark-rehype';
import rehypeStringify from 'rehype-stringify';
import { remarkLini } from 'remark-lini-lang';

const html = await unified()
  .use(remarkParse)
  .use(remarkLini)
  .use(remarkRehype)
  .use(rehypeStringify)
  .process('```lini\ncat -> dog -> bird\n```');

Each fence is replaced with parsed elements rather than a string of raw HTML, so no allowDangerousHtml anywhere and nothing to re-parse. That is also what makes it work under MDX, which has no raw HTML at all.

Docusaurus

// docusaurus.config.js
import { remarkLini } from 'remark-lini-lang';

export default {
  presets: [['classic', { docs: { remarkPlugins: [remarkLini] } }]],
};

Next.js (MDX)

// next.config.mjs
import createMDX from '@next/mdx';
import { remarkLini } from 'remark-lini-lang';

export default createMDX({ options: { remarkPlugins: [remarkLini] } })({
  pageExtensions: ['js', 'jsx', 'md', 'mdx', 'ts', 'tsx'],
});

Gatsby

// gatsby-config.js
const { remarkLini } = require('remark-lini-lang');

module.exports = {
  plugins: [{ resolve: 'gatsby-plugin-mdx', options: { mdxOptions: { remarkPlugins: [remarkLini] } } }],
};

Astro

Use astro-lini instead — it wraps this package and registers it with whichever Markdown processor the site runs.

What a fence becomes

A figure, and — unless you ask otherwise — a toggle that reveals the source that drew it. The fence's info string chooses:

| Fence | You get | |---|---| | ```lini | the figure, with the source one click away | | ```lini figure-only | the figure alone | | ```lini code-only | the source alone, highlighted, never compiled | | ```lini figure-code | both, stacked, no toggle | | ```lini code-figure | both, source first, no toggle |

Images

An |image| { src: "…" } naming a local file resolves against the Markdown file's own directory, and the bytes are handed to the compiler — the same embedding, the same output, as the lini binary would produce. https:// URLs and data: URIs are passed through untouched.

Styling

The stylesheet rides along in a <style> block on each page that has a figure, which is what makes the install one line. It sits in @layer remark-lini, so any unlayered rule in your own CSS wins without !important.

To own the styling yourself:

.use(remarkLini, { bundledCss: false })

…and ship the sheet — remark-lini-lang/remark-lini.css for the figure wrapper, plus liniCss() if you want the syntax-highlighting palette bound to the same compiler that draws the figures.

Every Lini colour is a light-dark() pair keyed on color-scheme, so binding that property to your theme is the whole light/dark integration — no script, no re-render on toggle.

Errors

A block that fails to compile becomes a visible error box and the message goes to stderr; the build still finishes, so one bad diagram never costs you the rest of the site. Messages carry the real file, line and column of the .md — not an offset into the fence.

Options

| Option | Default | What it does | |---|---|---| | bundledCss | true | Ship the styling with the figures. false to provide it yourself. |

The language

Six lines — a type define, a container, and two links Lini routes for you:

```lini
{ |svc::box| { fill: --teal-wash; stroke: --teal-ink } }

|group| "Services" [ |svc#api| "API"; |svc#auth| "Auth" ]
|svc#db| "Postgres"

api  -> db "read"
auth -> db "write"
```

The rest of the grammar is the tour.

Licence

MIT.