vite-plugin-ember

A Vite plugin that lets you render live, interactive Ember components inside VitePress documentation pages.

Write .gjs / .gts code fences in markdown and see them rendered on the page — no full Ember app required.

View the live documentation →

Features

• Inline code fences — use ```gjs live in markdown for instant interactive previews
• Preview mode — add preview to show a collapsible source code panel alongside the rendered component
• Full Ember support — class components, @tracked state, {{on}} modifier, and TypeScript via .gts
• Zero-config compilation — content-tag preprocessing, Babel template compilation, decorator transforms, and @ember/* / @glimmer/* module resolution handled automatically
• @embroider/macros shim — runtime stubs so ember-source ESM imports just work
• Vue wrapper — ships a <CodePreview> component for seamless VitePress integration

Quick Start

1. Install

Install the plugin along with Ember packages your components need:

pnpm add vite-plugin-ember ember-source @glimmer/component

Note: ember-source and @glimmer/component are peer dependencies — you manage their versions in your project.

2. Configure VitePress

// .vitepress/config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'vitepress';
import vitePluginEmber, { emberFence } from 'vite-plugin-ember';

export default defineConfig({
  vite: {
    plugins: [vitePluginEmber()],
  },
  markdown: {
    config(md) {
      emberFence(md);
    },
  },
});

3. Register the component

// .vitepress/theme/index.ts
import DefaultTheme from 'vitepress/theme';
import { setupEmber } from 'vite-plugin-ember/setup';
import type { Theme } from 'vitepress';

export default {
  ...DefaultTheme,
  enhanceApp({ app }) {
    setupEmber(app);
  },
} satisfies Theme;

4. Write a live demo

In any markdown file:

```gjs live
import Component from '@glimmer/component';
import { tracked } from '@glimmer/tracking';
import { on } from '@ember/modifier';

export default class Counter extends Component {
  @tracked count = 0;

  increment = () => { this.count += 1; };

  <template>
    <button {{on "click" this.increment}}>
      Clicked {{this.count}} times
    </button>
  </template>
}
```

Start the dev server with pnpm dev and see it live.

Documentation

Full docs (built with this plugin!) are in the docs/ directory. Run locally:

pnpm install
pnpm dev

Project Structure

├── vite-plugin-ember/   # The Vite plugin (publishable package)
│   └── src/
│       ├── index.ts               # Plugin + Ember compilation pipeline
│       └── vitepress/
│           ├── ember-fence.ts     # markdown-it plugin for ```gjs live fences
│           ├── code-preview.vue   # Vue wrapper component
│           ├── setup.ts           # One-call theme setup helper
│           ├── create-owner.ts    # Minimal Ember owner factory
│           └── constants.ts       # Shared injection keys
├── docs/                # VitePress documentation site
│   ├── demos/           # .gjs/.gts demo components
│   └── guide/           # Documentation pages
├── package.json         # Workspace root
└── pnpm-workspace.yaml

Limitations

Components are rendered standalone via @ember/renderer. By default there is no Ember application container, which means:

• @service injection requires calling setupEmber with a services option (see below)
• Initializers and instance-initializers are not executed
• Routing (LinkTo, RouterService) is not available

Components that rely only on @tracked state, @action, modifiers, and helpers work out of the box.

Enabling service injection

To support @service in your demos, pass a services map to setupEmber:

// .vitepress/theme/index.ts
import DefaultTheme from 'vitepress/theme';
import { setupEmber } from 'vite-plugin-ember/setup';
import type { Theme } from 'vitepress';
import GreetingService from '../demos/greeting-service';

export default {
  ...DefaultTheme,
  enhanceApp({ app }) {
    setupEmber(app, {
      services: {
        greeting: new GreetingService(),
      },
    });
  },
} satisfies Theme;

All <CodePreview> instances (including those from ```gjs live fences) will then use the @service decorator for dependency injection.

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 20
• pnpm ≥ 10

License

MIT