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remark plugin to support frontmatter (YAML, TOML, and more).

Contents

What is this?

This package is a unified (remark) plugin to add support for YAML, TOML, and other frontmatter.

Frontmatter is a metadata format in front of the content. It’s typically written in YAML and is often used with markdown.

This plugin follow how GitHub handles frontmatter. GitHub only supports YAML frontmatter, but this plugin also supports different flavors (such as TOML).

When should I use this?

You can use frontmatter when you want authors, that have some markup experience, to configure where or how the content is displayed or supply metadata about content, and know that the markdown is only used in places that support frontmatter. A good example use case is markdown being rendered by (static) site generators.

If you just want to turn markdown into HTML (with maybe a few extensions such as frontmatter), we recommend micromark with micromark-extension-frontmatter instead. If you don’t use plugins and want to access the syntax tree, you can use mdast-util-from-markdown with mdast-util-frontmatter.

Install

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 16+), install with npm:

npm install remark-frontmatter

In Deno with esm.sh:

import remarkFrontmatter from 'https://esm.sh/remark-frontmatter@5'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import remarkFrontmatter from 'https://esm.sh/remark-frontmatter@5?bundle'
</script>

Use

Say our document example.md contains:

+++
layout = "solar-system"
+++

# Jupiter

…and our module example.js contains:

import remarkFrontmatter from 'remark-frontmatter'
import remarkParse from 'remark-parse'
import remarkStringify from 'remark-stringify'
import {unified} from 'unified'
import {read} from 'to-vfile'

const file = await unified()
  .use(remarkParse)
  .use(remarkStringify)
  .use(remarkFrontmatter, ['yaml', 'toml'])
  .use(function () {
    return function (tree) {
      console.dir(tree)
    }
  })
  .process(await read('example.md'))

console.log(String(file))

…then running node example.js yields:

{
  type: 'root',
  children: [
    {type: 'toml', value: 'layout = "solar-system"', position: [Object]},
    {type: 'heading', depth: 1, children: [Array], position: [Object]}
  ],
  position: {
    start: {line: 1, column: 1, offset: 0},
    end: {line: 6, column: 1, offset: 43}
  }
}

+++
layout = "solar-system"
+++

# Jupiter

API

This package exports no identifiers. The default export is remarkFrontmatter.

unified().use(remarkFrontmatter[, options])

Add support for frontmatter.

Parameters
Returns

Nothing (undefined).

Notes

Doesn’t parse the data inside them: create your own plugin to do that.

Options

Configuration (TypeScript type).

Type
type Options = Array<Matter | Preset> | Matter | Preset

/**
 * Sequence.
 *
 * Depending on how this structure is used, it reflects a marker or a fence.
 */
export type Info = {
  /**
   * Closing.
   */
  close: string
  /**
   * Opening.
   */
  open: string
}

/**
 * Fence configuration.
 */
type FenceProps = {
  /**
   * Complete fences.
   *
   * This can be used when fences contain different characters or lengths
   * other than 3.
   * Pass `open` and `close` to interface to specify different characters for opening and
   * closing fences.
   */
  fence: Info | string
  /**
   * If `fence` is set, `marker` must not be set.
   */
  marker?: never
}

/**
 * Marker configuration.
 */
type MarkerProps = {
  /**
   * Character repeated 3 times, used as complete fences.
   *
   * For example the character `'-'` will result in `'---'` being used as the
   * fence
   * Pass `open` and `close` to specify different characters for opening and
   * closing fences.
   */
  marker: Info | string
  /**
   * If `marker` is set, `fence` must not be set.
   */
  fence?: never
}

/**
 * Fields describing a kind of matter.
 *
 * > 👉 **Note**: using `anywhere` is a terrible idea.
 * > It’s called frontmatter, not matter-in-the-middle or so.
 * > This makes your markdown less portable.
 *
 * > 👉 **Note**: `marker` and `fence` are mutually exclusive.
 * > If `marker` is set, `fence` must not be set, and vice versa.
 */
type Matter = (MatterProps & FenceProps) | (MatterProps & MarkerProps)

/**
 * Fields describing a kind of matter.
 */
type MatterProps = {
  /**
   * Node type to tokenize as.
   */
  type: string
  /**
   * Whether matter can be found anywhere in the document, normally, only matter
   * at the start of the document is recognized.
   *
   * > 👉 **Note**: using this is a terrible idea.
   * > It’s called frontmatter, not matter-in-the-middle or so.
   * > This makes your markdown less portable.
   */
  anywhere?: boolean | null | undefined
}

/**
 * Known name of a frontmatter style.
 */
type Preset = 'toml' | 'yaml'

Examples

Example: different markers and fences

Here are a couple of example of different matter objects and what frontmatter they match.

To match frontmatter with the same opening and closing fence, namely three of the same markers, use for example {type: 'yaml', marker: '-'}, which matches:

---
key: value
---

To match frontmatter with different opening and closing fences, which each use three different markers, use for example {type: 'custom', marker: {open: '<', close: '>'}}, which matches:

<<<
data
>>>

To match frontmatter with the same opening and closing fences, which both use the same custom string, use for example {type: 'custom', fence: '+=+=+=+'}, which matches:

+=+=+=+
data
+=+=+=+

To match frontmatter with different opening and closing fences, which each use different custom strings, use for example {type: 'json', fence: {open: '{', close: '}'}}, which matches:

{
  "key": "value"
}

Example: frontmatter as metadata

This plugin handles the syntax of frontmatter in markdown. It does not parse that frontmatter as say YAML or TOML and expose it somewhere.

In unified, there is a place for metadata about files: file.data. For frontmatter specifically, it’s customary to expose parsed data at file.data.matter.

We can make a plugin that does this. This example uses the utility vfile-matter, which is specific to YAML. To support other data languages, look at this utility for inspiration.

my-unified-plugin-handling-yaml-matter.js:

/**
 * @typedef {import('unist').Node} Node
 * @typedef {import('vfile').VFile} VFile
 */

import {matter} from 'vfile-matter'

/**
 * Parse YAML frontmatter and expose it at `file.data.matter`.
 *
 * @returns
 *   Transform.
 */
export default function myUnifiedPluginHandlingYamlMatter() {
  /**
   * Transform.
   *
   * @param {Node} tree
   *   Tree.
   * @param {VFile} file
   *   File.
   * @returns {undefined}
   *   Nothing.
   */
  return function (tree, file) {
    matter(file)
  }
}

…with an example markdown file example.md:

---
key: value
---

# Venus

…and using the plugin with an example.js containing:

import remarkParse from 'remark-parse'
import remarkFrontmatter from 'remark-frontmatter'
import remarkStringify from 'remark-stringify'
import {read} from 'to-vfile'
import {unified} from 'unified'
import myUnifiedPluginHandlingYamlMatter from './my-unified-plugin-handling-yaml-matter.js'

const file = await unified()
  .use(remarkParse)
  .use(remarkStringify)
  .use(remarkFrontmatter)
  .use(myUnifiedPluginHandlingYamlMatter)
  .process(await read('example.md'))

console.log(file.data.matter) // => {key: 'value'}

Example: frontmatter in MDX

MDX has the ability to export data from it, where markdown does not. When authoring MDX, you can write export statements and expose arbitrary data through them. It is also possible to write frontmatter, and let a plugin turn those into export statements.

To automatically turn frontmatter into export statements, use remark-mdx-frontmatter.

With an example.mdx as follows:

---
key: value
---

# Mars

This plugin can be used as follows:

import {compile} from '@mdx-js/mdx'
import remarkFrontmatter from 'remark-frontmatter'
import remarkMdxFrontmatter from 'remark-mdx-frontmatter'
import {read, write} from 'to-vfile'

const file = await compile(await read('example.mdx'), {
  remarkPlugins: [remarkFrontmatter, [remarkMdxFrontmatter, {name: 'matter'}]]
})
file.path = 'output.js'
await write(file)

const mod = await import('./output.js')
console.log(mod.matter) // => {key: 'value'}

Authoring

When authoring markdown with frontmatter, it’s recommended to use YAML frontmatter if possible. While YAML has some warts, it works in the most places, so using it guarantees the highest chance of portability.

In certain ecosystems, other flavors are widely used. For example, in the Rust ecosystem, TOML is often used. In such cases, using TOML is an okay choice.

When possible, do not use other types of frontmatter, and do not allow frontmatter anywhere.

HTML

Frontmatter does not relate to HTML elements. It is typically stripped, which is what remark-rehype does.

CSS

This package does not relate to CSS.

Syntax

See Syntax in micromark-extension-frontmatter.

Syntax tree

See Syntax tree in mdast-util-frontmatter.

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports the additional type Options.

The YAML node type is supported in @types/mdast by default. To add other node types, register them by adding them to FrontmatterContentMap:

import type {Data, Literal} from 'mdast'

interface Toml extends Literal {
  type: 'toml'
  data?: Data
}

declare module 'mdast' {
  interface FrontmatterContentMap {
    // Allow using TOML nodes defined by `remark-frontmatter`.
    toml: Toml
  }
}

Compatibility

Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with maintained versions of Node.js.

When we cut a new major release, we drop support for unmaintained versions of Node. This means we try to keep the current release line, remark-frontmatter@^5, compatible with Node.js 16.

This plugin works with unified 6+ and remark 13+.

Security

Use of remark-frontmatter does not involve rehype (hast) or user content so there are no openings for cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

Related

Contribute

See contributing.md in remarkjs/.github for ways to get started. See support.md for ways to get help.

This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.

License

MIT © Titus Wormer

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