lowlight

Virtual syntax highlighting for virtual DOMs and non-HTML things based on highlight.js.

What is this?

This package uses highlight.js for syntax highlighting and outputs objects (ASTs) instead of a string of HTML. It can support 190+ programming languages.

When should I use this?

This package is useful when you want to perform syntax highlighting in a place where serialized HTML wouldn’t work or wouldn’t work well. For example, you can use lowlight when you want to show code in a CLI by rendering to ANSI sequences, when you’re using virtual DOM frameworks (such as React or Preact) so that diffing can be performant, or when you’re working with ASTs (rehype).

You can use the similar refractor if you want to use Prism grammars instead. If you’re looking for a really good (but rather heavy) alternative, use starry-night.

Install

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

npm install lowlight

In Deno with esm.sh:

import {all, common, createLowlight} from 'https://esm.sh/lowlight@3'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import {all, common, createLowlight} from 'https://esm.sh/lowlight@3?bundle'
</script>

Use

import {common, createLowlight} from 'lowlight'

const lowlight = createLowlight(common)

const tree = lowlight.highlight('js', '"use strict";')

console.dir(tree, {depth: undefined})

Yields:

{
  type: 'root',
  children: [
    {
      type: 'element',
      tagName: 'span',
      properties: {className: ['hljs-meta']},
      children: [{type: 'text', value: '"use strict"'}]
    },
    {type: 'text', value: ';'}
  ],
  data: {language: 'js', relevance: 10}
}

API

This package exports the identifiers all, common, and createLowlight. There is no default export.

`all`

Map of all (±190) grammars (Record<string, LanguageFn>).

`common`

Map of common (37) grammars (Record<string, LanguageFn>).

`createLowlight([grammars])`

Create a lowlight instance.

Parameters

grammars (Record<string, LanguageFn>, optional) — grammars to add

Returns

Lowlight (Lowlight).

`lowlight.highlight(language, value[, options])`

Highlight value (code) as language (name).

Parameters

language (string) — programming language name
value (string) — code to highlight
options (Options, optional) — configuration

Returns

Tree (Root); with the following data fields: language (string), detected programming language name; relevance (number), how sure lowlight is that the given code is in the language.

Example

import {common, createLowlight} from 'lowlight'

const lowlight = createLowlight(common)

console.log(lowlight.highlight('css', 'em { color: red }'))

Yields:

{type: 'root', children: [Array], data: {language: 'css', relevance: 3}}

`lowlight.highlightAuto(value[, options])`

Highlight value (code) and guess its programming language.

Parameters

value (string) — code to highlight
options (AutoOptions, optional) — configuration

Returns

Tree (Root); with the following data fields: language (string), detected programming language name; relevance (number), how sure lowlight is that the given code is in the language.

Example

import {common, createLowlight} from 'lowlight'

const lowlight = createLowlight(common)

console.log(lowlight.highlightAuto('"hello, " + name + "!"'))

Yields:

{type: 'root', children: [Array], data: {language: 'arduino', relevance: 2}}

`lowlight.listLanguages()`

List registered languages.

Returns

Names of registered language (Array<string>).

Example

import {createLowlight} from 'lowlight'
import markdown from 'highlight.js/lib/languages/markdown'

const lowlight = createLowlight()

console.log(lowlight.listLanguages()) // => []

lowlight.register({markdown})

console.log(lowlight.listLanguages()) // => ['markdown']

`lowlight.register(grammars)`

Register languages.

Signatures

register(name, grammar)
register(grammars)

Parameters

name (string) — programming language name
grammar (LanguageFn) — grammar
grammars (Record<string, LanguageFn>, optional) — grammars

Returns

Nothing (undefined).

Example

import {createLowlight} from 'lowlight'
import xml from 'highlight.js/lib/languages/xml'

const lowlight = createLowlight()

lowlight.register({xml})

// Note: `html` is an alias for `xml`.
console.log(lowlight.highlight('html', '<em>Emphasis</em>'))

Yields:

{type: 'root', children: [Array], data: {language: 'html', relevance: 2}}

`lowlight.registerAlias(aliases)`

Register aliases.

Signatures

registerAlias(aliases)
registerAlias(name, alias)

Parameters

aliases (Record<string, Array<string> | string>) — map of programming language names to one or more aliases
name (string) — programming language name
alias (Array<string> | string) — one or more aliases for the programming language

Returns

Nothing (undefined).

Example

import {createLowlight} from 'lowlight'
import markdown from 'highlight.js/lib/languages/markdown'

const lowlight = createLowlight()

lowlight.register({markdown})

// lowlight.highlight('mdown', '<em>Emphasis</em>')
// ^ would throw: Error: Unknown language: `mdown` is not registered

lowlight.registerAlias({markdown: ['mdown', 'mkdn', 'mdwn', 'ron']})
lowlight.highlight('mdown', '<em>Emphasis</em>')
// ^ Works!

`lowlight.registered(aliasOrlanguage)`

Check whether an alias or name is registered.

Parameters

aliasOrlanguage (string) — name of a language or alias for one

Returns

Whether aliasOrName is registered (boolean).

Example

import {createLowlight} from 'lowlight'
import javascript from 'highlight.js/lib/languages/javascript'

const lowlight = createLowlight({javascript})

console.log(lowlight.registered('funkyscript')) // => `false`

lowlight.registerAlias({javascript: 'funkyscript'})
console.log(lowlight.registered('funkyscript')) // => `true`

`AutoOptions`

Configuration for highlightAuto (TypeScript type).

Fields

prefix (string, default: 'hljs-') — class prefix
subset (Array<string>, default: all registered languages) — list of allowed languages

`LanguageFn`

Highlight.js grammar (TypeScript type).

Type

type {LanguageFn} from 'highlight.js'

`Options`

Configuration for highlight (TypeScript type).

Fields

prefix (string, default: 'hljs-') — class prefix

Examples

Example: serializing hast as html

hast trees as returned by lowlight can be serialized with hast-util-to-html:

import {common, createLowlight} from 'lowlight'
import {toHtml} from 'hast-util-to-html'

const lowlight = createLowlight(common)

const tree = lowlight.highlight('js', '"use strict";')

console.log(toHtml(tree))

Yields:

<span class="hljs-meta">"use strict"</span>;

Example: turning hast into preact, react, etc

hast trees as returned by lowlight can be turned into nodes of any framework that supports JSX, such as preact, react, solid, svelte, vue, and more, with hast-util-to-jsx-runtime:

import {toJsxRuntime} from 'hast-util-to-jsx-runtime'
// @ts-expect-error: react types don’t type these.
import {Fragment, jsx, jsxs} from 'react/jsx-runtime'
import {common, createLowlight} from 'lowlight'

const lowlight = createLowlight(common)

const tree = lowlight.highlight('js', '"use strict";')

console.log(toJsxRuntime(tree, {Fragment, jsx, jsxs}))

Yields:

{
  $$typeof: Symbol(react.element),
  type: Symbol(react.fragment),
  key: null,
  ref: null,
  props: {children: [[Object], ';']},
  _owner: null,
  _store: {}
}

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports the additional types AutoOptions, LanguageFn, and Options.

It also registers root.data with @types/hast. If you’re working with the data fields, make sure to import this package somewhere in your types, as that registers the new fields on the file.

/**
 * @import {Root} from 'hast'
 * @import {} from 'lowlight'
 */

import {VFile} from 'vfile'

/** @type {Root} */
const root = {type: 'root', children: []}

console.log(root.data?.language) //=> TS now knows that this is a `string?`.

Data

If you’re using createLowlight(), no syntaxes are included yet. You can import all or common and pass them, such as with createLowlight(all). Checked syntaxes are included in common. All syntaxes are included in all.

You can also manually import syntaxes from highlight.js/lib/languages/xxx, where xxx is the name, such as 'highlight.js/lib/languages/wasm'.

1c — 1C:Enterprise
abnf — Augmented Backus-Naur Form
accesslog — Apache Access Log
actionscript (as) — ActionScript
ada — Ada
angelscript (asc) — AngelScript
apache (apacheconf) — Apache config
applescript (osascript) — AppleScript
arcade — ArcGIS Arcade
arduino (ino) — Arduino
armasm (arm) — ARM Assembly
asciidoc (adoc) — AsciiDoc
aspectj — AspectJ
autohotkey (ahk) — AutoHotkey
autoit — AutoIt
avrasm — AVR Assembly
awk — Awk
axapta (x++) — X++
bash (sh, zsh) — Bash
basic — BASIC
bnf — Backus–Naur Form
brainfuck (bf) — Brainfuck
c (h) — C
cal — C/AL
capnproto (capnp) — Cap’n Proto
ceylon — Ceylon
clean (icl, dcl) — Clean
clojure (clj, edn) — Clojure
clojure-repl — Clojure REPL
cmake (cmake.in) — CMake
coffeescript (coffee, cson, iced) — CoffeeScript
coq — Coq
cos (cls) — Caché Object Script
cpp (cc, c++, h++, hpp, hh, hxx, cxx) — C++
crmsh (crm, pcmk) — crmsh
crystal (cr) — Crystal
csharp (cs, c#) — C#
csp — CSP
css — CSS
d — D
dart — Dart
delphi (dpr, dfm, pas, pascal) — Delphi
diff (patch) — Diff
django (jinja) — Django
dns (bind, zone) — DNS Zone
dockerfile (docker) — Dockerfile
dos (bat, cmd) — Batch file (DOS)
dsconfig — undefined
dts — Device Tree
dust (dst) — Dust
ebnf — Extended Backus-Naur Form
elixir (ex, exs) — Elixir
elm — Elm
erb — ERB
erlang (erl) — Erlang
erlang-repl — Erlang REPL
excel (xlsx, xls) — Excel formulae
fix — FIX
flix — Flix
fortran (f90, f95) — Fortran
fsharp (fs, f#) — F#
gams (gms) — GAMS
gauss (gss) — GAUSS
gcode (nc) — G-code (ISO 6983)
gherkin (feature) — Gherkin
glsl — GLSL
gml — GML
go (golang) — Go
golo — Golo
gradle — Gradle
graphql (gql) — GraphQL
groovy — Groovy
haml — HAML
handlebars (hbs, html.hbs, html.handlebars, htmlbars) — Handlebars
haskell (hs) — Haskell
haxe (hx) — Haxe
hsp — HSP
http (https) — HTTP
hy (hylang) — Hy
inform7 (i7) — Inform 7
ini (toml) — TOML, also INI
irpf90 — IRPF90
isbl — ISBL
java (jsp) — Java
javascript (js, jsx, mjs, cjs) — JavaScript
jboss-cli (wildfly-cli) — JBoss CLI
json (jsonc) — JSON
julia — Julia
julia-repl (jldoctest) — Julia REPL
kotlin (kt, kts) — Kotlin
lasso (ls, lassoscript) — Lasso
latex (tex) — LaTeX
ldif — LDIF
leaf — Leaf
less — Less
lisp — Lisp
livecodeserver — LiveCode
livescript (ls) — LiveScript
llvm — LLVM IR
lsl — LSL (Linden Scripting Language)
lua — Lua
makefile (mk, mak, make) — Makefile
markdown (md, mkdown, mkd) — Markdown
mathematica (mma, wl) — Mathematica
matlab — Matlab
maxima — Maxima
mel — MEL
mercury (m, moo) — Mercury
mipsasm (mips) — MIPS Assembly
mizar — Mizar
mojolicious — Mojolicious
monkey — Monkey
moonscript (moon) — MoonScript
n1ql — N1QL
nestedtext (nt) — Nested Text
nginx (nginxconf) — Nginx config
nim — Nim
nix (nixos) — Nix
node-repl — Node REPL
nsis — NSIS
objectivec (mm, objc, obj-c, obj-c++, objective-c++) — Objective-C
ocaml (ml) — OCaml
openscad (scad) — OpenSCAD
oxygene — Oxygene
parser3 — Parser3
perl (pl, pm) — Perl
pf (pf.conf) — Packet Filter config
pgsql (postgres, postgresql) — PostgreSQL
php — undefined
php-template — PHP template
plaintext (text, txt) — Plain text
pony — Pony
powershell (pwsh, ps, ps1) — PowerShell
processing (pde) — Processing
profile — Python profiler
prolog — Prolog
properties — .properties
protobuf (proto) — Protocol Buffers
puppet (pp) — Puppet
purebasic (pb, pbi) — PureBASIC
python (py, gyp, ipython) — Python
python-repl (pycon) — undefined
q (k, kdb) — Q
qml (qt) — QML
r — R
reasonml (re) — ReasonML
rib — RenderMan RIB
roboconf (graph, instances) — Roboconf
routeros (mikrotik) — MikroTik RouterOS script
rsl — RenderMan RSL
ruby (rb, gemspec, podspec, thor, irb) — Ruby
ruleslanguage — Oracle Rules Language
rust (rs) — Rust
sas — SAS
scala — Scala
scheme (scm) — Scheme
scilab (sci) — Scilab
scss — SCSS
shell (console, shellsession) — Shell Session
smali — Smali
smalltalk (st) — Smalltalk
sml (ml) — SML (Standard ML)
sqf — SQF
sql — SQL
stan (stanfuncs) — Stan
stata (do, ado) — Stata
step21 (p21, step, stp) — STEP Part 21
stylus (styl) — Stylus
subunit — SubUnit
swift — Swift
taggerscript — Tagger Script
tap — Test Anything Protocol
tcl (tk) — Tcl
thrift — Thrift
tp — TP
twig (craftcms) — Twig
typescript (ts, tsx, mts, cts) — TypeScript
vala — Vala
vbnet (vb) — Visual Basic .NET
vbscript (vbs) — VBScript
vbscript-html — VBScript in HTML
verilog (v, sv, svh) — Verilog
vhdl — VHDL
vim — Vim Script
wasm — WebAssembly
wren — Wren
x86asm — Intel x86 Assembly
xl (tao) — XL
xml (html, xhtml, rss, atom, xjb, xsd, xsl, plist, wsf, svg) — HTML, XML
xquery (xpath, xq, xqm) — XQuery
yaml (yml) — YAML
zephir (zep) — Zephir

CSS

lowlight does not inject CSS for the syntax highlighted code (because well, lowlight doesn’t have to be turned into HTML and might not run in a browser!). If you are in a browser, you can use any highlight.js theme. For example, to get GitHub Dark from cdnjs:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/highlight.js/11.10.0/styles/github-dark.min.css">

Compatibility

This package is 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, lowlight@^3, compatible with Node.js 16.

Security

This package is safe.

Projects

emphasize — syntax highlighting in ANSI (for the terminal)
react-lowlight — syntax highlighter for React
react-syntax-highlighter — React component for syntax highlighting
rehype-highlight — rehype plugin to highlight code blocks
jstransformer-lowlight — syntax highlighting for JSTransformers and Pug

Contribute

Yes please! See How to Contribute to Open Source.

Files

readme.md

Latest commit

History

readme.md

File metadata and controls

lowlight

Contents

What is this?

When should I use this?

Install

Use

API

all

common

createLowlight([grammars])

Parameters

Returns

lowlight.highlight(language, value[, options])

Parameters

Returns

Example

lowlight.highlightAuto(value[, options])

Parameters

Returns

Example

lowlight.listLanguages()

Returns

Example

lowlight.register(grammars)

Signatures

Parameters

Returns

Example

lowlight.registerAlias(aliases)

Signatures

Parameters

Returns

Example

lowlight.registered(aliasOrlanguage)

Parameters

Returns

Example

AutoOptions

Fields

LanguageFn

Type

Options

Fields

Examples

Example: serializing hast as html

Example: turning hast into preact, react, etc

Types

Data

CSS

Compatibility

Security

Related

Projects

Contribute

License

`all`

`common`

`createLowlight([grammars])`

`lowlight.highlight(language, value[, options])`

`lowlight.highlightAuto(value[, options])`

`lowlight.listLanguages()`

`lowlight.register(grammars)`

`lowlight.registerAlias(aliases)`

`lowlight.registered(aliasOrlanguage)`

`AutoOptions`

`LanguageFn`

`Options`