markdown-toc
API and CLI for generating a markdown TOC (table of contents) for a README or any markdown files. Uses Remarkable to parse markdown. Used by NASA/openmct, Prisma, Joi, Mocha, Sass, Prettier, Orbit DB, FormatJS, Raneto, hapijs/code, webpack-flow, docusaurus, release-it, ts-loader, json-server, reactfire, bunyan, husky, react-easy-state, react-snap, chakra-ui, carbon, alfresco, repolinter, Assemble, Verb, and thousands of other projects.
Top Related Projects
Easy TOC creation for GitHub README.md
π Generates table of contents for markdown files inside local git repository. Links are compatible with anchors generated by github or other sites.
Quick Overview
markdown-toc is a Node.js library that generates a table of contents (TOC) for markdown files. It offers customizable options for formatting and depth control, making it useful for developers and writers who want to automatically create and maintain TOCs in their markdown documents.
Pros
- Easy to use with a simple API
- Highly customizable with various options for formatting and depth control
- Can be used as a CLI tool or integrated into Node.js projects
- Supports updating existing TOCs in files
Cons
- Limited to markdown files only
- May require manual adjustments for complex document structures
- Doesn't support all markdown flavors or extensions
- Requires Node.js environment to run
Code Examples
- Generate a TOC for a markdown string:
const toc = require('markdown-toc');
const markdown = '# Heading 1\n## Heading 2\n### Heading 3';
const result = toc(markdown).content;
console.log(result);
- Generate a TOC with custom options:
const toc = require('markdown-toc');
const markdown = '# Heading 1\n## Heading 2\n### Heading 3';
const options = {
maxdepth: 2,
bullets: ['*', '-']
};
const result = toc(markdown, options).content;
console.log(result);
- Update an existing TOC in a file:
const toc = require('markdown-toc');
const fs = require('fs');
const content = fs.readFileSync('README.md', 'utf8');
const updated = toc.insert(content);
fs.writeFileSync('README.md', updated);
Getting Started
To use markdown-toc in your project, follow these steps:
-
Install the package:
npm install markdown-toc
-
Import and use in your JavaScript file:
const toc = require('markdown-toc'); const markdown = '# Your Markdown Content'; const tableOfContents = toc(markdown).content; console.log(tableOfContents);
-
For CLI usage, install globally and run:
npm install -g markdown-toc markdown-toc README.md
Competitor Comparisons
Easy TOC creation for GitHub README.md
Pros of github-markdown-toc
- Works directly with GitHub URLs, allowing for remote TOC generation
- Supports multiple output formats (Markdown, HTML, JSON)
- Can generate TOCs for multiple files in a single command
Cons of github-markdown-toc
- Written in shell script, which may limit cross-platform compatibility
- Requires external dependencies (curl, grep, sed)
- Less customization options for TOC formatting
Code Comparison
markdown-toc:
const toc = require('markdown-toc');
const content = '# Heading\n## Subheading\n### Deep heading';
console.log(toc(content).content);
github-markdown-toc:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
gh-md-toc https://github.com/ekalinin/envirius/blob/master/README.md
The markdown-toc library is used as a Node.js module, allowing for easy integration into JavaScript projects. It processes Markdown content directly.
github-markdown-toc is a shell script that can be run from the command line, taking GitHub URLs as input and generating TOCs for remote files.
Both tools serve the purpose of generating tables of contents for Markdown files, but they differ in their implementation, usage, and features. The choice between them depends on the specific requirements of the project and the preferred development environment.
π Generates table of contents for markdown files inside local git repository. Links are compatible with anchors generated by github or other sites.
Pros of doctoc
- Supports multiple markup languages (Markdown, reStructuredText, AsciiDoc)
- Can generate ToC for multiple files in a directory
- Offers CLI options for customizing ToC placement and formatting
Cons of doctoc
- Less actively maintained (last update over 2 years ago)
- Fewer configuration options for ToC styling
- Limited integration with other tools or build processes
Code Comparison
markdown-toc:
const toc = require('markdown-toc');
const content = '# Heading\n## Subheading\n### Deep heading';
console.log(toc(content).content);
doctoc:
const doctoc = require('doctoc');
const content = '# Heading\n## Subheading\n### Deep heading';
doctoc.transform(content, (err, transformed) => {
console.log(transformed);
});
Both libraries provide similar functionality for generating tables of contents, but their usage and implementation differ slightly. markdown-toc offers a more straightforward API, while doctoc provides additional features for working with multiple files and markup languages. The choice between the two depends on specific project requirements and preferences for maintenance activity and configuration options.
Convert designs to code with AI
Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.
Try Visual CopilotREADME
markdown-toc
Generate a markdown TOC (table of contents) with Remarkable.
Please consider following this project's author, Jon Schlinkert, and consider starring the project to show your :heart: and support.
(TOC generated by verb using markdown-toc)
Install
Install with npm:
$ npm install --save markdown-toc
Sponsors
Thanks to the following companies, organizations, and individuals for supporting the ongoing maintenance and development of markdown-toc! Become a Sponsor to add your logo to this README, or any of my other projects
Gold Sponsors
https://jaake.tech/ |
Quick Start
Assuming you want to add a TOC to README.md:
$ npm install -g markdown-toc
- Edit README.md and insert the following line where you want the TOC inserted:
<!-- toc -->
$ markdown-toc -i README.md
CLI
Usage: markdown-toc [options] <input>
input: The Markdown file to parse for table of contents,
or "-" to read from stdin.
-i: Edit the <input> file directly, injecting the TOC at - [Highlights](#highlights)
- [Usage](#usage)
- [API](#api)
* [toc.plugin](#tocplugin)
* [toc.json](#tocjson)
* [toc.insert](#tocinsert)
* [Utility functions](#utility-functions)
- [Options](#options)
* [options.append](#optionsappend)
* [options.filter](#optionsfilter)
* [options.slugify](#optionsslugify)
* [options.bullets](#optionsbullets)
* [options.maxdepth](#optionsmaxdepth)
* [options.firsth1](#optionsfirsth1)
* [options.stripHeadingTags](#optionsstripheadingtags)
- [About](#about)
_(TOC generated by [verb](https://github.com/verbose/verb) using [markdown-toc](https://github.com/jonschlinkert/markdown-toc))_;
(Without this flag, the default is to print the TOC to stdout.)
--json: Print the TOC in JSON format
--append: Append a string to the end of the TOC
--bullets: Bullets to use for items in the generated TOC
(Supports multiple bullets: --bullets "*" --bullets "-" --bullets "+")
(Default is "*".)
--maxdepth: Use headings whose depth is at most maxdepth
(Default is 6.)
--no-firsth1: Include the first h1-level heading in a file
--no-stripHeadingTags: Do not strip extraneous HTML tags from heading
text before slugifying
--indent: Provide the indentation to use - defaults to ' '
(to specify a tab, use the bash-escaped $'\t')
Highlights
Features
- Can optionally be used as a remarkable plugin
- Returns an object with the rendered TOC (on
content
), as well as ajson
property with the raw TOC object, so you can generate your own TOC using templates or however you want - Works with repeated headings
- Uses sane defaults, so no customization is necessary, but you can if you need to.
- filter out headings you don't want
- Improve the headings you do want
- Use a custom slugify function to change how links are created
Safe!
- Won't mangle markdown in code examples in gfm code blocks that other TOC generators mistake as being actual headings (this happens when markdown headings are show in examples, meaning they arent' actually headings that should be in the toc. Also happens with yaml and coffee-script comments, or any comments that use
#
) - Won't mangle front-matter, or mistake front-matter properties for headings like other TOC generators
Usage
var toc = require('markdown-toc');
toc('# One\n\n# Two').content;
// Results in:
// - [One](#one)
// - [Two](#two)
To allow customization of the output, an object is returned with the following properties:
content
{String}: The generated table of contents. Unless you want to customize rendering, this is all you need.highest
{Number}: The highest level heading found. This is used to adjust indentation.tokens
{Array}: Headings tokens that can be used for custom rendering
API
toc.plugin
Use as a remarkable plugin.
var Remarkable = require('remarkable');
var toc = require('markdown-toc');
function render(str, options) {
return new Remarkable()
.use(toc.plugin(options)) // <= register the plugin
.render(str);
}
Usage example
var results = render('# AAA\n# BBB\n# CCC\nfoo\nbar\nbaz');
Results in:
- [AAA](#aaa)
- [BBB](#bbb)
- [CCC](#ccc)
toc.json
Object for creating a custom TOC.
toc('# AAA\n## BBB\n### CCC\nfoo').json;
// results in
[ { content: 'AAA', slug: 'aaa', lvl: 1 },
{ content: 'BBB', slug: 'bbb', lvl: 2 },
{ content: 'CCC', slug: 'ccc', lvl: 3 } ]
toc.insert
Insert a table of contents immediately after an opening <!-- toc -->
code comment, or replace an existing TOC if both an opening comment and a closing comment (<!-- tocstop -->
) are found.
(This strategy works well since code comments in markdown are hidden when viewed as HTML, like when viewing a README on GitHub README for example).
Example
<!-- toc -->
- old toc 1
- old toc 2
- old toc 3
<!-- tocstop -->
## abc
This is a b c.
## xyz
This is x y z.
Would result in something like:
<!-- toc -->
- [abc](#abc)
- [xyz](#xyz)
<!-- tocstop -->
## abc
This is a b c.
## xyz
This is x y z.
Utility functions
As a convenience to folks who wants to create a custom TOC, markdown-toc's internal utility methods are exposed:
var toc = require('markdown-toc');
toc.bullets()
: render a bullet list from an array of tokenstoc.linkify()
: linking a headingcontent
stringtoc.slugify()
: slugify a headingcontent
stringtoc.strip()
: strip words or characters from a headingcontent
string
Example
var result = toc('# AAA\n## BBB\n### CCC\nfoo');
var str = '';
result.json.forEach(function(heading) {
str += toc.linkify(heading.content);
});
Options
options.append
Append a string to the end of the TOC.
toc(str, {append: '\n_(TOC generated by Verb)_'});
options.filter
Type: Function
Default: undefined
Params:
str
{String} the actual heading stringele
{Objecct} object of heading tokensarr
{Array} all of the headings objects
Example
From time to time, we might get junk like this in our TOC.
[.aaa([foo], ...) another bad heading](#-aaa--foo--------another-bad-heading)
Unless you like that kind of thing, you might want to filter these bad headings out.
function removeJunk(str, ele, arr) {
return str.indexOf('...') === -1;
}
var result = toc(str, {filter: removeJunk});
//=> beautiful TOC
options.slugify
Type: Function
Default: Basic non-word character replacement.
Example
var str = toc('# Some Article', {slugify: require('uslug')});
options.bullets
Type: String|Array
Default: *
The bullet to use for each item in the generated TOC. If passed as an array (['*', '-', '+']
), the bullet point strings will be used based on the header depth.
options.maxdepth
Type: Number
Default: 6
Use headings whose depth is at most maxdepth.
options.firsth1
Type: Boolean
Default: true
Exclude the first h1-level heading in a file. For example, this prevents the first heading in a README from showing up in the TOC.
options.stripHeadingTags
Type: Boolean
Default: true
Strip extraneous HTML tags from heading text before slugifying. This is similar to GitHub markdown behavior.
About
Contributing
Pull requests and stars are always welcome. For bugs and feature requests, please create an issue.
Running Tests
Running and reviewing unit tests is a great way to get familiarized with a library and its API. You can install dependencies and run tests with the following command:
$ npm install && npm test
Building docs
(This project's readme.md is generated by verb, please don't edit the readme directly. Any changes to the readme must be made in the .verb.md readme template.)
To generate the readme, run the following command:
$ npm install -g verbose/verb#dev verb-generate-readme && verb
Related projects
You might also be interested in these projects:
- gfm-code-blocks: Extract gfm (GitHub Flavored Markdown) fenced code blocks from a string. | homepage
- markdown-link: Micro util for generating a single markdown link. | homepage
- markdown-utils: Tiny helpers for creating consistenly-formatted markdown snippets. | homepage
- pretty-remarkable: Plugin for prettifying markdown with Remarkable using custom renderer rules. | homepage
- remarkable: Markdown parser, done right. 100% Commonmark support, extensions, syntax plugins, high speed - all inΓ’ΒΒ¦ more | homepage
Contributors
Author
Jon Schlinkert
License
Copyright ΓΒ© 2023, Jon Schlinkert. Released under the MIT License.
This file was generated by verb-generate-readme, v0.8.0, on July 12, 2023.
Top Related Projects
Easy TOC creation for GitHub README.md
π Generates table of contents for markdown files inside local git repository. Links are compatible with anchors generated by github or other sites.
Convert designs to code with AI
Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.
Try Visual Copilot