Markdown Extensions

VitePress comes with built in Markdown Extensions.

Header Anchors

Headers automatically get anchor links applied. Rendering of anchors can be configured using the markdown.anchor option.

Links

Both internal and external links gets special treatments.

Internal Links

Internal links are converted to router link for SPA navigation. Also, every index.md contained in each sub-directory will automatically be converted to index.html, with corresponding URL /.

For example, given the following directory structure:

.
├─ index.md
├─ foo
│  ├─ index.md
│  ├─ one.md
│  └─ two.md
└─ bar
   ├─ index.md
   ├─ three.md
   └─ four.md

And providing you are in foo/one.md:

[Home](/) <!-- sends the user to the root index.md -->
[foo](/foo/) <!-- sends the user to index.html of directory foo -->
[foo heading](./#heading) <!-- anchors user to a heading in the foo index file -->
[bar - three](../bar/three) <!-- you can omit extension -->
[bar - three](../bar/three.md) <!-- you can append .md -->
[bar - four](../bar/four.html) <!-- or you can append .html -->

Page Suffix

Pages and internal links get generated with the .html suffix by default.

External Links

Outbound links automatically get target="_blank" rel="noreferrer":

Frontmatter

YAML frontmatter is supported out of the box:

yaml

---
title: Blogging Like a Hacker
lang: en-US
---

This data will be available to the rest of the page, along with all custom and theming components.

For more details, see Frontmatter.

GitHub-Style Tables

Input

| Tables        |      Are      |  Cool |
| ------------- | :-----------: | ----: |
| col 3 is      | right-aligned | $1600 |
| col 2 is      |   centered    |   $12 |
| zebra stripes |   are neat    |    $1 |

Output

Tables	Are	Cool
col 3 is	right-aligned	$1600
col 2 is	centered	$12
zebra stripes	are neat	$1

Emoji 🎉

Input

:tada: :100:

Output

🎉 💯

A list of all emojis is available.

Input

[[toc]]

Output

Rendering of the TOC can be configured using the markdown.toc option.

Custom Containers

Custom containers can be defined by their types, titles, and contents.

Default Title

Input

::: info
This is an info box.
:::

::: tip
This is a tip.
:::

::: warning
This is a warning.
:::

::: danger
This is a dangerous warning.
:::

::: details
This is a details block.
:::

Output

INFO

This is an info box.

TIP

This is a tip.

WARNING

This is a warning.

DANGER

This is a dangerous warning.

Details

This is a details block.

Custom Title

You may set custom title by appending the text right after the "type" of the container.

Input

::: danger STOP
Danger zone, do not proceed
:::

::: details Click me to view the code
```js
console.log('Hello, VitePress!')
```
:::

Output

STOP

Danger zone, do not proceed

Click me to view the code

console.log('Hello, VitePress!')

`raw`

This is a special container that can be used to prevent style and router conflicts with VitePress. This is especially useful when you're documenting component libraries. You might also wanna check out whyframe for better isolation.

Syntax

::: raw
Wraps in a <div class="vp-raw">
:::

vp-raw class can be directly used on elements too. Style isolation is currently opt-in:

Details

Install required deps with your preferred package manager:
sh
```
$ npm install -D postcss postcss-prefix-selector
```

Create a file named docs/.postcssrc.cjs and add this to it:

module.exports = {
  plugins: {
    'postcss-prefix-selector': {
      prefix: ':not(:where(.vp-raw *))',
      includeFiles: [/vp-doc\.css/],
      transform(prefix, _selector) {
        const [selector, pseudo = ''] = _selector.split(/(:\S*)$/)
        return selector + prefix + pseudo
      }
    }
  }
}

Syntax Highlighting in Code Blocks

VitePress uses Shiki to highlight language syntax in Markdown code blocks, using coloured text. Shiki supports a wide variety of programming languages. All you need to do is append a valid language alias to the beginning backticks for the code block:

Input

```js
export default {
  name: 'MyComponent',
  // ...
}
```

```html
<ul>
  <li v-for="todo in todos" :key="todo.id">
    {{ todo.text }}
  </li>
</ul>
```

Output

export default {
  name: 'MyComponent'
  // ...
}

html

<ul>
  <li v-for="todo in todos" :key="todo.id">
    {{ todo.text }}
  </li>
</ul>

A list of valid languages is available on Shiki's repository.

You may also customize syntax highlight theme in app config. Please see markdown options for more details.

Line Highlighting in Code Blocks

Input

```js{4}
export default {
  data () {
    return {
      msg: 'Highlighted!'
    }
  }
}
```

Output

export default {
  data () {
    return {
      msg: 'Highlighted!'
    }
  }
}

In addition to a single line, you can also specify multiple single lines, ranges, or both:

Line ranges: for example {5-8}, {3-10}, {10-17}
Multiple single lines: for example {4,7,9}
Line ranges and single lines: for example {4,7-13,16,23-27,40}

Input

```js{1,4,6-8}
export default { // Highlighted
  data () {
    return {
      msg: `Highlighted!
      This line isn't highlighted,
      but this and the next 2 are.`,
      motd: 'VitePress is awesome',
      lorem: 'ipsum'
    }
  }
}
```

Output

export default { // Highlighted
  data () {
    return {
      msg: `Highlighted!
      This line isn't highlighted,
      but this and the next 2 are.`,
      motd: 'VitePress is awesome',
      lorem: 'ipsum',
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, it's possible to highlight directly in the line by using the // [!code hl] comment.

Input

```js
export default {
  data () {
    return {
      msg: 'Highlighted!' // [!code  hl]
    }
  }
}
```

Output

export default {
  data() {
    return {
      msg: 'Highlighted!' 
    }
  }
}

Focus in Code Blocks

Adding the // [!code focus] comment on a line will focus it and blur the other parts of the code.

Additionally, you can define a number of lines to focus using // [!code focus:<lines>].

Input

Note that only one space is required after !code, here are two to prevent processing.

```js
export default {
  data () {
    return {
      msg: 'Focused!' // [!code  focus]
    }
  }
}
```

Output

export default {
  data() {
    return {
      msg: 'Focused!' 
    }
  }
}

Colored Diffs in Code Blocks

Adding the // [!code --] or // [!code ++] comments on a line will create a diff of that line, while keeping the colors of the codeblock.

Input

Note that only one space is required after !code, here are two to prevent processing.

```js
export default {
  data () {
    return {
      msg: 'Removed' // [!code  --]
      msg: 'Added' // [!code  ++]
    }
  }
}
```

Output

export default {
  data () {
    return {
      msg: 'Removed' 
      msg: 'Added' 
    }
  }
}

Errors and Warnings in Code Blocks

Adding the // [!code warning] or // [!code error] comments on a line will color it accordingly.

Input

Note that only one space is required after !code, here are two to prevent processing.

```js
export default {
  data () {
    return {
      msg: 'Error', // [!code  error]
      msg: 'Warning' // [!code  warning]
    }
  }
}
```

Output

export default {
  data() {
    return {
      msg: 'Error', 
      msg: 'Warning' 
    }
  }
}

Line Numbers

You can enable line numbers for each code blocks via config:

export default {
  markdown: {
    lineNumbers: true
  }
}

Please see markdown options for more details.

You can add :line-numbers / :no-line-numbers mark in your fenced code blocks to override the value set in config.

Input

```ts {1}
// line-numbers is disabled by default
const line2 = 'This is line 2'
const line3 = 'This is line 3'
```

```ts:line-numbers {1}
// line-numbers is enabled
const line2 = 'This is line 2'
const line3 = 'This is line 3'
```

Output

// line-numbers is disabled by default
const line2 = 'This is line 2'
const line3 = 'This is line 3'

// line-numbers is enabled
const line2 = 'This is line 2'
const line3 = 'This is line 3'

Import Code Snippets

You can import code snippets from existing files via following syntax:

<<< @/filepath

It also supports line highlighting:

<<< @/filepath{highlightLines}

Input

<<< @/snippets/snippet.js{2}

Code file

export default function () {
  // ..
}

Output

export default function () {
  // ..
}

TIP

The value of @ corresponds to the source root. By default it's the VitePress project root, unless srcDir is configured.

You can also use a VS Code region to only include the corresponding part of the code file. You can provide a custom region name after a # following the filepath:

Input

<<< @/snippets/snippet-with-region.js#snippet{1}

Code file

// #region snippet
function foo() {
  // ..
}
// #endregion snippet

export default foo

Output

function foo() {
  // ..
}

You can also specify the language inside the braces ({}) like this:

<<< @/snippets/snippet.cs{c#}

<!-- with line highlighting: -->

<<< @/snippets/snippet.cs{1,2,4-6 c#}

<!-- with line numbers: -->

<<< @/snippets/snippet.cs{1,2,4-6 c#:line-numbers}

This is helpful if source language cannot be inferred from your file extension.

Code Groups

You can group multiple code blocks like this:

Input

::: code-group

```js [config.js]
/**
 * @type {import('vitepress').UserConfig}
 */
const config = {
  // ...
}

export default config
```

```ts [config.ts]
import type { UserConfig } from 'vitepress'

const config: UserConfig = {
  // ...
}

export default config
```

:::

Output

config.jsconfig.ts

/**
 * @type {import('vitepress').UserConfig}
 */
const config = {
  // ...
}

export default config

import type { UserConfig } from 'vitepress'

const config: UserConfig = {
  // ...
}

export default config

You can also import snippets in code groups:

Input

::: code-group

<!-- filename is used as title by default -->

<<< @/snippets/snippet.js

<!-- you can provide a custom one too -->

<<< @/snippets/snippet-with-region.js#snippet{1,2 ts:line-numbers} [snippet with region]

:::

Output

snippet.jssnippet with region

export default function () {
  // ..
}

function foo() {
  // ..
}

Markdown File Inclusion

You can include a markdown file in another markdown file like this:

Input

# Docs

## Basics

<!--@include: ./parts/basics.md-->

Part file (parts/basics.md)

Some getting started stuff.

### Configuration

Can be created using `.foorc.json`.

Equivalent code

# Docs

## Basics

Some getting started stuff.

### Configuration

Can be created using `.foorc.json`.

WARNING

Note that this does not throw errors if your file is not present. Hence, when using this feature make sure that the contents are being rendered as expected.

Advanced Configuration

VitePress uses markdown-it as the Markdown renderer. A lot of the extensions above are implemented via custom plugins. You can further customize the markdown-it instance using the markdown option in .vitepress/config.js:

const anchor = require('markdown-it-anchor')

module.exports = {
  markdown: {
    // options for markdown-it-anchor
    // https://github.com/valeriangalliat/markdown-it-anchor#usage
    anchor: {
      permalink: anchor.permalink.headerLink()
    },

    // options for @mdit-vue/plugin-toc
    // https://github.com/mdit-vue/mdit-vue/tree/main/packages/plugin-toc#options
    toc: { level: [1, 2] },

    config: (md) => {
      // use more markdown-it plugins!
      md.use(require('markdown-it-xxx'))
    }
  }
}

See full list of configurable properties in Config Reference: App Config.

Markdown Extensions #

Header Anchors #

Links #

Internal Links #

Page Suffix #

External Links #

Frontmatter #

GitHub-Style Tables #

Emoji 🎉 #

Table of Contents #

Custom Containers #

Default Title #

Custom Title #

raw #

Syntax Highlighting in Code Blocks #

Line Highlighting in Code Blocks #

Focus in Code Blocks #

Colored Diffs in Code Blocks #

Errors and Warnings in Code Blocks #

Line Numbers #

Import Code Snippets #

Code Groups #

Markdown File Inclusion #

Advanced Configuration #

Markdown Extensions

Header Anchors

Links

Internal Links

Page Suffix

External Links

Frontmatter

GitHub-Style Tables

Emoji 🎉

Table of Contents

Custom Containers

Default Title

Custom Title

`raw`

Syntax Highlighting in Code Blocks

Line Highlighting in Code Blocks

Focus in Code Blocks

Colored Diffs in Code Blocks

Errors and Warnings in Code Blocks

Line Numbers

Import Code Snippets

Code Groups

Markdown File Inclusion

Advanced Configuration