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prettier-plugin-pandoc

A Prettier plugin for formatting Pandoc Markdown (.md) and Quarto documents (.qmd).

[!WARNING] This plugin is currently in early development. It has been verified against a comprehensive suite of syntax test cases, but has not yet been battle-tested on a large number of real-world projects. Please use with caution and backup your data (e.g. via git) before formatting.

Features

Dual Parser Support

This plugin includes two parsers to handle the subtle differences between standard Pandoc Markdown and Quarto's extended syntax:

• pandoc parser - Standard Pandoc for .md files

  • ✅ Citations: [@smith2020]
  • ✅ Definition lists
  • ✅ Divs/Callouts: ::: {.note}
  • ✅ GFM (tables, task lists, etc.)
  • ✅ Math blocks (standard)

• quarto parser - Extended support for .qmd files

  • ✅ Everything in Pandoc parser
  • ✅ Math blocks with labels: $$ E=mc^2 $$ {#eq-einstein}
  • ✅ Shortcodes: {{< meta title >}}

Safety Features

• Code block protection - Content inside fenced code blocks is never modified
• Lossless round-trips - Formatting preserves all attributes and metadata
• Tested - Comprehensive automated test suite ensuring semantic equivalence

Installation

npm install --save-dev prettier prettier-plugin-pandoc

Usage

Automatic Configuration

Prettier automatically uses the quarto parser for .qmd files.

For .md files, Prettier defaults to its built-in Markdown parser. You must explicitly configure it to use the pandoc parser if you want to support Pandoc features like citation syntax or definition lists.

.prettierrc

{
  "plugins": ["prettier-plugin-pandoc"],
  "overrides": [
    {
      "files": "*.md",
      "options": {
        "parser": "pandoc"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Running Prettier

Format all documents:

npx prettier --write "**/*.{md,qmd}"

Examples

Pandoc Markdown (.md)

Input:

# Citations

See @smith2020 for details.

Term
:   Definition

Output: (formatted, standard Pandoc syntax preserved)

Quarto Document (.qmd)

Input:

---
title: My Analysis
---

# Introduction

Black-Scholes (@eq-bs) is elegant:

$$
\frac{\partial C}{\partial t} + \frac{1}{2}\sigma^2 S^2 \frac{\partial^2 C}{\partial S^2} = rC
$$ {#eq-bs}

{{< meta title >}} uses R.

Output: (formatted, preserves all Quarto specific syntax)

Compatibility

• Prettier: ^3.0.0
• Node.js: >=18.0.0 (ES modules)
• Browser: Bundled version available (55KB gzipped)
• Pandoc: Tested with Pandoc 3.1+
• Quarto: Tested with Quarto 1.4+

Browser Usage

A pre-bundled version is available for browser applications:

import * as prettier from 'prettier/standalone'
import pandocPlugin from 'prettier-plugin-pandoc/browser'

const formatted = await prettier.format(markdown, {
  parser: 'pandoc',
  plugins: [pandocPlugin],
})

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Test
npm test

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

1. Open an issue first to discuss changes
2. Follow existing code style
3. Add tests for new features
4. Update README for user-facing changes

License

MIT

Credits

Built with:

• Prettier
• micromark
• mdast-util-from-markdown
• @benrbray/micromark-extension-cite