markwright

markwright is a set of Python-Markdown extensions plus a companion command-line tool, mw, for author-friendly markdown: highlighted text, labeled code fences, and a set of media embeds. Use the extensions in any tool built on Python-Markdown (including MkDocs, Flask, or a plain script), or the mw pipeline in toolchains that are not, like Hugo.

The author-facing syntax and HTML output are derived from DigitalOcean's do-markdownit, so rendered pages match what DigitalOcean produces. markwright ports those extensions to Python-Markdown and adds its own pieces on top, most notably the mw CLI, which runs the same extensions as pre and post filters around any renderer.

Full documentation and a live demo: https://masonegger.github.io/markwright/

Features

Each extension is standalone and can be loaded on its own or alongside the others.

• Highlight wraps <^>text<^> in <mark>, and works inside inline code and fenced code blocks where ==text== cannot reach.
• Fence adds labels, secondary labels, environment classes, and command-line prefixes (line numbers, $/# prompts, custom prefixes) to code blocks.
• YouTube turns [youtube ID] into a responsive iframe embed.
• CodePen embeds a pen with theme, default-tab, and layout options.
• Twitter embeds a tweet with theme and alignment options.
• Instagram embeds a post with caption and alignment options.
• Slideshow builds an image slideshow with navigation arrows.
• Image Compare renders two images with a draggable before/after slider.

Installation

uv add markwright

or

pip install markwright

To work against a local checkout, install it editable:

uv add --editable ../markwright

Usage

With MkDocs

Add the extensions to mkdocs.yml. Load markwright.fence after pymdownx.superfences and pymdownx.highlight so the code-block HTML is in the shape the fence postprocessor expects.

markdown_extensions:
  - pymdownx.superfences
  - pymdownx.highlight:
      pygments_lang_class: true
  - markwright.highlight
  - markwright.fence:
      allowed_environments:
        - local
        - second
        - third
  - markwright.youtube
  - markwright.codepen
  - markwright.twitter
  - markwright.instagram
  - markwright.slideshow
  - markwright.image_compare

Standalone

The extensions work with Python-Markdown directly, so you can use them in any Python program.

import markdown

md = markdown.Markdown(extensions=[
    "pymdownx.superfences",
    "pymdownx.highlight",
    "markwright.highlight",
    "markwright.fence",
    "markwright.youtube",
    "markwright.codepen",
    "markwright.twitter",
    "markwright.instagram",
    "markwright.slideshow",
    "markwright.image_compare",
])

html = md.convert("This has a <^>highlighted word<^> in it.")
print(html)

Load only what you need:

import markdown

# Just YouTube embeds
md = markdown.Markdown(extensions=["markwright.youtube"])
html = md.convert("[youtube dQw4w9WgXcQ]")

The fence extension expects pymdownx.superfences and pymdownx.highlight to be loaded too. Without them the preprocessor still extracts directives, but the code-block HTML may not match what the postprocessor rewrites.

Command-Line Interface (mw)

For a toolchain that is not built on Python-Markdown, the mw command runs the same extensions as a pair of Unix filters around any renderer: a pre stage on the Markdown source, and a post stage on the rendered HTML.

mw pre < in.md | your-renderer | mw post > out.html

• mw pre expands the embeds and extracts fence directives into an mw-fence comment.
• mw post applies the fence styling, resolves the highlights, and injects each embed script once.
• mw render runs the full pipeline in one shot for callers without their own renderer.
• mw config prints the resolved configuration and the source of each value.
• mw list prints every extension and the stages it provides.

Which extensions run, and how each is tuned, come from a markwright.toml (or a [tool.markwright] table in pyproject.toml) that the CLI discovers by walking up from the current directory. See the configuration docs.

Your renderer must pass raw HTML and HTML comments through. Hugo is a worked, tested example: see the Hugo guide. The full command and flag reference is in the CLI docs.

Syntax at a Glance

Highlight:       <^>important<^>

Fenced code with a label and command prompts:
    ```command
    [label deploy.sh]
    ssh root@server
    apt update
    ```

YouTube:         [youtube dQw4w9WgXcQ]
                 [youtube dQw4w9WgXcQ 360 640]
CodePen:         [codepen MattCowley vwPzeX]
                 [codepen MattCowley vwPzeX dark css]
Twitter:         [twitter https://twitter.com/github/status/1234567890]
Instagram:       [instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CkQuv3_LRgS]
Slideshow:       [slideshow https://picsum.photos/id/10/480/270 https://picsum.photos/id/20/480/270]
Image Compare:   [compare before.jpg after.jpg]

See the extension docs for every flag and the exact HTML each one produces.

Development

This project uses uv and just.

just install           # uv sync
just test              # unit tests, 100% line + branch coverage
just test-integration  # end-to-end Hugo pipeline test (needs hugo)
just lint              # ruff check + ruff format --check
just typecheck         # mypy --strict
just check             # test + lint + typecheck
just docs-serve        # serve the docs site at localhost:8000

just check must pass before a change is complete. The tooling bar is strict: mypy --strict, a clean ruff, and full test coverage.

License

markwright is released under the MIT License.

It is a port of do-markdownit by DigitalOcean, which is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the NOTICE file for attribution details.