mdfile 0.9.0

Process and update Markdown files with embedded file/process/var data.

MDFile Overview

A utility that dynamically imports content from external files or commands into your Markdown documents. Perfect for keeping code samples, data, and command outputs in sync with your documentation.

MDFile supports directly copying data into Markdown files using the following format:

# My Project - {{$version}}

Check out this function:

{{file example.py}}

Files used in this project:
{{process ls -a}}

 

After running mdfile, you would have where each of the {{}} macros are expanded into the file.

# My Project - 0.1.0

Check out this function:

```python
def hello():
    print("example")
```

Files used in this project:
```text
mdfile.py __init__.py

mdfile is able to convert CSV files to Markdown tables as well as pretty print JSON files. Most file inclusions will autodetect the format based on the file extension to enable browsers to syntax highlight as needed.

Key Features

• Multiple Import Methods: Import files directly or capture command outputs
• Smart Formatting: Automatically applies correct syntax highlighting based on file extension
• Table Formatting: Converts CSV data into well-formatted Markdown tables
• JSON Prettification: Properly formats and highlights JSON data
• Direct Markdown Insertion: Markdown files are imported directly.
• Variable Expansion: Commonly used variables are available (e.g., $version)

Quick Example

The following example shows how to use mdfile using the markdown comment tags. These tags allow you to dynamically update a Markdown file in place since the tags remain after update AND the text between tags is ignored when the file is updated again. This feature is useful, but can be dangerous if you delete half of a tag pair.

Source file (example.py):

def hello_world():
    return "Hello, world!"

In your README.md:

# My Project

Check out this function:

<!--file example.py-->
<!--file end-->

After running mdfile:

# My Project

Check out this function:

<!--file example.py-->
```python
def hello_world():
    return "Hello, world!"
 ```
<!--file end-->

To make markdown with the output from the cat factorial.py shell command. This can be difficult to get just right depending on the tool you are trying to use to pipe data from because different command line utilities behave differently when data is displayed in a tty vs. a pipe. In the example below the cat command is used to copy the data into the Markdown file, but any command can be used. Keep in mind that some tools act differently when they are generating data for a tty compared to when they are piping data into a file.

<!--process cat factorial.py-->

def factorial(n:int):
    """Return factorial of n"""
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    else:
        return n * factorial(n - 1)

<!--process end-->

Overview

MDFile 'converts' different file types to properly formatted Markdown, supporting:

• Code files (.py, .java, .js, and many more)
• Multiple files can be displayed using file globs such as <!--file *.py-->.
• CSV files (with table formatting)
• JSON files (pretty printed,with syntax highlighting)
• Markdown files inserted inline.
• Text files (plain text conversion)
• Basic variable substitution.
• Supports Overwrite (<!-- file x.x->) syntax and insertion {{file}} syntax.

USEFUL NOTE: Paths are relative to the file that you are processing, so if files are in other folders please reference them to the Markdown file that you are reading from.

Installation

If you are interested in development you can just go to GitHub and clone the repository.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/hucker/mdfile.git
cd mdfile

# Install the package
pip install -e .

RECOMMENDED INSTALLATION If you are just interested in using mdfile as a tool the very best way to do it is to just install uv and run:

(.venv) chuck@Chucks-Mac-mini mdfile % uv tool install mdfile 
Resolved 9 packages in 20ms
Installed 9 packages in 10ms
 + click==8.2.1
 + markdown-it-py==4.0.0
 + mdfile==0.5.0
 + mdurl==0.1.2
 + pygments==2.19.2
 + rich==14.1.0
 + shellingham==1.5.4
 + typer==0.16.0
 + typing-extensions==4.14.1
Installed 1 executable: mdfile

And then test it:

(.venv) chuck@Chucks-Mac-mini mdfile % uvx mdfile --help   

Usage: mdfile [OPTIONS] [FILE_NAME]

  Convert a file to Markdown based on its extension.

Arguments:
  [FILE_NAME]  The file to convert to Markdown  \[default: README.md]

Options:
  -o, --output TEXT               Output file (if not specified, prints to
                                  stdout)
  -b, --bold TEXT                 Comma-separated values to make bold (for CSV
                                  files)
  --auto-break / --no-auto-break  Disable automatic line breaks in CSV headers
                                  \[default: auto-break]
  --plain                         Output plain markdown without rich
                                  formatting
  --version     -v                Show version and exit   
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

and you should be off and running using this as a tool to update Markdown files anywhere.

Basic Usage

The basic command for converting files is:

uvx mdfile [FILE_PATH] [OPTIONS]

If you don't specify a file, it defaults to README.md.

Command Line Options

# Convert a file and print to stdout
uvx mdfile README.md

# Disable automatic line breaks in CSV headers
uvx mdfile README.md --no-auto-break

Examples

CSV to Markdown Table Conversion

Original CSV File: sales_data.csv

Region,Q1 Sales,Q2 Sales,Q3 Sales,Q4 Sales,Total
North,125000,133000,158000,175000,591000
South,105000,130000,115000,163000,513000
East,143000,123000,132000,145000,543000
West,117000,142000,138000,162000,559000
Total,490000,528000,543000,645000,2206000

Markdown Document with Inclusion: report.md

# Quarterly Sales Report

## Regional Sales Data

Here's a breakdown of our quarterly sales by region:

<!--file sales_data.csv-->
<!--file end-->

As we can see from the data, Q4 had the strongest performance across all regions.

After Running MDFile:

uvx mdfile report.md --bold "Total" -o final_report.md

---

Resulting Markdown: final_report.md

Quarterly Sales Report

Regional Sales Data

Here's a breakdown of our quarterly sales by region:

Region	Q1 Sales	Q2 Sales	Q3 Sales	Q4 Sales	Total
North	125000	133000	158000	175000	591000
South	105000	130000	115000	163000	513000
East	143000	123000	132000	145000	543000
West	117000	142000	138000	162000	559000
Total	490000	528000	543000	645000	2206000

As we can see from the data, Q4 had the strongest performance across all regions.

---

Including JSON Configuration

{"name":"John Doe","age":30,"isStudent":false,"grades":[78,85,90],"address":{"street":"123 Main St","city":"New York","zip":"10001"}}

## Configuration

The default configuration is:

<!--file path/to/config.json-->
<!--file end-->

The updated README.md file is shown below with the JSON pretty printed.

## Configuration

The default configuration is:

<!--file path/to/config.json-->
```json
{
    "name": "John Doe",
    "age": 30,
    "isStudent": false,
    "grades": [
        78,
        85,
        90
    ],
    "address": {
        "street": "123 Main St",
        "city": "New York",
        "zip": "10001"
    }
}
```
<!--file end-->

File Type Support

MDFile supports numerous file extensions allowing MarkDown to correctly syntax highlight:

• Python: .py, .pyw, .pyx, .pyi
• JavaScript: .js, .mjs, .cjs
• TypeScript: .ts, .tsx
• Java: .java
• C/C++: .c, .h, .cpp, .cc, .hpp
• Web: .html, .htm, .css, .scss
• Data: .json, .yaml, .yml, .csv
• Configuration: .ini, .cfg, .conf
• Shell: .sh, .bash, .zsh
• And many more!

These file extensions map use the standard triple back tick text blocks available in Markdown.

Options for CSV Files

When converting CSV files, you have additional options:

• --bold VALUE1,VALUE2,... - Make specific columns bold in the table
• --auto-break/--no-auto-break - Control automatic line breaks in CSV headers

Variable Substitution

mdfile supports a basic form of variable substitution. At this time the following are supported:

Variable	Description
{{$name}}	mdfile
{{$date}}	current date
{{$time}}	current time
{{$version}}	build version

These values are imported directly into the markdown file with no special Markdown tags, just raw text this allows you to have text such as

App **{{$name}}** version **{{$version}}** was created on {{$date}}

To get the text

App mdfile version 0.10.0 was created on 1/1/2024

UVX

If you installed mdfile as a uv tool then you can run mdfile from anywhere using the uvx tool.

uvx mdfile ../README_template.md --output ../README.md

uvx mdfile documentation.md -o updated_docs.md

Disclaimer

This tool was made open source because it is somewhat useful as it grew features over time. It is not a great example of how to write clean code since it grew organically in several projects. Don't be too harsh judging the code.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

MIT License