mdfile 0.5.0

Process and update Markdown files with embedded file/shell script output.

MDFile (mdf)

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.

Key Features

• Live Synchronization: Automatically updates your markdown when source files change
• 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

Quick Example

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 mnm:

# 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. 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 (mfm) 'converts' different file types to properly formatted markdown, supporting:

• Code files (.py, .java, .js, and many more)
• CSV files (with table formatting)
• JSON files (with syntax highlighting)
• Markdown files
• Text files (plain text conversion)

DISCLAIMER: convert is doing a bit of heavy lifting, in most cases the file extension is used to generate a text-block that the browser is used to render. However, in the case of JSON files the files are pretty printed, and CSVs are loaded into Markdown Tables.

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

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

# Install the package
pip install -e .

Basic Usage

The basic command for converting files is:

python -m mnm [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
python -m mnm README.md

# Disable automatic line breaks in CSV headers
python -m mnm 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:

python -m mdmfile.py convert 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

Examples

Help

(.venv) chuck@Chucks-Mac-mini mdfile % python mnm.py --help
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
 Usage: mnm.py [OPTIONS] [FILE_NAME]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
 Convert a file to Markdown based on its extension.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
╭─ Arguments ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│   file_name      [FILE_NAME]  The file to convert to Markdown [default: ../README.md]                                    │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─ Options ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ --output              -o                     TEXT  Output file (if not specified, prints to stdout) [default: None]      │
│ --bold                -b                     TEXT  Comma-separated values to make bold (for CSV files) [default: None]   │
│ --auto-break              --no-auto-break          Disable automatic line breaks in CSV headers [default: auto-break]    │
│ --help                                             Show this message and exit.                                           │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

UV Run

It wouldn't be an example unless we showed you that you can run mnm with uv without knowing anything beyond installing uv on your machine by taking advantage of support for PEP 723.

ASSUMING that you have uv installed on your machine and that you have mnm.py installed on your machine

This is the recommended way of using mnm.

uv run mnm.py ../README_template.md --output ../README.md

Convert a CSV file with bold totals

python -m mnm sales_data.csv --bold "Total,Sum" -o sales_report.md

Update embedded references in a markdown file

python -m mnm documentation.md -o updated_docs.md

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