mdxjs-py 0.1.0a2

Python bindings for mdxjs-rs - Fast MDX to JavaScript compilation via Rust

mdxjs-py

Python bindings for mdxjs-rs, a Rust implementation of MDX.

⚠️ Alpha Software: This package is in early development. The API may change between versions.

Features

• Fast MDX compilation via Rust (10-100x faster than Node.js subprocess)
• Simple Python API mirroring @mdx-js/mdx
• Zero dependencies (beyond the compiled extension)
• Helpful error messages with line/column information
• Full MDX 2 support via mdxjs-rs

Installation

pip install mdxjs-py

Note: Currently only Linux x86_64 wheels are provided. For other platforms, you'll need Rust installed to build from source:

# Install Rust first
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Then install from PyPI (will compile automatically)
pip install mdxjs-py

Usage

Basic Compilation

from mdxjs_py import compile

# Compile MDX to JavaScript
mdx_content = """
# Hello World

This is **MDX** content with <Button onClick={() => alert('hi!')}>JSX</Button>!
"""

try:
    js_output = compile(mdx_content)
    print(js_output)
except ValueError as e:
    print(f"MDX compilation failed: {e}")

Validation

Use compile() to validate MDX syntax:

from mdxjs_py import compile

def validate_mdx(content: str) -> tuple[bool, str | None]:
    """Validate MDX content.

    Returns:
        (is_valid, error_message)
    """
    try:
        compile(content)
        return True, None
    except ValueError as e:
        return False, str(e)

# Example usage
content = "<Button>Unclosed tag"
is_valid, error = validate_mdx(content)
if not is_valid:
    print(f"Invalid MDX: {error}")
    # Output: Invalid MDX: Expected a closing tag for `<Button>`

Configuration Options

from mdxjs_py import compile

# With options (matches @mdx-js/mdx API)
js_output = compile(
    mdx_content,
    development=True,  # Enable development mode
    jsx_runtime="automatic",  # or "classic"
    jsx_import_source="react",  # for automatic runtime
)

API Reference

compile(source: str, **options) -> str

Compile MDX source to JavaScript. API-compatible with @mdx-js/mdx.

Parameters:

• source (str): The MDX source code to compile
• development (bool, optional): Enable development mode
• jsx (bool, optional): Keep JSX (default: False, compiles to JS)
• jsx_runtime (str, optional): "automatic" or "classic"
• jsx_import_source (str, optional): Package for automatic JSX runtime
• pragma (str, optional): JSX pragma for classic runtime
• pragma_frag (str, optional): JSX pragma fragment for classic runtime
• pragma_import_source (str, optional): Pragma import source
• provider_import_source (str, optional): Provider import source

Returns:

• str: Compiled JavaScript code

Raises:

• ValueError: If MDX compilation fails with detailed error message

compile_sync(source: str, **options) -> str

Synchronous version of compile() (alias for compatibility).

is_available() -> bool

Check if the Rust module is built and available.

Common Use Cases

1. Validate User-Generated MDX

def process_user_mdx(content: str) -> dict:
    """Process and validate user MDX content."""
    try:
        js_output = compile(content)
        return {
            "success": True,
            "output": js_output
        }
    except ValueError as e:
        # Extract line/column from error
        error_str = str(e)
        return {
            "success": False,
            "error": error_str,
            "hint": "Check for unclosed tags or invalid JSX"
        }

2. MDX Syntax Checking in CI/CD

import glob
from pathlib import Path
from mdxjs_py import compile

def check_all_mdx_files(directory: str) -> bool:
    """Validate all MDX files in a directory."""
    all_valid = True

    for mdx_path in Path(directory).glob("**/*.mdx"):
        try:
            with open(mdx_path, 'r') as f:
                compile(f.read())
            print(f"✅ {mdx_path}")
        except ValueError as e:
            print(f"❌ {mdx_path}: {e}")
            all_valid = False

    return all_valid

3. Pre-process MDX for Frontend

def prepare_mdx_for_frontend(content: str, max_retries: int = 3) -> str:
    """Validate and prepare MDX for frontend rendering."""
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        try:
            # Validate compilation
            compile(content)
            return content
        except ValueError as e:
            if attempt == max_retries - 1:
                # Return with warning comment
                return f"<!-- MDX validation warning: {e} -->\n{content}"
            # Could attempt to fix common issues here
            content = fix_common_mdx_issues(content)

    return content

Performance

Benchmarked on an Intel i7-9750H:

import time
from mdxjs_py import compile

content = "# Heading\n\nParagraph with **bold** text.\n\n" * 100

# Single compilation
start = time.time()
compile(content)
print(f"Single: {(time.time() - start) * 1000:.2f}ms")
# Result: ~0.5ms

# Bulk compilation
start = time.time()
for _ in range(1000):
    compile(content)
print(f"1000x: {time.time() - start:.2f}s")
# Result: ~0.5s (vs ~50s with Node.js subprocess)

Development

Building from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/SamDc73/mdxjs-py
cd mdxjs-py

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install build dependencies
pip install maturin pytest

# Build and install locally
maturin develop --release

# Run tests
pytest tests/

Architecture

This is a minimal Python binding to mdxjs-rs, designed for:

• Zero overhead - Direct 1:1 binding to mdxjs-rs functions
• API compatibility - Matches @mdx-js/mdx compile() API
• Simplicity - No abstraction layers, just the binding

Credits

This package is a thin Python wrapper around:

• mdxjs-rs by Titus Wormer - The Rust MDX implementation that does all the heavy lifting
• Built with PyO3 - Rust bindings for Python
• Packaged with maturin - Build and publish Rust Python extensions

Contributing

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

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

This package is MIT licensed, same as mdxjs-rs.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

Support

• 🐛 Report bugs
• 💡 Request features
• 📖 Documentation