sphinx-syntax-example 0.1.1

A syntax-example directive that shows markup as source and rendered result.

sphinx-syntax-example

A Sphinx extension adding the syntax-example directive, which shows a block of markup as both its raw source and its rendered result.

The directive renders its content twice, stacked inside one framed box: a syntax-highlighted source pane showing what to type, and a render pane showing what it produces. It is useful for documentation that teaches a markup syntax, where readers need to see the input alongside the output.

Installation

Requires Python 3.11+ and Sphinx 7.2+.

pip install sphinx-syntax-example

Then add it to the extensions list in your conf.py:

extensions = [
    # ...
    "sphinx_syntax_example",
]

The extension ships a small, theme-agnostic stylesheet that is registered automatically on HTML builds (it defines its own colours with fallbacks that pick up the active theme's variables when present, and looks right on Furo in both light and dark modes).

Usage

Write a syntax-example directive with the markup you want to demonstrate as its content. An optional argument sets the title shown above the block (defaulting to Example):

.. syntax-example:: An optional title

   Any **reStructuredText** or MyST markup here.

The block above produces a framed box titled An optional title, containing the highlighted source Any **reStructuredText** or MyST markup here. and, below it, that markup rendered (with reStructuredText in bold).

The output is a pure function of the directive instance — there is no auto-numbering and no cross-document state — so the block is reproducible and safe under parallel builds.

Options and arguments

Part	Description
(argument)	The title shown as a rubric above the block. Defaults to Example; inline markup is parsed.
:highlight:	Override the source pane's Pygments highlight language (for example :highlight: python).

If :highlight: is omitted, the language is inferred from the document's format via the project's configured source-suffix mapping (sphinx.util.get_filetype over source_suffix — the same knowledge Sphinx's router uses to pick the parser). A Markdown document yields a myst lexer when one is registered (as myst-parser registers) else markdown, and everything else yields rst. An unknown :highlight: value falls back to the inferred language (with a verbose-level note) rather than failing a strict -W build.

Subclassing

Downstream packages that want an aliased directive (for example .. need-example:: with auto-numbering, a different class prefix, or no title at all) subclass SyntaxExampleDirective and register the subclass under the alias name in a setup(app) of their own. Behaviour is customised through small named seams and class attributes, never by re-implementing run:

• the class attributes default_title, wrapper_classes, source_classes and render_classes;
• default_language — how the source language is inferred;
• format_title — the title/numbering seam (return None to drop the title, as a numbering-free myst-example would);
• build_title_node — how the resolved title becomes a node (return None to suppress the rubric element entirely);
• source_text — what the source pane shows;
• render_into — what is nested-parsed into the render pane.

The last two are the seam for a "shown source differs from rendered output" directive: override source_text to return the shown text and render_into to render the alternative output.

from sphinx_syntax_example import SyntaxExampleDirective


class NumberedExample(SyntaxExampleDirective):
    def format_title(self, raw_title):
        meta = self.env.metadata[self.env.docname]
        number = meta.setdefault("_ex_number", 1)
        meta["_ex_number"] = number + 1
        return f"{raw_title or 'Example'} {number}"


def setup(app):
    app.add_directive("numbered-example", NumberedExample)

The full override surface is documented in the module docstring.

The bespoke "example" directives shipped by sphinx-needs and myst-parser (each rendering source next to output) can be replaced by a subclass of this directive.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.