wenmode 0.1.1

A fast, composable Markdown parser and renderer toolkit.

Wenmode

Wenmode is a composable Markdown toolkit for Python by the same author as Mistune. It is a rewrite informed by Mistune's design, with a stronger focus on explicit rule composition, mdast-compatible AST output, extension state, and pluggable rendering.

The top-level Wenmode class combines a parser and a renderer. By default it parses CommonMark-style Markdown and renders HTML.

Documentation: https://wenmode.lepture.com

Installation

pip install wenmode

Quick start

from wenmode import Wenmode

wenmode = Wenmode()

text = '''
# Hello

This is **wenmode**.
'''
expected = '''
<h1>Hello</h1>
<p>This is <strong>wenmode</strong>.</p>
'''

html = wenmode.render(text)
assert html == expected.lstrip()

Use parse() when you need the mdast-compatible syntax tree:

from wenmode import Wenmode

wenmode = Wenmode()
text = 'A [link](https://example.com).'

tree = wenmode.parse(text)
ast = tree.to_ast()

assert ast == {
    'type': 'root',
    'children': [
        {
            'type': 'paragraph',
            'children': [
                {'type': 'text', 'value': 'A '},
                {
                    'type': 'link',
                    'children': [{'type': 'text', 'value': 'link'}],
                    'url': 'https://example.com',
                },
                {'type': 'text', 'value': '.'},
            ],
        }
    ],
}

Pass a different renderer when you want another output format:

from wenmode import RSTRenderer, Wenmode

wenmode = Wenmode(renderer=RSTRenderer())

text = '# Hello'
expected = '''
Hello
=====
'''

rst = wenmode.render(text)
assert rst == expected.lstrip()

Rules

Rules are opt-in and composable. Wenmode() uses the commonmark preset by default; pass an explicit rule list when you want a custom Markdown dialect.

from wenmode import Wenmode
from wenmode.rules import AtxHeading, FencedCode, Image, InlineCode, Link

wenmode = Wenmode([AtxHeading, FencedCode, Link, Image, InlineCode])
text = '''
# h1

hi `code` **strong**
'''
expected = '''
<h1>h1</h1>
<p>hi <code>code</code> **strong**</p>
'''

assert wenmode.render(text) == expected.lstrip()

Because Emphasis is not enabled above, **strong** stays as text.

Use Parser directly when you only need an AST and want to choose rendering separately:

from wenmode import HTMLRenderer, Parser
from wenmode.presets import commonmark

parser = Parser(commonmark)
text = '# Hello'

tree = parser.parse(text)

html = HTMLRenderer().render(tree)

Use the github preset for GitHub-flavored Markdown features such as tables, task lists, strikethrough, extended autolinks, and footnotes:

from wenmode import Wenmode
from wenmode.presets import github

wenmode = Wenmode(github)

Benchmark

Wenmode is designed so enabling more rules adds limited dispatch overhead. The benchmark script compares Markdown-to-HTML throughput across Wenmode and the libraries covered by the migration guides:

uv run --group benchmark python scripts/benchmark.py --case all

wenmode-core uses CommonMark-style rules plus pipe tables, with raw HTML passthrough and URL sanitization disabled for parity with the other HTML renderers. Mistune, Python-Markdown, markdown-it-py, and markdown2 enable table support; Marko uses its broader GFM helper; commonmark.py is included as a CommonMark-only baseline because it has no pipe table support.

wenmode-all uses the github preset plus Wenmode's remaining built-in rules, including directives, math, definition lists, abbreviations, spoilers, ruby text, and additional inline formatting. These extra rules are mostly unused by the benchmark corpora, so this target measures dispatch overhead rather than a syntax-equivalent comparison.

All benchmark targets are created once before warmup and timed iterations, then reused for every render call. Python-Markdown resets the same reusable Markdown instance before each conversion.

Versions used in these snapshots:

Library	Version
wenmode	0.1.0
mistune	3.2.1
python-markdown	3.10.2
markdown-it-py	4.2.0
markdown2	2.5.5
marko	2.2.3
commonmark.py	0.9.2

Mean time from one local --case all run:

Case	Bytes	Library	Mean	MB/s	vs core
docs	53,792	wenmode-core	4.84ms	11.58	1.00x
docs	53,792	wenmode-all	5.89ms	9.59	0.82x
docs	53,792	mistune	8.64ms	6.89	0.56x
docs	53,792	markdown-it-py	13.27ms	4.19	0.36x
docs	53,792	commonmark.py	20.72ms	2.67	0.23x
docs	53,792	python-markdown	28.98ms	1.88	0.17x
docs	53,792	markdown2	43.34ms	1.25	0.11x
docs	53,792	marko	49.65ms	1.11	0.10x
rust-book	1,225,464	wenmode-core	138.87ms	9.07	1.00x
rust-book	1,225,464	wenmode-all	156.48ms	8.09	0.89x
rust-book	1,225,464	mistune	214.92ms	6.53	0.65x
rust-book	1,225,464	markdown-it-py	360.20ms	3.49	0.39x
rust-book	1,225,464	python-markdown	624.73ms	2.00	0.22x
rust-book	1,225,464	marko	1.178s	1.04	0.12x
rust-book	1,225,464	markdown2	4.082s	0.30	0.03x
rust-book	1,225,464	commonmark.py	9.619s	0.14	0.01x
progit	502,090	wenmode-core	26.61ms	19.24	1.00x
progit	502,090	wenmode-all	35.31ms	16.36	0.75x
progit	502,090	mistune	44.01ms	12.40	0.60x
progit	502,090	markdown-it-py	76.29ms	7.15	0.35x
progit	502,090	python-markdown	149.01ms	3.47	0.18x
progit	502,090	commonmark.py	347.45ms	1.49	0.08x
progit	502,090	marko	357.08ms	1.43	0.07x
progit	502,090	markdown2	1.425s	0.35	0.02x

In this run, wenmode-all remains faster than the other parsers even after loading many extra rules that the benchmark inputs mostly do not use.

Streaming

Use the streaming preset when you want to render HTML chunks without waiting for the entire document to be parsed and rendered:

from wenmode import Wenmode
from wenmode.presets import streaming

wenmode = Wenmode(streaming)

text = '''
# Hello

A [link](/url).
'''

for chunk in wenmode.stream(text):
    send(chunk)

The returned iterator can be passed to streaming responses in frameworks such as Django, Flask, and FastAPI.