@md-plugins/md-plugin-frontmatter

A markdown-it plugin for handling frontmatter in markdown files.
13,642 4
Install
npm install @md-plugins/md-plugin-frontmatter
Latest Version:2.2.0
License:MIT
Last Updated:Sep 16, 2026
Links: GitHub  ·  npm
Maintainer: hawkeye64

@md-plugins/md-plugin-frontmatter

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A Markdown-It plugin that extracts and processes frontmatter from Markdown content. Frontmatter is commonly used for metadata such as titles, authors, and dates, making this plugin essential for static site generators, documentation tools, and content management systems.

Features

  • Extracts frontmatter from Markdown files.
  • Supports rendering the frontmatter as raw Markdown or HTML.
  • Compatible with various frontmatter syntaxes (YAML, JSON, TOML) via the gray-matter library.
  • Stores extracted frontmatter in the frontmatter property of the Markdown-It environment (env).
  • Optionally renders an excerpt from the Markdown content.

Installation

Install the plugin via your preferred package manager:

# with pnpm:
pnpm add @md-plugins/md-plugin-frontmatter
# with bun:
bun add @md-plugins/md-plugin-frontmatter
# with Yarn:
yarn add @md-plugins/md-plugin-frontmatter
# with npm:
npm install @md-plugins/md-plugin-frontmatter

Usage

Basic Setup

import MarkdownIt from 'markdown-it';
import { frontmatterPlugin } from '@md-plugins/md-plugin-frontmatter';
import type { MarkdownItEnv } from '@md-plugins/shared';

const md = new MarkdownIt();
md.use(frontmatterPlugin, {
  renderExcerpt: true,
});

const markdownContent = `
---
title: Frontmatter Example
author: Jane Doe
date: 2024-01-01
---

# Main Content

This is the main content of the Markdown file.
`;

const env: MarkdownItEnv = {};
const renderedOutput = md.render(markdownContent, env);

console.log('Rendered Output:', renderedOutput);
console.log('Extracted Frontmatter:', env.frontmatter);
console.log('Extracted Excerpt:', env.excerpt);

Example Output

For the example above, the env will contain:

{
  "frontmatter": {
    "title": "Frontmatter Example",
    "author": "Jane Doe",
    "date": "2024-01-01"
  },
  "excerpt": "<p>This is the main content of the Markdown file.</p>"
}

Options

The md-plugin-frontmatter plugin supports the following options:

Option Type Default Description
grayMatterOptions object {} Options for the gray-matter library. Refer to the gray-matter documentation.
renderExcerpt boolean false Whether to render the excerpt as HTML. If false, the raw Markdown is extracted as the excerpt.

Advanced Usage

Customizing Frontmatter Parsing

You can customize the behavior of the gray-matter library by passing grayMatterOptions:

md.use(frontmatterPlugin, {
  grayMatterOptions: {
    delimiters: '+++', // Use "+++" as the frontmatter delimiter
  },
})

Testing

Run the unit tests with Vitest to ensure the plugin behaves as expected:

pnpm test

Documentation

In case this README falls out of date, please refer to the documentation for the latest information.

Support

If md-plugin-frontmatter is useful in your workflow and you want to support ongoing maintenance:

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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Version History

Version Released License
2.2.0 MIT
2.1.0 MIT
2.0.4 MIT
2.0.3 MIT
2.0.2 MIT
Pre-releases (77)
Version Released License
0.1.0-rc.19 MIT
0.1.0-rc.18 MIT
0.1.0-rc.17 MIT
0.1.0-rc.16 MIT
0.1.0-rc.15 MIT