# gemdown > Render Markdown files in the Gemini .gmi format Latest version **0.8.0** (published 2026-07-31) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads ## Install ```sh npm install gemdown pnpm add gemdown yarn add gemdown bun add gemdown ``` ## Health **Score 55/100 (C)** — status: active. Positive: esm support; no vulnerabilities; recently updated. Warnings: low downloads; no types; pre 1.0. ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Version | 0.8.0 | | Published | 2026-07-31 | | First published | 2023-08-19 | | Weekly downloads | 0 | | License | MIT | | TypeScript types | none | | Module format | ESM + CommonJS | | Dependencies | 2 | | Unpacked size | 26.6 KB | | Known vulnerabilities | 0 | | Install scripts | no | | Author | Travis Briggs | | Maintainers | audiodude | ## Links - npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/gemdown - npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/gemdown ## Dependencies (2) - [marked](https://npm.io/package/marked.md) ^7.0.4 - [node-html-parser](https://npm.io/package/node-html-parser.md) ^6.1.5 ## Recent versions - 0.8.0 (latest) — 2026-07-31 - 0.7.0 — 2023-09-21 - 0.6.0 — 2023-08-26 - 0.5.0 — 2023-08-26 - 0.4.0 — 2023-08-23 - 0.3.0 — 2023-08-21 - 0.2.0 — 2023-08-19 - 0.1.0 — 2023-08-19 ## README # gemdown A Javascript library for rendering Markdown files in the Gemini .gmi format # Overview [Gemini](https://gemini.circumlunar.space/) is a recent text-based internet protocol that aims to be more robust than Gopher but more lightweight than the web, and doesn't seek to replace either. You need a special [Gemini client](https://github.com/kr1sp1n/awesome-gemini#clients) to connect to "Gemini capsules" in "Gemspace" (such as `gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/`). Gemini capsules are authored using "Gemtext", which you can [read the description of](https://gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/gemtext.gmi). For a list of many Gemini related projects and sites, see [Awesome Gemini](https://github.com/kr1sp1n/awesome-gemini). According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown), [Markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) is "a lightweight markup language for creating formatted text using a plain-text editor". Markdown is commonly used in [Static Site Generators](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/performance/static-site-generator/) to store the source code for pages such as blog posts without making the author write full HTML markup. Gemdown, then, is a library that takes Markdown input and outputs Gemtext. It is designed to be used in conjunction with a static site generator in order to create a Gemini mirror of an HTTP website (HTTP/Gemini mirrors of the same content is common amongst the Gemini community). # Installation The `gemdown` package is available on NPM and can be installed with `npm install gemdown` or `yarn add gemdown`. ## ECMAScript modules The `gemdown` package uses [ECMAScript modules](https://nodejs.org/api/esm.html), so it must be used with `import` statements. # Usage For now, this package exposes a single function called `md2gemini`. It takes a string containing raw Markdown text and returns a string which contains raw gemtext. This package uses [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/) and is **currently pre 1.0.0 release, so the API may change drastically at any point**. From `example.js`: ``` import { md2gemini } from 'gemdown'; const markdown = `This is some [Markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)! Links are extracted to the end of the paragraph. Here's a second paragraph! Things like **bold** and _italic_ are ignored unless options are set.`; const gemtext = md2gemini(markdown); console.log(gemtext); ``` ## Options The library currently supports the following options: | Option name | Type | Default value | Description | | ---------------- | ------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | renderBoldItalic | boolean | false | If true, text that has Markdown `**bold**` or `_italic_` indicators will render that way in the output. Note that this doesn't necessarily preserve all of the idiosyncratic ways of specifying these styles (eg: `__bold__`). | | useWikiLinks | boolean | false | If true, Mediawiki/Wikipedia style links are converted to Markdown links and used to create Gemini link footers | | wikiLinksPrefix | string | '' | **Only works with `useWikiLinks`**. String to prefix the output of wikiLinks with. If set to, eg `'foo/'`, `[[bar]]` ouputs a link of `'foo/bar'`. Can be used with `wikiLinksSuffix`. | | wikiLinksSuffix | string | '' | **Only works with `useWikiLinks`**. String to append to the output of wikiLinks. If set to, eg `'.html'`, `[[bar]]` ouputs a link of `'bar.html'`. Can be used with `wikiLinksPrefix`. | These can be passed as a simple object as the second argument to `md2gemini`. They can also be omitted completely. ## Images Markdown images (`![alt](href)`) render the same way as links: the alt text appears inline as a numbered marker, and a footer link line is appended at the end of the paragraph or list item, e.g. `=> href n: alt`. If no alt text is given, the href is used as the label instead. Images and links share the same numbering sequence. # Development ## Installation ```bash yarn install ``` ## Running the tests From the main project directory, run: ```bash npm test ``` ## Adding a new golden test Add a markdown file in testdata/markdown and the expected Gemini output in testdata/gemini. The should have the same file "slug", aka name without extension. In golden.spec.js, add this slug to the following line: ```js const SLUGS = ["sample", "html_blocks"]; ``` ## Diffing goldens If a golden test fails, the console output usually isn't very helpful. For that reason, the golden tests also write the rendered output from `md2gemini` to the path `testdata/output`, with the file slug and a `.gmi` extension. When a test fails, you can run: ```bash diff testdata/gemini/sample.gmi testdata/output/sample.gmi ``` Replace `sample.gmi` with the name of the test that failed. --- _Source: https://npm.io/package/gemdown · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._