# markdown-it-prism > Highlights code blocks in markdown-it using Prism. Latest version **4.0.0** (published 2026-07-02) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads ## Install ```sh npm install markdown-it-prism pnpm add markdown-it-prism yarn add markdown-it-prism bun add markdown-it-prism ``` ## Health **Score 70/100 (B)** — status: active. Positive: has types; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; recently updated; high maintenance score; high quality score. Warnings: low downloads; no esm support. ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Version | 4.0.0 | | Published | 2026-07-02 | | First published | 2016-10-16 | | Weekly downloads | 0 | | License | MIT | | TypeScript types | bundled | | Module format | CommonJS | | Node | >=20.0.0 | | Dependencies | 1 | | Unpacked size | 20.4 KB | | Known vulnerabilities | 0 | | Install scripts | no | | Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) | | GitHub stars | 95 | | Author | Joshua Gleitze | | Maintainers | jgleitz | | Keywords | markdown-it, markdown-it-plugin, highlight, prism, prismjs | ## Links - npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/markdown-it-prism - Repository: https://github.com/jGleitz/markdown-it-prism - Issues: https://github.com/jGleitz/markdown-it-prism/issues - npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/markdown-it-prism ## Dependencies (1) - [prismjs](https://npm.io/package/prismjs.md) 1.30.0 ## Alternatives - [@oh-my-pi/pi-natives](https://npm.io/package/@oh-my-pi/pi-natives.md) — 51.8K weekly downloads - [@capgo/capacitor-light-sensor](https://npm.io/package/@capgo/capacitor-light-sensor.md) — 3.0K weekly downloads - [@heyhuynhgiabuu/pi-diff](https://npm.io/package/@heyhuynhgiabuu/pi-diff.md) — 492 weekly downloads - [@lotsa/verdant-lang-asm](https://npm.io/package/@lotsa/verdant-lang-asm.md) — 38 weekly downloads - [new-era-syntax](https://npm.io/package/new-era-syntax.md) — 20 weekly downloads ## Recent versions - 4.0.0 (latest) — 2026-07-02 - 3.0.1 — 2025-11-09 - 3.0.0 — 2025-04-01 - 2.3.1 — 2025-03-11 - 2.3.0 — 2022-08-30 - 2.2.5 — 2022-08-23 - 2.2.4 — 2022-04-17 - 2.2.3 — 2022-02-18 - 2.2.2 — 2022-01-06 - 2.2.1 — 2021-09-16 - 2.2.0 — 2021-08-23 - 2.1.8 — 2021-07-03 - 2.1.7 — 2021-06-27 - 2.1.6 — 2021-03-06 - 2.1.5 — 2021-03-06 - … 17 more at https://npm.io/package/markdown-it-prism/versions ## README # markdown-it-prism [![CI](https://github.com/jGleitz/markdown-it-prism/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://github.com/jGleitz/markdown-it-prism/actions/workflows/ci.yml?query=branch%3Amain) [![NPM Version](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/markdown-it-prism?logo=npm&logoColor=%23DDD)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/markdown-it-prism) > [markdown-it](https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it) plugin to highlight code blocks > using [Prism](http://prismjs.com/) ## Usage ```js const md = require('markdown-it')(); const prism = require('markdown-it-prism'); md.use(prism, options); ``` The plugin will insert the necessary markup into all code blocks. [Include one of Prism’s stylesheets](http://prismjs.com/#basic-usage) in your HTML to get highlighted code. ### Options The `options` object may contain: | Name | Description | Default | |---------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------| | `highlightInlineCode` | Whether to highlight inline code. | `false` | | `plugins` | Array of [Prism Plugins](http://prismjs.com/#plugins) to load. The names to use can be found [here](https://github.com/PrismJS/prism/tree/master/plugins). Please note that some prism plugins (notably line-numbers) rely on the DOM being present and can thus not be used with this package (see [#1](https://github.com/jGleitz/markdown-it-prism/issues/1)). | `[]` | | `init` | A function called after setting up prism. Will receive the prism instance as only argument. Useful for plugins needing further intialisation. | `() => {}` | | `defaultLanguageForUnknown` | The language to use for code blocks that specify a language that Prism does not know. No default will be used if this option is `undefined`. | `undefined` | | `defaultLanguageForUnspecified` | The language to use for code block that do not specify a language. No default will be used if this option is `undefined`. | `undefined` | | `defaultLanguage` | Shorthand to set both `defaultLanguageForUnknown` and `defaultLanguageForUnspecified` to the same value. | `undefined` | ### Inline Code When `highlightInlineCode` is set, inline code will be highlighted just like fenced code blocks are. To specifiy the language of inline code, add `{language=}` after the code segment: ```markdown `class Demo { };`{language=cpp} ``` ### markdown-it-attrs This plugin is compatible with [markdown-it-attrs](https://github.com/arve0/markdown-it-attrs). For inline code, the `language` attribute will be interpreted as the highlight language and will _not_ be present as an HTML attribute. > [!IMPORTANT] > 1. For full compatibility, you must use [markdown-it-attrs](https://github.com/arve0/markdown-it-attrs) v5.0.0 or later. > 2. If you configure `allowedAttributes` for markdown-it-attrs, make sure to include `language`. Otherwise, you will not be able to specify the language of inline code. ## Usage with Webpack If you want to use this plugin together with [Webpack](https://webpack.js.org/), you need to import all languages you intend to use: ```javascript import MarkdownIt from 'markdown-it'; import prism from 'markdown-it-prism'; import "prismjs/components/prism-clike" import "prismjs/components/prism-java" function component() { const md = new MarkdownIt(); md.use(prism); const element = document.createElement('div'); element.innerHTML = md.render(` Here is some *code*: \`\`\`java public class Test { public void foo() {} } \`\`\` `); return element; } document.body.appendChild(component()); ``` > [!NOTE] > Prisms languages have dependencies onto each other. You need to import the languages together with their dependencies in the correct order. --- _Source: https://npm.io/package/markdown-it-prism · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._