A markdown parser written in Rust. Fast, Easy to extend, Standards-compliant.

rushdown is compliant with CommonMark 0.31.2 & GitHub Flavored Markdown¹.

I needed a Markdown parser that met the following requirements:

• Written in Rust
• Compliant with CommonMark
• Fast
• Extensible from the outside of the crate
• AST-based

In short, I wanted something like goldmark written in Rust. However, no existing library satisfied these requirements.

• Standards-compliant. rushdown is fully compliant with the latest CommonMark specification.
• Extensible. Do you want to add a @username mention syntax to Markdown? You can easily do so in rushdown. You can add your AST nodes, parsers for block-level elements, parsers for inline-level elements, transformers for paragraphs, transformers for the whole AST structure, and renderers.
• Performance. rushdown is one of the fastest CommonMark parser Rust implementations compared to pulldown-cmark, comrak, and markdown-rs.
• Robust. rushdown is tested with cargo fuzz.
• Built-in extensions. rushdown ships with GFM extensions.

You can run this benchmark by make bench

rushdown builds a clean, extensible AST structure, achieves full compliance with CommonMark, all while being one of the fastest CommonMark parser implementation written in Rust.

rushdown-cached         time: 3.1845 ms
rushdown                time: 3.3427 ms
markdown-rs             time: 89.692 ms
comrak                  time: 4.2451 ms
pulldown-cmark          time: 6.0037 ms
cmark                   time: 3.6439 ms
goldmark                time: 5.6161 ms

By default, rushdown does not render raw HTML or potentially-dangerous URLs. If you need to gain more control over untrusted contents, it is recommended that you use an HTML sanitizer such as ammonia.

Add dependency to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
rushdown = "x.y.z"

CommonMark defines that parsers should handle HTML entities correctly. But this requires a large map that maps entity names to their corresponding Unicode code points. If you don't need this feature, you can disable it by adding the following line to your Cargo.toml:

rushdown = { version = "x.y.z", default-features = false, features = ["std"] }

In this case, the parser will only support numeric character references and some predefined entities (like &, <, >, ", etc).

rushdown can also be used in no_std environments. To enable this feature, add the following line to your Cargo.toml:

rushdown = { version = "x.y.z", default-features = false, features = ["no-std"] }

Render Markdown(CommonMark, without GFM) to HTML string:

use rushdown::markdown_to_html_string;
let mut output = String::new();
let input = "# Hello, World!\n\nThis is a **Markdown** document.";
match markdown_to_html_string(&mut output, input) {
    Ok(_) => {
        println!("HTML output:\n{}", output);
    }
    Err(e) => {
    println!("Error: {:?}", e);
    }
 };

Render Markdown with GFM extensions to HTML string:

use core::fmt::Write;
use rushdown::{
    new_markdown_to_html,
    parser::{self, ParserExtension, GfmOptions},
    renderer::html::{self, RendererExtension},
    Result,
};

let markdown_to_html = new_markdown_to_html(
    parser::Options::default(),
    html::Options::default(),
    parser::gfm(GfmOptions::default()),
    html::NO_EXTENSIONS,
);
let mut output = String::new();
let input = "# Hello, World!\n\nThis is a ~~Markdown~~ document.";
match markdown_to_html(&mut output, input) {
    Ok(_) => {
        println!("HTML output:\n{}", output);
    }
    Err(e) => {
        println!("Error: {:?}", e);
    }
}

You can use subset of the GFM extensions:

use core::fmt::Write;
use rushdown::{
    new_markdown_to_html,
    parser::{self, ParserExtension},
    renderer::html::{self, RendererExtension},
    Result,
};

let markdown_to_html = new_markdown_to_html(
    parser::Options::default(),
    html::Options::default(),
    parser::gfm_table().and(parser::gfm_task_list_item()),
    html::NO_EXTENSIONS,
);
let mut output = String::new();
let input = "# Hello, World!\n\nThis is a **Markdown** document.";
match markdown_to_html(&mut output, input) {
    Ok(_) => {
        println!("HTML output:\n{}", output);
    }
    Err(e) => {
        println!("Error: {:?}", e);
    }
}

Currently only headings support attributes. Attributes are being discussed in the CommonMark forum. This syntax may possibly change in the future.

## heading ## {#id .className attrName=attrValue class="class1 class2"}

## heading {#id .className attrName=attrValue class="class1 class2"}

heading {#id .className attrName=attrValue}
============

GFM does not define details how task list items should be rendered.

You can customize the rendering of task list items by implementing a function:

use rushdown::{
    ast, new_markdown_to_html_string,
    parser::{self, GfmOptions},
    renderer,
    renderer::html,
};

let markdown_to_html = new_markdown_to_html_string(
    parser::Options::default(),
    html::Options::default(),
    parser::gfm(GfmOptions::default()),
    html::paragraph_renderer(html::ParagraphRendererOptions {
        render_task_list_item: Some(Box::new(
            |w: &mut String,
             pr: &html::ParagraphRenderer<String>,
             source: &str,
             arena: &ast::Arena,
             node_ref: ast::NodeRef,
             ctx: &mut renderer::Context| {
                // do stuff
                Ok(())
            },
        )),
        ..Default::default()
    }),
);
let input = r#"
- [ ] Item
- [x] Item
"#;
let mut output = String::new();
match markdown_to_html(&mut output, input) {
    Ok(_) => {
        println!("HTML output:\n{}", output);
    }
    Err(e) => {
        println!("Error: {:?}", e);
    }
}

rushdown builds a clean AST structure that is easy to traverse and manipulate. The AST is built on top of an arena allocator, which allows for efficient memory management and fast node access.

Each node belongs to a specific type and kind.

• Node
  • has a type_data: node type(block or inline) specific data
  • has a kind_data: node kind(e.g. Text, Paragraph) specific data
  • has a parent, first_child, next_sibling... : relationships

These macros can be used to access node data.

• matches_kind! - Helper macro to match kind data.
• as_type_data! - Helper macro to downcast type data.
• as_type_data_mut! - Helper macro to downcast mutable type data.
• as_kind_data! - Helper macro to downcast kind data.
• as_kind_data_mut! - Helper macro to downcast mutable kind data.
• matches_extension_kind! - Helper macro to match extension kind.
• as_extension_data! - Helper macro to downcast extension data.
• as_extension_data_mut! - Helper macro to downcast mutable extension data.

*kind* and *type* macros are defined for rushdown builtin nodes. *extension* macros are defined for extension nodes.

Nodes are stored in an arena for efficient memory management and access. Each node is identified by a NodeRef, which contains the index and unique ID of the node.

You can get and manipulate nodes using the Arena and its methods.

use rushdown::ast::*;
use rushdown::{as_type_data_mut, as_type_data, as_kind_data};
use rushdown::text::Segment;

let mut arena = Arena::new();
let source = "Hello, World!";
let doc_ref = arena.new_node(Document::new());
let paragraph_ref = arena.new_node(Paragraph::new());
let seg = Segment::new(0, source.len());
as_type_data_mut!(&mut arena[paragraph_ref], Block).append_source_line(seg);
let text_ref = arena.new_node(Text::new(seg));
paragraph_ref.append_child(&mut arena, text_ref);
doc_ref.append_child(&mut arena, paragraph_ref);

assert_eq!(arena[paragraph_ref].first_child().unwrap(), text_ref);
assert_eq!(
    as_kind_data!(&arena[text_ref], Text).str(source),
    "Hello, World!"
);
assert_eq!(
    as_type_data!(&arena[paragraph_ref], Block)
        .source()
        .first()
        .unwrap()
        .str(source),
    "Hello, World!"
);

Walkng the AST: You can not mutate the AST while walking it. If you want to mutate the AST, collect the node refs and mutate them after walking.

md_ast macro can be used to build AST more easily.

use core::result::Result;
use core::error::Error;
use core::fmt::{self, Display, Formatter};
use rushdown::ast::*;
use rushdown::md_ast;
use rushdown::matches_kind;

#[derive(Debug)]
enum UserError { SomeError(&'static str) }

impl Error for UserError {}

impl Display for UserError {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
        match self { UserError::SomeError(msg) => write!(f, "UserError: {}", msg) }
    }
}

let mut arena = Arena::default();
let doc_ref = md_ast!(&mut arena, Document::new() => {
    Blockquote::new() => {
        Paragraph::new(); { |node: &mut Node| {
            node.attributes_mut().insert("class", "paragraph".into());
        } } => {
            Text::new("Hello, World!")
        },
        Paragraph::new() => {
            Text::new("This is a test.")
        }
    }
});

let mut target: Option<NodeRef> = None;

walk(&arena, doc_ref, &mut |arena: &Arena,
                            node_ref: NodeRef,
                            entering: bool| -> Result<WalkStatus, UserError > {
    if entering {
        if let Some(fc) = arena[node_ref].first_child() {
            if let KindData::Text(t) = &arena[fc].kind_data() {
                if t.str("").contains("test") {
                    target = Some(node_ref);
                }
                if t.str("").contains("error") {
                    return Err(UserError::SomeError("Some error occurred"));
                }
            }
        }
    }
    Ok(WalkStatus::Continue)
}).ok();
assert_eq!(target, Some(arena[arena[doc_ref].first_child().unwrap()].last_child().unwrap()) );

See tests/extension.rs and override_renderer.rs for examples of how to extend rushdown.

You can extend rushdown by implementing AST nodes, custom block/inline parsers, transformers, and renderers.

The key point of rushdown extensibility is 'dynamic parser/renderer constructor injection'.

You can add parsers and renderers like the following:

fn user_mention_parser_extension() -> impl ParserExtension {
    ParserExtensionFn::new(|p: &mut Parser| {
        p.add_inline_parser(
            UserMentionParser::new,
            NoParserOptions, // no options for this parser
            PRIORITY_EMPHASIS + 100,
        );
    })
}

fn user_mention_html_renderer_extension<'cb, W>(
    options: UserMentionOptions,
) -> impl RendererExtension<'cb, W>
where
    W: TextWrite + 'cb,
{
    RendererExtensionFn::new(move |r: &mut Renderer<'cb, W>| {
        r.add_node_renderer(UserMentionHtmlRenderer::with_options, options);
    })
}

UserMentionParser::new is a constructor function that returns a UserMentionParser instance. rushdown will call this function with the necessary arguments.

Parser/Transformer constructor function can take these arguments if needed, in any order:

• rushdown::parser::Options
• parser options defined by the user
• Rc<RefCell<rushdown::parser::ContextKeyRegistry>>

HtmlRenderer constructor function can take these arguments if needed, in any order:

• rushdown::renderer::html::Options
• renderer options defined by the user
• Rc<RefCell<rushdown::renderer::ContextKeyRegistry>>
• Rc<RefCell<rushdown::renderer::NodeKindRegistry>>

• rushdown-footnote: A footnote extension for rushdown.
• rushdown-meta: A meta(YAML frontmatter) extension for rushdown.
• rushdown-emoji: An emoji extension for rushdown.
• rushdown-highlighting: A syntax highlight extension for rushdown.
• rushdown-diagram: A diagram visualization(e.g. MermaidJS) extension for rushdown.
• rushdown-fenced-div: Fenced div extension for rushdown markdown parser.

BTC: 1NEDSyUmo4SMTDP83JJQSWi1MvQUGGNMZB

Github sponsors also welcome.

MIT

Yusuke Inuzuka