md-ts-mode

md-ts-mode is a tree-sitter-based major mode for editing Markdown. It is derived from markdown-ts-mode in GNU Emacs 31 and works on Emacs 29, 30, and 31.

Features

• Syntax highlighting for headings (atx and setext), emphasis, strong emphasis, strikethrough (~~deleted~~), code spans, links (inline, full reference, collapsed reference, shortcut), images, block quotes, list markers, and indented code blocks.
• Task list markers ([ ], [x]) rendered as checkbox glyphs (☐, ☑).
• Thematic breaks (---, ***, ___) rendered as horizontal rules.
• Pipe tables with bold headers, subdued delimiter rows, and inline markup (emphasis, code, links) fontified inside cells.
• HTML blocks highlighted with font-lock-doc-face.
• Fenced code blocks fontified by the corresponding language grammar when available.
• YAML and TOML front matter fontified when their grammars are available.
• Hide-markup mode: md-ts-toggle-hide-markup hides delimiters (#, *, ~, brackets, URLs) so only content is visible.
• Imenu and outline-minor-mode integration via headings.
• Custom faces: md-ts-heading-1 through md-ts-heading-6, md-ts-setext-heading, md-ts-delimiter, md-ts-list-marker, md-ts-block-quote, md-ts-strikethrough, md-ts-language-keyword, and md-ts-task-list-marker.

Requirements

• GNU Emacs 29.1 or later, built with tree-sitter support.
• Tree-sitter grammars: markdown and markdown-inline from tree-sitter-markdown (version 0.4.1 or compatible).

Installation

Install from MELPA:

M-x package-install RET md-ts-mode RET

Or with use-package:

(use-package md-ts-mode
  :ensure t)

If you do not already have MELPA configured, add this to your init file:

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") t)
(package-initialize)

Installing or loading md-ts-mode does not change how Markdown files are chosen globally. If you want md-ts-mode to handle Markdown explicitly, add:

(md-ts-mode-enable-global)

The helper is autoloaded and idempotent. On Emacs 31 it also prefers md-ts-mode over the built-in markdown-ts-mode.

Install tree-sitter grammars

After loading md-ts-mode once, install the Markdown grammars:

M-x treesit-install-language-grammar RET markdown RET
M-x treesit-install-language-grammar RET markdown-inline RET

If only part of a file is highlighted, one of the grammars is probably missing.

Embedded code blocks

Fenced code blocks with a language tag (e.g., ```python) are parsed and fontified by the corresponding language grammar. Install the grammar for any language you want highlighted:

M-x treesit-install-language-grammar RET python RET

The variable md-ts-code-block-source-mode-map maps language symbols to their tree-sitter major modes. The mode must be installed and its grammar available for highlighting to work.

Compatibility

The compatibility shims in md-ts-mode.el backport Emacs 31 tree-sitter range infrastructure to Emacs 29 and 30. This includes replacements for treesit-range-fn-exclude-children, treesit-query-range (with RANGE-FN argument), treesit-range-rules (with :range-fn keyword and function-form :embed), treesit-update-ranges, and treesit--update-ranges-local.

On Emacs 29, additional shims provide treesit-node-children, derived-mode-add-parents, and wrappers for C functions whose signatures changed in Emacs 30 (treesit-parser-create, treesit-parser-list).

On Emacs 31 all guards are false and no shims are defined.

Tested on Emacs 29.4, 30.1, and development snapshot (31).

Acknowledgments

Based on markdown-ts-mode from GNU Emacs 31, originally written by Rahul Martim Juliato.