remark-toc

What is remark-toc?

The remark-toc package is a plugin for the remark markdown processor that automatically generates a table of contents (TOC) for markdown documents. It scans the document for headings and creates a TOC based on those headings, which can be customized and inserted at a specified location in the document.

What are remark-toc's main functionalities?

Generate TOC

This feature allows you to generate a table of contents for a markdown document. The code sample demonstrates how to use the remark-toc plugin with the remark processor to automatically generate a TOC based on the headings in the document.

const remark = require('remark');
const toc = require('remark-toc');

remark()
  .use(toc)
  .process('# Title\n## Subtitle\n### Subsubtitle', function (err, file) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(String(file));
  });

Custom TOC Heading

This feature allows you to customize the heading of the generated TOC. The code sample shows how to set a custom heading 'Table of Contents' for the TOC.

const remark = require('remark');
const toc = require('remark-toc');

remark()
  .use(toc, { heading: 'Table of Contents' })
  .process('# Title\n## Subtitle\n### Subsubtitle', function (err, file) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(String(file));
  });

Custom TOC Depth

This feature allows you to limit the depth of the TOC. The code sample demonstrates how to generate a TOC that includes only headings up to the second level.

const remark = require('remark');
const toc = require('remark-toc');

remark()
  .use(toc, { maxDepth: 2 })
  .process('# Title\n## Subtitle\n### Subsubtitle', function (err, file) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(String(file));
  });

Other packages similar to remark-toc

markdown-toc

The markdown-toc package generates a table of contents for markdown files. It is a standalone tool that can be used via the command line or as a library in Node.js. Unlike remark-toc, which is a plugin for the remark processor, markdown-toc is a more general-purpose tool that can be used independently of any specific markdown processor.

doctoc

The doctoc package is a command-line tool that generates a table of contents for markdown files. It is designed to be used as a standalone tool and can automatically update the TOC in place. Compared to remark-toc, doctoc is more focused on being a CLI tool and does not integrate directly with the remark processor.

README

remark-toc

remark plugin to generate a table of contents.

Install

This package is ESM only: Node 12+ is needed to use it and it must be imported instead of required.

npm:

npm install remark-toc

Use

Say we have the following file, example.md:

# Alpha

## Table of Contents

## Bravo

### Charlie

## Delta

And our module, example.js, looks as follows (note: install all these dependencies!):

import {readSync} from 'to-vfile'
import {remark} from 'remark'
import remarkToc from 'remark-toc'

const file = readSync('example.md')

remark()
  .use(remarkToc)
  .process(file)
  .then((file) => {
    console.log(String(file))
  })

Now, running node example yields:

# Alpha

## Table of Contents

-   [Bravo](#bravo)

    -   [Charlie](#charlie)

-   [Delta](#delta)

## Bravo

### Charlie

## Delta

API

This package exports no identifiers. The default export is remarkToc.

unified().use(remarkToc[, options])

Generate a table of contents.

• Looks for the first heading containing 'Table of Contents', 'toc', or 'table-of-contents' (case insensitive, supports alt/title attributes for links and images too)
• Removes all following contents until an equal or higher heading is found
• Inserts a list representation of the hierarchy of following headings
• Links from the table of contents to following headings, using the same slugs as GitHub

Note: if you’re later compiling to HTML, you still need to add anchors to headings. Previously that was done by this plugin as well, but now you must .use(slug) to include remark-slug explicitly.

options

All options are passed to mdast-util-toc, with the exception that heading defaults to 'toc|table[ -]of[ -]contents?'.

Security

Use of remark-toc involves user content and changes the tree, so it can open you up for a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack.

Existing nodes are copied into the table of contents. The following example shows how an existing script is copied into the table of contents.

The following Markdown:

# Table of Contents

## Bravo<script>alert(1)</script>

## Charlie

Yields:

# Table of Contents

-   [Bravo<script>alert(1)</script>](#bravoscriptalert1script)
-   [Charlie](#charlie)

## Bravo<script>alert(1)</script>

## Charlie

This may become a problem if the Markdown is later transformed to rehype (hast) or opened in an unsafe Markdown viewer.

Related

• remark-slug – Add anchors to headings using GitHub’s algorithm
• remark-collapse – Make a section collapsible
• remark-normalize-headings — Make sure there is no more than a single top-level heading in the document and rewrite the rest accordingly
• remark-behead — Change header levels
• mdast-util-toc — Core functionality of this plugin

Contribute

See contributing.md in remarkjs/.github for ways to get started. See support.md for ways to get help.

This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.

License

MIT © Titus Wormer