Optional MyST Syntaxes¶

MyST-Parser is highly configurable, utilising the inherent “plugability” of the markdown-it-py parser. The following syntaxes are optional (disabled by default) and can be enabled via the sphinx conf.py (see also Sphinx configuration options). Their goal is generally to add more Markdown friendly syntaxes; often enabling and rendering markdown-it-py plugins that extend the CommonMark specification.

To enable all the syntaxes explained below:

myst_enable_extensions = [
    "amsmath",
    "colon_fence",
    "deflist",
    "dollarmath",
    "html_admonition",
    "html_image",
    "linkify",
    "replacements",
    "smartquotes",
    "substitution"
]

Important

myst_enable_extensions replaces previous configuration options: admonition_enable, figure_enable, dmath_enable, amsmath_enable, deflist_enable, html_img_enable

Typography¶

Adding "smartquotes" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file) will automatically convert standard quotations to their opening/closing variants:

'single quotes': ‘single quotes’
"double quotes": “double quotes”

Adding "replacements" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file) will automatically convert some common typographic texts

text	converted
`(c)`, `(C)`	©
`(tm)`, `(TM)`	™
`(r)`, `(R)`	®
`(p)`, `(P)`	§
`+-`	±
`...`	…
`?....`	?..
`!....`	!..
`????????`	???
`!!!!!`	!!!
`,,,`	,
`--`	–
`---`	—

Linkify¶

Adding "linkify" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file) will automatically identify “bare” web URLs and add hyperlinks:

www.example.com -> www.example.com

Important

This extension requires that linkify-it-py is installed. Either directly; pip install linkify-it-py or via pip install myst-parser[linkify].

Substitutions (with Jinja2)¶

Adding "substitution" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file) will allow you to add substitutions, added in either the conf.py using myst_substitutions:

myst_substitutions = {
  "key1": "I'm a **substitution**"
}

or at the top of the file, in the front-matter section (see this section):

---
substitutions:
  key1: "I'm a **substitution**"
  key2: |
    ```{note}
    {{ key1 }}
    ```
  key3: |
    ```{image} img/fun-fish.png
    :alt: fishy
    :width: 200px
    ```
  key4: example
---

Important

Keys in the front-matter will override ones in the conf.py.

You can use these substitutions inline or as blocks, and you can even nest substitutions in other substitutions (but circular references are prohibited):

Markdown Input

Inline: {{ key1 }}

Block level:

{{ key2 }}

| col1     | col2     |
| -------- | -------- |
| {{key2}} | {{key3}} |

Rendered Output

Inline: I’m a substitution

Block level:

Note

I’m a substitution

col1

col2

Note

I’m a substitution

Important

Substitutions will only be assessed where you would normally use Markdown, e.g. not in code blocks:

```
{{ key1 }}
```

{{ key1 }}

One should also be wary of using unsuitable directives for inline substitutions. This may lead to unexpected outcomes.

Substitution references are assessed as Jinja2 expressions which can use filters, and also contains the Sphinx Environment in the context (as env). Therefore you can do things like:

{{ env.docname | upper }}
{{ "a" + "b" }}

USING/SYNTAX-OPTIONAL

ab

You can also change the delimiter if necessary, for example setting in the conf.py:

myst_sub_delimiters = ["|", "|"]

Will parse: || "a" + "b" ||. This should be changed with care though, so as not to affect other syntaxes.

The exact logic for handling substitutions is:

Combine global substitutions (specified in conf.py) with front-matter substitutions, to create a variable context (front-matter takes priority)
Add the sphinx env to the variable context
Create the string content to render using Jinja2 (passing it the variable context)
If the substitution is inline and not a directive, render ignoring block syntaxes (like lists or block-quotes), otherwise render with all syntax rules.

Substitutions and URLs¶

Substitutions cannot be directly used in URLs, such as [a link](https://{{key4}}.com) or <https://{{key4}}.com>. However, since Jinja2 substitutions allow for Python methods to be used, you can use string formatting or replacements:

{{ '[a link](https://{}.com)'.format(key4) }}

{{ '<https://myst-parser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/REPLACE.html>'.replace('REPLACE', env.docname) }}

a link

https://myst-parser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/using/syntax-optional.html

Code fences using colons¶

By adding "colon_fence" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file), you can also use ::: delimiters to denote code fences, instead of ```.

Using colons instead of back-ticks has the benefit of allowing the content to be rendered correctly, when you are working in any standard Markdown editor. It is ideal for admonition type directives (as documented in Directives) or tables with titles, for example:

Markdown Input

:::{note}
This text is **standard** _Markdown_
:::

:::{table} This is a **standard** _Markdown_ title
:align: center
:widths: grid

abc | mnp | xyz
--- | --- | ---
123 | 456 | 789
:::

Rendered Output

Note

This text is standard Markdown

This is a **standard** *Markdown* title¶
abc	mnp	xyz
123	456	789

Similar to normal directives, these directives can also be nested:

::::{important}
:::{note}
This text is **standard** _Markdown_
:::
::::

Important

Note

This text is standard Markdown

and also parameter options can be used:

:::{admonition} This *is* also **Markdown**
:class: warning

This text is **standard** _Markdown_
:::

This is also Markdown

This text is standard Markdown

Admonition directives¶

Important

myst_admonition_enable is deprecated and replaced by myst_enable_extensions = ["colon_fence"] (see above). Also, classes should now be set with the :class: myclass option.

Also see HTML Admonitions.

Auto-generated header anchors¶

A common, extended Markdown syntax is to use header bookmark links, locally; [](#header-anchor), or cross-file [](path/to/file.md#header-anchor). To achieve this, section headings must be assigned anchors, which can be achieved in myst-parser, by setting myst_heading_anchors = 2 in your conf.py. This configures heading anchors to be assigned to both h1 and h2 level headings. The anchor “slugs” created aim to follow the GitHub implementation; lower-case text, removing punctuation, replacing spaces with -, uniqueness via suffix enumeration -1. You can inspect the links that will be created using the command-line tool:

$ myst-anchors -l 2 docs/using/syntax-optional.md
<h1 id="optional-myst-syntaxes"></h1>
<h2 id="admonition-directives"></h2>
<h2 id="auto-generated-header-anchors"></h2>
<h2 id="definition-lists"></h2>
<h2 id="images"></h2>
<h2 id="markdown-figures"></h2>
<h2 id="direct-latex-math"></h2>

For example [](#auto-generated-header-anchors): Auto-generated header anchors.

The paths to other files should be relative to the current file, for example [**link text**](./syntax.md#the-myst-syntax-guide): link text.

Definition Lists¶

By adding "deflist" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file), you will be able to utilise definition lists. Definition lists utlise the markdown-it-py deflist plugin, which itself is based on the Pandoc definition list specification.

This syntax can be useful, for example, as an alternative to nested bullet-lists:

Term 1
- Definition
Term 2
- Definition

Using instead:

Term 1
: Definition

Term 2
: Definition

Term 1: Definition
Term 2: Definition

From the Pandoc documentation:

Each term must fit on one line, which may optionally be followed by a blank line, and must be followed by one or more definitions. A definition begins with a colon or tilde, which may be indented one or two spaces.

A term may have multiple definitions, and each definition may consist of one or more block elements (paragraph, code block, list, etc.)

Here is a more complex example, demonstrating some of these features:

Term with Markdown

Definition with reference

A second paragraph

A second definition

Term 2

Definition 2a

Definition 2b

Term 3

A code block

A quote

A final definition, that can even include images:

This was created from:

Term *with Markdown*
: Definition [with reference](syntax/definition-lists)

  A second paragraph

Term 2
  ~ Definition 2a
  ~ Definition 2b

Term 3
:     A code block

: > A quote

: A final definition, that can even include images:

  <img src="img/fun-fish.png" alt="fishy" width="200px">

Images¶

MyST provides a few different syntaxes for including images in your documentation, as explained below.

The first is the standard Markdown syntax:

![fishy](img/fun-fish.png)

fishy

This will correctly copy the image to the build folder and will render it in all output formats (HTML, TeX, etc). However, it is limited in the configuration that can be applied, for example setting a width.

As discussed above, MyST allow for directives to be used such as image and figure (see the sphinx documentation):

```{image} img/fun-fish.png
:alt: fishy
:class: bg-primary
:width: 200px
:align: center
```

Additional options can now be set, however, in contrast to the Markdown syntax, this syntax will not show the image in common Markdown viewers (for example when the files are viewed on GitHub).

The final option is directly using HTML, which is also parsed by MyST. This is usually a bad option, because the HTML is treated as raw text during the build process and so sphinx will not recognise that the image file is to be copied, and will not output the HTML into non-HTML output formats.

HTML parsing to the rescue!

By adding "html_image" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file), MySt-Parser will attempt to convert any isolated img tags (i.e. not wrapped in any other HTML) to the internal representation used in sphinx.

<img src="img/fun-fish.png" alt="fishy" width="200px">
<img src="img/fun-fish.png" alt="fishy" width="200px" class="bg-primary">

Allowed attributes are equivalent to the image directive: src, alt, class, width, height and name. Any other attributes will be dropped.

HTML image can also be used inline!

I’m an inline image:

Markdown Figures¶

By adding "colon_fence" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file), we can combine the above two extended syntaxes, to create a fully Markdown compliant version of the figure directive named figure-md.

Important

myst_figure_enable with the figure directive is deprecated and replaced by myst_enable_extensions = ["colon_fence"] and figure-md.

The figure block must contain only two components; an image, in either Markdown or HTML syntax, and a single paragraph for the caption.

The title is optional and taken as the reference target of the figure:

:::{figure-md} fig-target
:class: myclass

<img src="img/fun-fish.png" alt="fishy" class="bg-primary mb-1" width="200px">

This is a caption in **Markdown**
:::

This is a caption in Markdown¶

As we see here, the target we set can be referenced:

[Go to the fish!](fig-target)

Go to the fish!

HTML Admonitions¶

By adding "html_admonition" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file), you can enable parsing of <div class="admonition"> HTML blocks. These blocks will be converted internally to Sphinx admonition directives, and so will work correctly for all output formats. This is helpful when you care about viewing the “source” Markdown, such as in Jupyter Notebooks.

If the first element within the div is <div class="title"> or <p class="title">, then this will be set as the admonition title. All internal text (and the title) will be parsed as MyST-Markdown and all classes and an optional name will be passed to the admonition:

<div class="admonition note" name="html-admonition" style="background: lightgreen; padding: 10px">
<p class="title">This is the **title**</p>
This is the *content*
</div>

This is the title

This is the content

During the Sphinx render, both the class and name attributes will be used by Sphinx, but any other attributes like style will be discarded.

Warning

There can be no empty lines in the block, otherwise they will be read as two separate blocks. If you want to use multiple paragraphs then they can be enclosed in <p>:

<div class="admonition note">
<p>Paragraph 1</p>
<p>Paragraph 2</p>
</div>

Note

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2

You can also nest HTML admonitions:

<div class="admonition">
<p>Some **content**</p>
  <div class="admonition tip">
  <div class="title">A *title*</div>
  <p>Paragraph 1</p>
  <p>Paragraph 2</p>
  </div>
</div>

Note

Some content

A title

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2

Direct LaTeX Math¶

By adding "amsmath" to myst_enable_extensions (in the sphinx conf.py configuration file), you can enable direct parsing of amsmath LaTeX equations. These top-level math environments will then be directly parsed:

equation, multline, gather, align, alignat, flalign, matrix, pmatrix, bmatrix, Bmatrix, vmatrix, Vmatrix, eqnarray.

As expected, environments ending in * will not be numbered, for example:

\begin{gather*}
a_1=b_1+c_1\\
a_2=b_2+c_2-d_2+e_2
\end{gather*}

\begin{align}
a_{11}& =b_{11}&
  a_{12}& =b_{12}\\
a_{21}& =b_{21}&
  a_{22}& =b_{22}+c_{22}
\end{align}

\[\begin{gather*} a_1=b_1+c_1\\ a_2=b_2+c_2-d_2+e_2 \end{gather*}\]

(1)¶\[\begin{align} a_{11}& =b_{11}& a_{12}& =b_{12}\\ a_{21}& =b_{21}& a_{22}& =b_{22}+c_{22} \end{align}\]

Note

\labels inside the environment are not currently identified, and so cannot be referenced. We hope to implement this in a future update (see executablebooks/MyST-Parser#202)!

Important

This syntax will also work when nested in other block elements, like lists or quotes:

- A list
- \begin{gather*}
  a_1=b_1+c_1\\a_2=b_2+c_2-d_2+e_2
  \end{gather*}

> A block quote
> \begin{gather*}
  a_1=b_1+c_1\\a_2=b_2+c_2-d_2+e_2
  \end{gather*}

A list
\[\begin{gather*} a_1=b_1+c_1\\a_2=b_2+c_2-d_2+e_2 \end{gather*}\]

A block quote

\[\begin{gather*} a_1=b_1+c_1\\a_2=b_2+c_2-d_2+e_2 \end{gather*}\]