Marko: A markdown parser with high extensibility.¶
Marko is a pure Python markdown parser that adheres to the specifications of CommonMark’s spec v0.30. It has been designed with high extensibility in mind, as detailed in the Extend Marko section.
Marko requires Python 3.7 or higher.
Why Marko?¶
Of all the Python markdown parsers available, a common issue is the difficulty for users to add their own features. Additionally, both Python-Markdown and mistune do not comply with CommonMark specifications. This has prompted me to develop a new markdown parser.
Marko’s compliance with the complex CommonMark specification can impact its performance. However, using a parser that does not adhere to this spec may result in unexpected rendering outcomes. According to benchmark results, Marko is three times slower than Python-Markdown but slightly faster than Commonmark-py and significantly slower than mistune. If prioritizing performance over spec compliance is crucial for you, it would be best to opt for another parser.
Install and Use Marko¶
The installation is very simple:
$ pip install marko
And to use it:
import marko
print(marko.convert(text))
Marko also provides a simple CLI, for example, to render a document and output to a html file:
$ cat my_article.md | marko > my_article.html
Other CLI usage:
usage: marko [-h] [-v] [-p PARSER] [-r RENDERER] [-e EXTENSTION] [-o OUTPUT]
[document]
positional arguments:
document The document to convert, will use stdin if not given.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-v, --version show program's version number and exit
-p PARSER, --parser PARSER
Specify another parser class
-r RENDERER, --renderer RENDERER
Specify another renderer class
-e EXTENSTION, --extension EXTENSTION
Specify the import name of extension, can be given
multiple times
-o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
Ouput to a file