remark plugin to generate a list of contributors.

• What is this?
• When should I use this?
• Install
• Use
• API
  • unified().use(remarkContributors[, options])
  • Contributor
  • ContributorObject
  • Format
  • Formatter
  • FormatterObject
  • Formatters
  • Options
• Examples
  • Example: passing contributors
  • Example: formatters
• Types
• Compatibility
• Security
• Related
• Contribute
• Contributors
• License

This package is a unified (remark) plugin that takes a list of contributors and adds them in a table to a ## Contributors heading.

This project is useful when you’re writing documentation for a project, typically a Node.js package, that has one or more readmes and maybe some other markdown files as well. You want to show who helped build the project by adding their names, websites, and perhaps some more info. This package is useful because it’s automated: you can customize who is added and how that’s formatted. But it won’t be as expressive as writing such sections manually.

This plugin is used in remark-git-contributors. The difference is that that plugin takes the Git history into account, which isn’t always needed or correct.

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 16+), install with npm:

npm install remark-contributors

In Deno with esm.sh:

import remarkContributors from 'https://esm.sh/remark-contributors@7'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import remarkContributors from 'https://esm.sh/remark-contributors@7?bundle'
</script>

Say we have the following file example.md in this project:

# Example

Some text.

## Contributors

## License

MIT

…and a module example.js:

import {remark} from 'remark'
import remarkContributors from 'remark-contributors'
import remarkGfm from 'remark-gfm'
import {read} from 'to-vfile'

const file = await remark()
  .use(remarkGfm) // This is needed to add support for tables (a GFM feature).
  .use(remarkContributors)
  .process(await read('example.md'))

console.log(String(file))

…then running node example.js yields:

# Example

Some text.

## Contributors

| Name                | Website                     |
| ------------------- | --------------------------- |
| **Hugh Kennedy**    | <https://hughsk.io>         |
| **Titus Wormer**    | <https://wooorm.com>        |
| **Vincent Weevers** | <https://vincentweevers.nl> |
| **Nick Baugh**      | <https://niftylettuce.com>  |

## License

MIT

👉 Note: These contributors are inferred from the package.json in this project. Running this example in a different package will yield different results.

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

Generate a list of contributors.

In short, this plugin:

• looks for the first heading matching /^contributors$/i or options.heading
• if no heading is found and appendIfMissing is set, injects such a heading
• if there is a heading, replaces everything in that section with a new table

• options (Options, optional) — configuration

Transform (Transformer).

• define fields other than name, url, github, or twitter in formatters to label them properly
• by default, fields named url will be labelled Website (so that package.json contributors field is displayed nicely)
• by default, fields named email are ignored
• name fields are displayed as strong
• GitHub and Twitter URLs are automatically stripped and displayed with @mentions wrapped in an https:// link
• if a field is undefined for a given contributor, then the value will be an empty table cell
• columns are sorted in the order they are defined (first defined means first displayed)

Contributor in string form (name <email> (url)) or as object (TypeScript type).

type Contributor = ContributorObject | string

Contributor with fields (TypeScript type).

type ContributorObject = Record<string, unknown>

Format a field (TypeScript type).

• value (unknown) — value to format
• key (string) — name of a field in a contributor
• contributor (Contributor) — whole contributor

Content (Array<PhrasingContent> | PhrasingContent | string, optional)

How to format a field, in short (TypeScript type).

The values can be:

• null or undefined — does nothing;
• false — shortcut for {exclude: true, label: key}, can be used to exclude default formatters;
• true — shortcut for {label: key}, can be used to include default formatters (like email)
• string — shortcut for {label: value}
• Formatter — …or a proper formatter object

type Formatter = FormatterObject | boolean | string | null | undefined

How to format a field (TypeScript type).

• exclude (boolean, default: false) — whether to ignore these fields
• format (Format, optional) — How to format the cell
• label (string, optional) — text in the header row that labels the column for this field

Formatters for fields (TypeScript type).

type Formatters = Record<string, Formatter>

Configuration (TypeScript type).

• align (AlignType from mdast, optional) — alignment to use for all cells in the table
• appendIfMissing (boolean, default: false) — inject the section if there is none; the default does nothing when the section doesn’t exist so that you have to choose where and if the section is added
• contributors (Array<Contributor>, default: contributors in package.json in Node) — list of contributors to inject; supports string form (name <email> (url)); throws if no contributors are found or given
• formatters (string, optional) — map of fields found in contributors to formatters; these given formatters extend the default formatters; the keys in formatters should correspond directly (case-sensitive) to keys in contributors
• heading (RegExp | string, default: 'contributors') — heading to look for

The following example shows how contributors can be passed:

import {remark} from 'remark'
import remarkContributors from 'remark-contributors'
import remarkGfm from 'remark-gfm'

const file = await remark()
  .use(remarkGfm)
  .use(remarkContributors, {
    contributors: [
      // String form:
      'Jane Doe <[email protected]> (https://example.com/jane)',
      // Object form, with just a name:
      {name: 'John Doe'},
      // Some more info:
      {name: 'Mona Lisa', url: 'https://github.com/monatheoctocat'}
    ]
  })
  .process('## Contributors')

console.log(String(file))

Yields:

## Contributors

| Name          | Website                             |
| ------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| **Jane Doe**  | <https://example.com/jane>          |
| **John Doe**  |                                     |
| **Mona Lisa** | <https://github.com/monatheoctocat> |

By default, unknown fields in contributors will be added to the table:

import {remark} from 'remark'
import remarkContributors from 'remark-contributors'
import remarkGfm from 'remark-gfm'

const file = await remark()
  .use(remarkGfm)
  .use(remarkContributors, {
    contributors: [
      {name: 'Jane Doe', age: 31, topping: 'Mozzarella'},
      {name: 'John Doe', age: 29, topping: 'Olive'},
      {name: 'Mona Lisa', age: 3, topping: 'Pineapple'}
    ]
  })
  .process('## Contributors')

console.log(String(file))

Yields:

## Contributors

| Name          | age | topping    |
| ------------- | --- | ---------- |
| **Jane Doe**  | 31  | Mozzarella |
| **John Doe**  | 29  | Olive      |
| **Mona Lisa** | 3   | Pineapple  |

It’s possible to customize how these new fields are formatted:

@@ -12,7 +12,16 @@ const file = await remark()
       {name: 'Jane Doe', age: 31, topping: 'Mozzarella'},
       {name: 'John Doe', age: 29, topping: 'Olive'},
       {name: 'Mona Lisa', age: 3, topping: 'Pineapple'}
-    ]
+    ],
+    formatters: {
+      age: {
+        label: 'Age',
+        format(d) {
+          return {type: 'emphasis', children: [{type: 'text', value: String(d)}]}
+        }
+      },
+      topping: 'Topping'
+    }
   })
   .process('## Contributors')

Yields:

| Name          | Age  | Topping    |
| ------------- | ---- | ---------- |
| **Jane Doe**  | *31* | Mozzarella |
| **John Doe**  | *29* | Olive      |
| **Mona Lisa** | *3*  | Pineapple  |

👉 Note: observe that the labels of Age and Topping are now cased, and that the age values are now wrapped in emphasis.

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports the additional types Contributor, ContributorObject, Format, Formatter, FormatterObject, Formatters, and Options.

Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with maintained versions of Node.js.

When we cut a new major release, we drop support for unmaintained versions of Node. This means we try to keep the current release line, remark-contributors@^7, compatible with Node.js 16.

This plugin works with unified version 6+ and remark version 7+.

options.contributors (or contributors in package.json) is used and injected into the tree when given or found. Data in those lists is formatted by options.formatters. If a user has access to either, this could open you up to a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack.

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

• remark-git-contributors – very similar to this plugin but uses info from Git
• remark-collapse – make a section collapsible
• remark-normalize-headings — make sure there is a single top level heading in a document by adjusting heading ranks accordingly
• remark-behead — increase or decrease markdown heading ranks
• remark-toc — generate a table of contents (TOC)
• remark-license — generate a license section

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.

MIT © Hugh Kennedy