createHighlighter

function createHighlighter(options?): Promise<Highlighter>;

Create a syntax highlighter backed by Shiki (TextMate grammars).

By default uses a terminal-native theme whose colors adapt to your terminal palette. Pass a theme name to use a Shiki built-in theme with fixed hex colors instead.

The <Markdown> component handles this automatically — you only need createHighlighter when sharing a single instance across multiple components or when you need manual control.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`options?`	`CreateHighlighterOptions`	Optional theme and language configuration.

Returns

Promise<Highlighter>

A Highlighter instance ready to tokenize code.

Examples

const hl = await createHighlighter();
const tokens = hl.highlight("const x = 1;", "typescript");

// Share across multiple Markdown components
const hl = await createHighlighter({ langs: ["tsx", "python"] });
<Markdown highlight={hl}>{doc1}</Markdown>
<Markdown highlight={hl}>{doc2}</Markdown>

Highlighter

A syntax highlighter instance that tokenizes code strings.

Created via createHighlighter. Can be passed to the <Markdown> component’s highlight prop to share a single Shiki instance across multiple renders.

Methods

highlight()

highlight(code, lang?): HighlightToken[][];

Tokenize a code string into styled lines.

Parameters

Parameter	Type
`code`	`string`
`lang?`	`string`

Returns

HighlightToken[][]

Properties

Property	Modifier	Type	Description
`loadedLanguages`	`readonly`	`string`[]	List of currently loaded language grammar IDs.

HighlightToken

A single token of highlighted code with optional styling.

Properties

Property	Type	Description
`bold?`	`boolean`	Whether the token should be rendered bold.
`color?`	`string`	Foreground color — either a Glyph named color or a hex string.
`content`	`string`	The text content of the token.
`italic?`	`boolean`	Whether the token should be rendered italic.
`underline?`	`boolean`	Whether the token should be rendered with underline.

CreateHighlighterOptions

Properties

Property	Type	Description
`langs?`	`BundledLanguage`[]	Languages to load. Defaults to a common set.
`theme?`	`BundledTheme`	Shiki theme name. When omitted, uses a built-in terminal-native theme that outputs ANSI named colors (inherits from the terminal palette).