prettier/docs/plugins.md

---

id: plugins

title: Plugins (Beta)

IN BETA

The plugin API is in a beta state as of Prettier 1.10 and the API may change in the next release!

Plugins are ways of adding new languages to Prettier. Prettier's own implementations of all languages are expressed using the plugin API. The core prettier package contains JavaScript and other web-focused languages built in. For additional languages you'll need to install a plugin.

Using Plugins

Plugins are automatically loaded if you have them installed in the same node_modules directory where prettier is located. Plugin package names must start with @prettier/plugin- or prettier-plugin- to be registered.

When plugins cannot be found automatically, you can load them with:

• The CLI, via the --plugin and --plugin-search-dir:

  prettier --write main.foo --plugin-search-dir=./dir-with-plugins --plugin=./foo-plugin

Tip: You can set --plugin or --plugin-search-dir options multiple times.

• Or the API, via the plugins and pluginSearchDirs options:

  prettier.format("code", {
    parser: "foo",
    pluginSearchDirs: ["./dir-with-plugins"],
    plugins: ["./foo-plugin"]
  });

Prettier expects each of pluginSearchDirs to contain node_modules subdirectory, where @prettier/plugin-* and prettier-plugin-* will be searched. For instance, this can be your project directory or the location of global npm modules.

Providing at least one path to --plugin-search-dir/pluginSearchDirs turns off plugin autoloading in the default directory (i.e. node_modules above prettier binary).

Official Plugins

• @prettier/plugin-python
• @prettier/plugin-php
• @prettier/plugin-swift

Community Plugins

• prettier-plugin-elm by @giCentre
• prettier-plugin-java by @thorbenvh8
• prettier-plugin-pg by @benjie
• prettier-plugin-ruby by @iamsolankiamit

Developing Plugins

Prettier plugins are regular JavaScript modules with five exports:

• languages
• parsers
• printers
• options
• defaultOptions

languages

Languages is an array of language definitions that your plugin will contribute to Prettier. It can include all of the fields specified in prettier.getSupportInfo().

It must include name and parsers.

export const languages = [
  {
    // The language name
    name: "InterpretedDanceScript",
    // Parsers that can parse this language.
    // This can be built-in parsers, or parsers you have contributed via this plugin.
    parsers: ["dance-parse"]
  }
];

parsers

Parsers convert code as a string into an AST.

The key must match the name in the parsers array from languages. The value contains a parse function, an AST format name, and two location extraction functions (locStart and locEnd).

export const parsers = {
  "dance-parse": {
    parse,
    // The name of the AST that
    astFormat: "dance-ast",
    hasPragma,
    locStart,
    locEnd,
    preprocess
  }
};

The signature of the parse function is:

function parse(text: string, parsers: object, options: object): AST;

The location extraction functions (locStart and locEnd) return the starting and ending locations of a given AST node:

function locStart(node: object): number;

(Optional) The pragma detection function (hasPragma) should return if the text contains the pragma comment.

function hasPragma(text: string): boolean;

(Optional) The preprocess function can process the input text before passing into parse function.

function preprocess(text: string, options: object): string;

printers

Printers convert ASTs into a Prettier intermediate representation, also known as a Doc.

The key must match the astFormat that the parser produces. The value contains an object with a print function and (optionally) an embed function.

export const printers = {
  "dance-ast": {
    print,
    embed,
    insertPragma
  }
};

Printing is a recursive process of converting an AST node (represented by a path to that node) into a doc. The doc is constructed using the builder commands:

const { concat, join, line, ifBreak, group } = require("prettier").doc.builders;

The signature of the print function is:

function print(
  // Path to the AST node to print
  path: FastPath,
  options: object,
  // Recursively print a child node
  print: (path: FastPath) => Doc
): Doc;

Check out prettier-python's printer as an example.

Embedding refers to printing one language inside another. Examples of this are CSS-in-JS and Markdown code blocks. Plugins can switch to alternate languages using the embed function. Its signature is:

function embed(
  // Path to the current AST node
  path: FastPath,
  // Print a node with the current printer
  print: (path: FastPath) => Doc,
  // Parse and print some text using a different parser.
  // You should set `options.parser` to specify which parser to use.
  textToDoc: (text: string, options: object) => Doc,
  // Current options
  options: object
): Doc | null;

If you don't want to switch to a different parser, simply return null or undefined.

A plugin can implement how a pragma comment is inserted in the resulting code when the --insert-pragma option is used, in the insertPragma function. Its signature is:

function insertPragma(text: string): string;

options

options is an object containing the custom options your plugin supports.

Example:

options: {
  openingBraceNewLine: {
    type: "boolean",
    category: "Global",
    default: true,
    description: "Move open brace for code blocks onto new line."
  }
}

defaultOptions

If your plugin requires different default values for some of Prettier's core options, you can specify them in defaultOptions:

defaultOptions: {
  tabWidth: 4
}

Utility functions

A util module from Prettier core is considered a private API and is not meant to be consumed by plugins. Instead, the util-shared module provides the following limited set of utility functions for plugins:

makeString(rawContent: string, enclosingQuote: string, unescapeUnnecessarEscapes: boolean): string;
getNextNonSpaceNonCommentCharacterIndex(text: string, node: object, options: object): number;
isNextLineEmptyAfterIndex(text: string, index: number): boolean;
isNextLineEmpty(text: string, node: object, options: object): boolean;
mapDoc(doc: object, callback: function): void;

Testing Plugins

Since plugins can be resolved using relative paths, when working on one you can do:

const prettier = require("prettier");
const code = "(add 1 2)";
prettier.format(code, {
  parser: "lisp",
  plugins: ["."]
});

This will resolve a plugin relative to the current working directory.