quartz/making plugins.md at v5

Warning

This part of the documentation will assume you have working knowledge in TypeScript and will include code snippets that describe the interface of what Quartz plugins should look like.

Quartz's plugins are a series of transformations over content. This is illustrated in the diagram of the processing pipeline below:

All plugins are defined as a function that takes in a single parameter for options type OptionType = object | undefined and return an object that corresponds to the type of plugin it is.

type OptionType = object | undefined
type QuartzPlugin<Options extends OptionType = undefined> = (opts?: Options) => QuartzPluginInstance
type QuartzPluginInstance =
  | QuartzTransformerPluginInstance
  | QuartzFilterPluginInstance
  | QuartzEmitterPluginInstance
  | QuartzPageTypePluginInstance

The following sections will go into detail for what methods can be implemented for each plugin type. Before we do that, let's clarify a few more ambiguous types:

BuildCtx is defined in @quartz-community/types. It consists of
- argv: The command line arguments passed to the Quartz build command
- cfg: The full Quartz configuration
- allSlugs: a list of all the valid content slugs (see paths for more information on what a slug is)
StaticResources is defined in @quartz-community/types. It consists of
- css: a list of CSS style definitions that should be loaded. A CSS style is described with the CSSResource type. It accepts either a source URL or the inline content of the stylesheet.
- js: a list of scripts that should be loaded. A script is described with the JSResource type. It allows you to define a load time (either before or after the DOM has been loaded), whether it should be a module, and either the source URL or the inline content of the script.
- additionalHead: a list of JSX elements or functions that return JSX elements to be added to the <head> tag of the page. Functions receive the page's data as an argument and can conditionally render elements.

Getting Started

In v5, plugins are standalone repositories. The easiest way to create one is using the plugin template:

# Use the plugin template to create a new repository on GitHub
# Then clone it locally
git clone https://github.com/your-username/my-plugin.git
cd my-plugin
npm install

The template provides the build configuration (tsup.config.ts), TypeScript setup, and correct package structure.

Plugin Structure

The basic file structure of a plugin is as follows:

my-plugin/
├── src/
│   └── index.ts          # Plugin entry point
├── tsup.config.ts         # Build configuration
├── package.json           # Dependencies and exports
└── tsconfig.json          # TypeScript configuration

The plugin's package.json should declare dependencies on @quartz-community/types (for type definitions) and optionally @quartz-community/utils (for shared utilities).

Plugin Types

Transformers

Transformers map over content, taking a Markdown file and outputting modified content or adding metadata to the file itself.

export type QuartzTransformerPluginInstance = {
  name: string
  textTransform?: (ctx: BuildCtx, src: string) => string
  markdownPlugins?: (ctx: BuildCtx) => PluggableList
  htmlPlugins?: (ctx: BuildCtx) => PluggableList
  externalResources?: (ctx: BuildCtx) => Partial<StaticResources>
}

All transformer plugins must define at least a name field to register the plugin and a few optional functions that allow you to hook into various parts of transforming a single Markdown file.

textTransform performs a text-to-text transformation before a file is parsed into the Markdown AST.
markdownPlugins defines a list of remark plugins. remark is a tool that transforms Markdown to Markdown in a structured way.
htmlPlugins defines a list of rehype plugins. Similar to how remark works, rehype is a tool that transforms HTML to HTML in a structured way.
externalResources defines any external resources the plugin may need to load on the client-side for it to work properly.

Normally for both remark and rehype, you can find existing plugins that you can use. If you'd like to create your own remark or rehype plugin, checkout the guide to creating a plugin using unified (the underlying AST parser and transformer library).

A good example of a transformer plugin that borrows from the remark and rehype ecosystems is the plugins/Latex plugin:

import remarkMath from "remark-math"
import rehypeKatex from "rehype-katex"
import rehypeMathjax from "rehype-mathjax/svg"
import { QuartzTransformerPlugin } from "@quartz-community/types"

interface Options {
  renderEngine: "katex" | "mathjax"
}

export const Latex: QuartzTransformerPlugin<Options> = (opts?: Options) => {
  const engine = opts?.renderEngine ?? "katex"
  return {
    name: "Latex",
    markdownPlugins() {
      return [remarkMath]
    },
    htmlPlugins() {
      if (engine === "katex") {
        // if you need to pass options into a plugin, you
        // can use a tuple of [plugin, options]
        return [[rehypeKatex, { output: "html" }]]
      } else {
        return [rehypeMathjax]
      }
    },
    externalResources() {
      if (engine === "katex") {
        return {
          css: [
            {
              // base css
              content: "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/KaTeX/0.16.9/katex.min.css",
            },
          ],
          js: [
            {
              // fix copy behaviour: https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/blob/main/contrib/copy-tex/README.md
              src: "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/KaTeX/0.16.9/contrib/copy-tex.min.js",
              loadTime: "afterDOMReady",
              contentType: "external",
            },
          ],
        }
      }
    },
  }
}

Another common thing that transformer plugins will do is parse a file and add extra data for that file:

import { QuartzTransformerPlugin } from "@quartz-community/types"

export const AddWordCount: QuartzTransformerPlugin = () => {
  return {
    name: "AddWordCount",
    markdownPlugins() {
      return [
        () => {
          return (tree, file) => {
            // tree is an `mdast` root element
            // file is a `vfile`
            const text = file.value
            const words = text.split(" ").length
            file.data.wordcount = words
          }
        },
      ]
    },
  }
}

// tell typescript about our custom data fields we are adding
// other plugins will then also be aware of this data field
declare module "vfile" {
  interface DataMap {
    wordcount: number
  }
}

Finally, you can also perform transformations over Markdown or HTML ASTs using the visit function from the unist-util-visit package or the findAndReplace function from the mdast-util-find-and-replace package.

import { visit } from "unist-util-visit"
import { findAndReplace } from "mdast-util-find-and-replace"
import { QuartzTransformerPlugin } from "@quartz-community/types"
import { Link } from "mdast"

export const TextTransforms: QuartzTransformerPlugin = () => {
  return {
    name: "TextTransforms",
    markdownPlugins() {
      return [
        () => {
          return (tree, file) => {
            // replace _text_ with the italics version
            findAndReplace(tree, /_(.+)_/, (_value: string, ...capture: string[]) => {
              // inner is the text inside of the () of the regex
              const [inner] = capture
              // return an mdast node
              // https://github.com/syntax-tree/mdast
              return {
                type: "emphasis",
                children: [{ type: "text", value: inner }],
              }
            })

            // remove all links (replace with just the link content)
            // match by 'type' field on an mdast node
            // https://github.com/syntax-tree/mdast#link in this example
            visit(tree, "link", (link: Link) => {
              return {
                type: "paragraph",
                children: [{ type: "text", value: link.title }],
              }
            })
          }
        },
      ]
    },
  }
}

A parting word: transformer plugins are quite complex so don't worry if you don't get them right away. Take a look at the built in transformers and see how they operate over content to get a better sense for how to accomplish what you are trying to do.

Filters

Filters filter content, taking the output of all the transformers and determining what files to actually keep and what to discard.

export type QuartzFilterPlugin<Options extends OptionType = undefined> = (
  opts?: Options,
) => QuartzFilterPluginInstance

export type QuartzFilterPluginInstance = {
  name: string
  shouldPublish(ctx: BuildCtx, content: ProcessedContent): boolean
}

A filter plugin must define a name field and a shouldPublish function that takes in a piece of content that has been processed by all the transformers and returns a true or false depending on whether it should be passed to the emitter plugins or not.

For example, here is the built-in plugin for removing drafts:

import { QuartzFilterPlugin } from "@quartz-community/types"

export const RemoveDrafts: QuartzFilterPlugin<{}> = () => ({
  name: "RemoveDrafts",
  shouldPublish(_ctx, [_tree, vfile]) {
    // uses frontmatter parsed from transformers
    const draftFlag: boolean = vfile.data?.frontmatter?.draft ?? false
    return !draftFlag
  },
})

Emitters

Emitters reduce over content, taking in a list of all the transformed and filtered content and creating output files.

export type QuartzEmitterPlugin<Options extends OptionType = undefined> = (
  opts?: Options,
) => QuartzEmitterPluginInstance

export type QuartzEmitterPluginInstance = {
  name: string
  emit(
    ctx: BuildCtx,
    content: ProcessedContent[],
    resources: StaticResources,
  ): Promise<FilePath[]> | AsyncGenerator<FilePath>
  partialEmit?(
    ctx: BuildCtx,
    content: ProcessedContent[],
    resources: StaticResources,
    changeEvents: ChangeEvent[],
  ): Promise<FilePath[]> | AsyncGenerator<FilePath> | null
  getQuartzComponents(ctx: BuildCtx): QuartzComponent[]
}

An emitter plugin must define a name field, an emit function, and a getQuartzComponents function. It can optionally implement a partialEmit function for incremental builds.

emit is responsible for looking at all the parsed and filtered content and then appropriately creating files and returning a list of paths to files the plugin created.
partialEmit is an optional function that enables incremental builds. It receives information about which files have changed (changeEvents) and can selectively rebuild only the necessary files. This is useful for optimizing build times in development mode. If partialEmit is undefined, it will default to the emit function.
getQuartzComponents declares which Quartz components the emitter uses to construct its pages.

Creating new files can be done via regular Node fs module (i.e. fs.cp or fs.writeFile) or via the write function in @quartz-community/utils if you are creating files that contain text. write has the following signature:

export type WriteOptions = (data: {
  // the build context
  ctx: BuildCtx
  // the name of the file to emit (not including the file extension)
  slug: FullSlug
  // the file extension
  ext: `.${string}` | ""
  // the file content to add
  content: string
}) => Promise<FilePath>

This is a thin wrapper around writing to the appropriate output folder and ensuring that intermediate directories exist. If you choose to use the native Node fs APIs, ensure you emit to the argv.output folder as well.

If you are creating an emitter plugin that needs to render components, there are three more things to be aware of:

Your component should use getQuartzComponents to declare a list of QuartzComponents that it uses to construct the page. See the page on creating components for more information.
You can use the renderPage function defined in @quartz-community/utils to render Quartz components into HTML.
If you need to render an HTML AST to JSX, you can use the htmlToJsx function from @quartz-community/utils.

For example, the following is a simplified version of the content page plugin that renders every single page.

import { QuartzEmitterPlugin, FullPageLayout, QuartzComponentProps } from "@quartz-community/types"
import { renderPage, canonicalizeServer, pageResources, write } from "@quartz-community/utils"

export const ContentPage: QuartzEmitterPlugin = () => {
  return {
    name: "ContentPage",
    getQuartzComponents(ctx) {
      const { head, header, beforeBody, pageBody, afterBody, left, right, footer } = ctx.cfg.layout
      return [head, ...header, ...beforeBody, pageBody, ...afterBody, ...left, ...right, footer]
    },
    async emit(ctx, content, resources): Promise<FilePath[]> {
      const cfg = ctx.cfg.configuration
      const fps: FilePath[] = []
      const allFiles = content.map((c) => c[1].data)
      for (const [tree, file] of content) {
        const slug = canonicalizeServer(file.data.slug!)
        const externalResources = pageResources(slug, file.data, resources)
        const componentData: QuartzComponentProps = {
          fileData: file.data,
          externalResources,
          cfg,
          children: [],
          tree,
          allFiles,
        }

        const content = renderPage(cfg, slug, componentData, {}, externalResources)
        const fp = await write({
          ctx,
          content,
          slug: file.data.slug!,
          ext: ".html",
        })

        fps.push(fp)
      }
      return fps
    },
  }
}

Page types define how a category of pages is rendered. They are the primary way to add support for new file types or virtual pages in Quartz.

export interface QuartzPageTypePluginInstance {
  name: string
  priority?: number
  fileExtensions?: string[]
  match: PageMatcher
  generate?: PageGenerator
  layout: string
  frame?: string
  body: QuartzComponentConstructor
}

name: A unique identifier for this page type.
priority: Controls matching order when multiple page types could match a slug. Higher priority page types are checked first. Default: 0.
fileExtensions: Array of file extensions this page type handles (e.g. [".canvas"], [".base"]). Content files (.md) are handled by the default content page type.
match: A function that determines whether a given slug/file should be rendered by this page type.
generate: An optional function that produces virtual pages (pages not backed by files on disk, such as folder listings or tag indices).
layout: The layout configuration key (e.g. "content", "folder", "tag"). This determines which byPageType entry in quartz.config.yaml provides the layout overrides for this page type.
frame: The layout#Page Frames to use for this page type. Controls the overall HTML structure (e.g. "default", "full-width", "minimal", or a custom frame provided by your plugin). If not set, defaults to "default". Can be overridden per-page-type via layout.byPageType.<name>.template in quartz.config.yaml.
body: The Quartz component constructor that renders the page body content.

Providing Custom Frames

Plugins can ship their own layout#Page Frames — custom page layouts that control how the HTML structure (sidebars, header, content area, footer) is arranged. This is useful for page types that need fundamentally different layouts (e.g. a fullscreen canvas, a presentation mode, a dashboard).

To provide a custom frame:

1. Create the frame file:

import type { PageFrame, PageFrameProps } from "@quartz-community/types"
import type { ComponentChildren } from "preact"

export const MyFrame: PageFrame = {
  name: "my-frame",
  css: `
.page[data-frame="my-frame"] > #quartz-body {
  grid-template-columns: 1fr;
  grid-template-areas: "center";
}
`,
  render({ componentData, pageBody: Content, footer: Footer }: PageFrameProps): unknown {
    const renderSlot = (C: (props: typeof componentData) => unknown): ComponentChildren =>
      C(componentData) as ComponentChildren
    return (
      <div class="center">
        {(Content as any)(componentData)}
        {(Footer as any)(componentData)}
      </div>
    )
  },
}

Key requirements:

name: A unique string identifier. This is what page types and YAML config reference.
render(): Receives all layout slots (header, sidebars, content, footer) and returns JSX for the inner page structure.
css (optional): Frame-specific CSS. Scope it with .page[data-frame="my-frame"] selectors to avoid conflicts.

2. Re-export the frame:

export { MyFrame } from "./MyFrame"

3. Declare the frame in package.json:

{
  "exports": {
    ".": {
      "import": "./dist/index.js",
      "types": "./dist/index.d.ts"
    },
    "./frames": {
      "import": "./dist/frames/index.js",
      "types": "./dist/frames/index.d.ts"
    }
  },
  "quartz": {
    "frames": {
      "MyFrame": { "exportName": "MyFrame" }
    }
  }
}

The "frames" field in the "quartz" manifest maps export names to frame metadata. The key (e.g. "MyFrame") must match the export name in src/frames/index.ts.

4. Add the frame entry point to your build config:

export default defineConfig({
  entry: ["src/index.ts", "src/frames/index.ts"],
  // ...
})

5. Reference the frame in your page type:

export const MyPageType: QuartzPageTypePlugin = () => ({
  name: "MyPageType",
  frame: "my-frame", // References the frame by its name property
  // ...
})

When a user installs your plugin, Quartz automatically loads the frame from the ./frames export and registers it in the Frame Registry. The frame is then available by name in any page type or YAML config override.

Tip

See the canvas-page plugin for a complete real-world example of a plugin-provided frame.

Building and Testing

# Build the plugin
npm run build
# or
npx tsup

Installing Your Plugin

# In your Quartz project
npx quartz plugin add github:your-username/my-plugin

This clones the plugin, builds it, and adds it to both quartz.config.yaml and quartz.lock.json. You can then configure it in your config:

plugins:
  - source: github:your-username/my-plugin
    enabled: true

Or via TS override in quartz.ts:

import * as ExternalPlugin from "./.quartz/plugins"
// ...
transformers: [ExternalPlugin.MyPlugin()]

Development Workflow

During plugin development, you'll frequently install and uninstall your plugin to test changes. The following commands help manage this cycle:

# Remove your plugin and clean up
npx quartz plugin remove my-plugin

# Re-add after making changes
npx quartz plugin add github:your-username/my-plugin

If you've updated your quartz.config.yaml to reference a plugin that isn't installed yet, you can install it without manually running add:

# Install all config-referenced plugins missing from the lockfile
npx quartz plugin resolve

# Preview first without making changes
npx quartz plugin resolve --dry-run

To clean up plugins that are installed but no longer referenced in your config:

# Remove orphaned plugins
npx quartz plugin prune

# Preview first without making changes
npx quartz plugin prune --dry-run

Tip

Both resolve and prune fall back to quartz.config.default.yaml if no quartz.config.yaml is present. This is useful for CI environments where the default config is the source of truth. See cli/plugin#prune and cli/plugin#resolve for full details.

Component Plugins

For plugins that provide visual components (like Explorer, Graph, Search), see the creating components guide.

Component-only plugins (those with "category": ["component"] in their manifest) are loaded via side-effect import rather than a factory function. If your component-only plugin needs to receive user options from quartz.config.yaml, export an init(options) function — see creating components#Receiving YAML Options in Component-Only Plugins for details.

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