# antfu/shikiji

A syntax highlighter based on TextMate grammars. ESM rewrite of shiki, with more features and capabilities.

Repository: https://github.com/antfu/shikiji
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/shikiji
Homepage: https://shikiji.netlify.app/
Language: TypeScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: shiki, syntax-highlighter, textmate-grammar
Archived: true
Last push: 2024-01-27T14:07:25+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 79
- inputs: {"age_days": 1119, "days_push": 949, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1454, forks 36 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:46.667466+00:00)

## What it is
Shikiji is an ESM-focused rewrite of the Shiki syntax highlighter, using TextMate grammars (the same engine as VS Code) to produce accurate, beautiful code highlighting. It is fully tree-shakable, runs on any JavaScript runtime, and supports HAST-based customization; it has since been merged back into Shiki and archived.

## Use cases
- highlight code blocks in a static site generator
- render syntax-highlighted code with zero runtime JavaScript
- highlight code in Cloudflare Workers or edge runtimes
- customize code highlighting output via HAST transformations
- use VS Code TextMate grammars for accurate highlighting in docs
- highlight code in a markdown pipeline

## When to choose
- you need accurate, VS Code-grade syntax highlighting in an ESM-first JavaScript project
- you want tree-shakable highlighting that runs in browsers, Node.js, or edge workers
- you need fine-grained customization of the highlighted output

## When to avoid
- starting a new project - use shikijs/shiki instead, since Shikiji is archived and merged back into Shiki
- you need a CommonJS-only environment without ESM support
- you need runtime highlighting of arbitrary languages with minimal bundle size

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: parser, developer-tools
- domain: web-development, frontend, developer-tools, documentation
- platform: browser, cross-platform, wasm
- tags: syntax-highlighting, textmate-grammar, esm, shiki, hast, zero-runtime, archived, nodejs

## Member repositories
- antfu/shikiji (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:46.667466+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:35:41.609907+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/antfu/shikiji (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:46.667466+00:00, sha 4507047e7a29)
  - homepage: https://shikiji.netlify.app/ (fetched 2026-08-29T11:45:11.340275+00:00, sha 084fec9159db)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/shikiji (fetched 2026-08-29T11:45:11.349487+00:00, sha b6fc86b241f6)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.