Shiki

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

13747 stars · 598 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

Shiki is a syntax highlighter for JavaScript/TypeScript that uses TextMate grammars, the same engine as VS Code, to produce accurate, beautifully styled HTML for code snippets. It runs ahead of time with zero runtime JavaScript, works in any JS runtime, and includes integrations for markdown-it, rehype, Monaco Editor, and animated code blocks via Shiki Magic Move.

Use cases

• highlight code snippets in a static site generator
• render code blocks in markdown with VS Code-quality colors
• generate syntax-highlighted HTML at build time with no client JS
• add animated code transitions to presentations
• highlight code in a blog or documentation site
• get tokens or HAST output for custom code rendering

When to choose

• you need accurate highlighting matching VS Code's rendering
• you want zero-runtime, build-time highlighting for static content
• you need broad language/theme support with ESM tree-shaking
• you want integrations with markdown-it, rehype, or Monaco

When to avoid

• you need client-side highlighting of dynamically injected code with a tiny footprint
• you need a pure-CSS or regex-free minimal highlighter
• your environment cannot load WASM or async grammars

Facets

library · maturity active

parser developer-tools markdown templating developer-tools web-development frontend documentation browser cross-platform wasm syntax-highlighting textmate-grammar code-to-html zero-runtime esm vs-code-themes code-blocks magic-move nodejs web-server

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="shikijs/shiki")