Syntax Highlighting

Nextra uses Shiki (opens in a new tab) to do syntax highlighting at build time. It’s very reliable and performant. For example, adding this in your Markdown file:

Markdown

```js
console.log('hello, world')
```

And it renders:

console.log('hello, world')

Features

Inlined Code

Inlined syntax highlighting like let x = 1 is also supported via the {:} syntax:

Markdown

Inlined syntax highlighting is also supported `let x = 1{:jsx}` via:

Highlighting Lines

You can highlight specific lines of code by adding a {} attribute to the code block:

Markdown

```js {1,4-5}
import { useState } from 'react'
 
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>
}
```

Result:

import { useState } from 'react'
 
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>
}

Highlighting Substrings

You can highlight specific substrings of code by adding a // attribute to the code block:

Markdown

```js /useState/
import { useState } from 'react'
 
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>
}
```

import { useState } from 'react'
 
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>
}

You can highlight only a part of the occurrences of that substring by adding a number it: /str/1, or multiple: /str/1-3, /str/1,3.

Copy Button

By adding a copy attribute, a copy button will be added to the code block when the user hovers over it:

Markdown

```js copy
console.log('hello, world')
```

Renders:

console.log('hello, world')

You can enable this feature globally by setting defaultShowCopyCode: true in your Nextra configuration (next.config.js file). Once it's enabled globally, you can disable it via the copy=false attribute.

Line Numbers

You can add line numbers to your code blocks by adding a showLineNumbers attribute:

Markdown

```js showLineNumbers
import { useState } from 'react'
 
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>
}
```

Renders:

import { useState } from 'react'
 
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0)
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>
}

Filenames and Titles

You can add a filename or a title to your code blocks by adding a filename attribute:

Markdown

```js filename="example.js"
console.log('hello, world')
```

Renders:

example.js

console.log('hello, world')

Supported Languages

Check this list (opens in a new tab) for all supported languages.

Customize The Theme

Nextra uses CSS variables to define the colors for tokens. You can inject a global CSS (opens in a new tab) to customize them under light/dark themes. For example this is the default tokens and you can override any of these:

styles.css

:root {
  --shiki-color-text: #414141;
  --shiki-color-background: transparent;
  --shiki-token-constant: #1976d2;
  --shiki-token-string: #22863a;
  --shiki-token-comment: #aaa;
  --shiki-token-keyword: #d32f2f;
  --shiki-token-parameter: #ff9800;
  --shiki-token-function: #6f42c1;
  --shiki-token-string-expression: #22863a;
  --shiki-token-punctuation: #212121;
  --shiki-token-link: #22863a;
}
 
.dark {
  --shiki-color-text: #d1d1d1;
  --shiki-token-constant: #79b8ff;
  --shiki-token-string: #ffab70;
  --shiki-token-comment: #6b737c;
  --shiki-token-keyword: #f97583;
  --shiki-token-parameter: #ff9800;
  --shiki-token-function: #b392f0;
  --shiki-token-string-expression: #4bb74a;
  --shiki-token-punctuation: #bbbbbb;
  --shiki-token-link: #ffab70;
}

With Dynamic Content

Since syntax highlighting is done at build time, you can’t use dynamic content in your code blocks. However, since MDX is very powerful so there is a workaround via client JS. For example:

dynamic_code.js

function hello () {
  const x = 2 + 3
  console.log(1)
}

Increase the number Change to `1 + 1`

This workaround has a limitation that updated content won't be re-highlighted. For example if we update the number to 1 + 1, it will be highlighted wrongly.

Check out the code (opens in a new tab) to see how it works.

Disable Syntax Highlighting

You can opt out of syntax highlighting for using one of your own. You can disable syntax highlighting globally by setting codeHighlight: false in your Nextra configuration (next.config.js file).

Option	Type	Description
codeHighlight	boolean	Enable or disable syntax highlighting. Defaults to `true`.

Markdown Next.js SSG