This **[Astro integration][astro-integration]** enables the usage of [MDX](https://mdxjs.com/) components and allows you to create pages as `.mdx` files.
MDX is the defacto solution for embedding components, such as interactive charts or alerts, within Markdown content. If you have existing content authored in MDX, this integration makes migrating to Astro a breeze.
**Want to learn more about MDX before using this integration?**
Check out [“What is MDX?”](https://mdxjs.com/docs/what-is-mdx/), a deep-dive on the MDX format.
The `astro add` command-line tool automates the installation for you. Run one of the following commands in a new terminal window. (If you aren't sure which package manager you're using, run the first command.) Then, follow the prompts, and type "y" in the terminal (meaning "yes") for each one.
If you run into any issues, [feel free to report them to us on GitHub](https://github.com/withastro/astro/issues) and try the manual installation steps below.
[VS Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) supports Markdown by default. However, for MDX editor support, you may wish to add the following setting in your VSCode config. This ensures authoring MDX files provides a Markdown-like editor experience.
You can [add MDX pages to your project](https://docs.astro.build/en/guides/markdown-content/#markdown-and-mdx-pages) by adding `.mdx` files within your `src/pages/` directory.
MDX supports `export` statements to add variables to your templates. These variables are accessible both from the template itself _and_ as named properties when importing the template somewhere else.
For instance, you can export a `title` field from an MDX page or component to use as a heading with `{JSX expressions}`:
```mdx
export const title = 'My first MDX post'
# {title}
```
This `title` will be accessible from `import` and [glob](https://docs.astro.build/en/reference/api-reference/#astroglob) statements as well:
```astro
---
// src/pages/index.astro
const posts = await Astro.glob('./*.mdx');
---
{posts.map(post => <p>{post.title}</p>)}
```
See [the official "how MDX works" guide](https://mdxjs.com/docs/using-mdx/#how-mdx-works) for more on MDX variables.
Alongside your [MDX variable exports](#variables), we generate a few helpful exports as well. These are accessible when importing an MDX file via `import` statements or [`Astro.glob`](https://docs.astro.build/en/reference/api-reference/#astroglob).
#### `file`
The absolute path to the MDX file (e.g. `home/user/projects/.../file.md`).
#### `url`
The browser-ready URL for MDX files under `src/pages/`. For example, `src/pages/en/about.mdx` will provide a `url` of `/en/about/`. For MDX files outside of `src/pages`, `url` will be `undefined`.
A function that returns an array of all headings (i.e. `h1 -> h6` elements) in the MDX file. Each heading’s `slug` corresponds to the generated ID for a given heading and can be used for anchor links.
Astro also supports YAML-based frontmatter out-of-the-box. By default, all variables declared in a frontmatter fence (`---`) will be accessible via the `frontmatter` export.
For example, we can add a `title` and `publishDate` to an MDX page or component like so:
```mdx
---
title: 'My first MDX post'
publishDate: '21 September 2022'
---
# {frontmatter.title}
```
Now, this `title` and `publishDate` will be accessible from `import` and [glob](https://docs.astro.build/en/reference/api-reference/#astroglob) statements via the `frontmatter` property. This matches the behavior of [plain markdown in Astro](https://docs.astro.build/en/reference/api-reference/#markdown-files) as well!
You may want to inject frontmatter properties across all of your MDX files. By using a [remark](#remarkplugins) or [rehype](#rehypeplugins) plugin, you can generate these properties based on a file’s contents.
…every MDX file will have `customProperty` in its frontmatter! See [our Markdown documentation](https://docs.astro.build/en/guides/markdown-content/#example-injecting-frontmatter) for more usage instructions and a [reading time plugin example](https://docs.astro.build/en/guides/markdown-content/#example-calculate-reading-time).
Layouts can be applied [in the same way as standard Astro Markdown](https://docs.astro.build/en/guides/markdown-content/#frontmatter-layout). You can add a `layout` to [your frontmatter](#frontmatter) like so:
Then, you can retrieve all other frontmatter properties from your layout via the `frontmatter` property, and render your MDX using the default [`<slot />`](https://docs.astro.build/en/core-concepts/astro-components/#slots). See [layout props](#layout-props) for a complete list of props available.
You can set a layout’s [`Props` type](/en/guides/typescript/#component-props) with the `MDXLayoutProps` helper.
:::note
`MDXLayoutProps` is the same as the `MarkdownLayoutProps` utility type with `rawContent()` and `compiledContent()` removed (since these are not available for `.mdx` files). Feel free to **use `MarkdownLayoutProps` instead** when sharing a layout across `.md` and `.mdx` files.
:::
```astro ins={2,4-9}
---
// src/layouts/BaseLayout.astro
import type { MDXLayoutProps } from 'astro';
type Props = MDXLayoutProps<{
// Define frontmatter props here
title: string;
author: string;
date: string;
}>;
// Now, `frontmatter`, `url`, and other MDX layout properties
- Heading information (i.e. `h1 -> h6` elements) is available via the `headings` array, rather than a `getHeadings()` function.
-`file` and `url` are _also_ available as nested `frontmatter` properties (i.e. `frontmatter.url` and `frontmatter.file`). This is consistent with Astro's Markdown layout properties.
Astro recommends using the `MDXLayoutProps` type (see previous section) to explore all available properties.
You may need to pass information to your layouts that does not (or cannot) exist in your frontmatter. In this case, you can import and use a [`<Layout />` component](https://docs.astro.build/en/core-concepts/layouts/) like any other component:
Then, your values are available to you through `Astro.props` in your layout, and your MDX content will be injected into the page where your `<slot />` component is written:
Under the hood, MDX will convert Markdown into HTML components. For example, this blockquote:
```md
> A blockquote with *some* emphasis.
```
will be converted into this HTML:
```html
<blockquote>
<p>A blockquote with <em>some</em> emphasis.</p>
</blockquote>
```
But what if you want to specify your own markup for these blockquotes? In the above example, you could create a custom `<Blockquote />` component (in any language) that either has a `<slot />` component or accepts a `children` prop.
Now, writing the standard Markdown blockquote syntax (`>`) will use your custom `<Blockquote />` component instead. No need to use a component in Markdown, or write a remark/rehype plugin! Visit the [MDX website](https://mdxjs.com/table-of-components/) for a full list of HTML elements that can be overwritten as custom components.
When rendering imported MDX content, custom components can be passed via the `components` prop.
Note: An MDX file's exported components will _not_ be used unless you manually import and pass them via the `components` property. See the example below:
We will highlight your code blocks with [Shiki](https://github.com/shikijs/shiki) by default. You can customize this highlighter using the `markdown.shikiConfig` option in your `astro.config`. For example, you can apply a different built-in theme like so:
Visit [our Shiki configuration docs](https://docs.astro.build/en/guides/markdown-content/#shiki-configuration) for more on using Shiki with Astro.
#### Switch to Prism
You can also use the [Prism](https://prismjs.com/) syntax highlighter by setting `markdown.syntaxHighlight` to `'prism'` in your `astro.config` like so:
```js
// astro.config.mjs
export default {
markdown: {
syntaxHighlight: 'prism',
},
integrations: [mdx()],
}
```
This applies a minimal Prism renderer with added support for `astro` code blocks. Visit [our "Prism configuration" docs](https://docs.astro.build/en/guides/markdown-content/#prism-configuration) for more on using Prism with Astro.
You may want to apply your own syntax highlighter too. If your highlighter offers a remark or rehype plugin, you can flip off our syntax highlighting by setting `markdown.syntaxHighlight: false` and wiring up your plugin. For example, say you want to apply [Shiki Twoslash's remark plugin](https://www.npmjs.com/package/remark-shiki-twoslash):
```js
// astro.config.mjs
import shikiTwoslash from 'remark-shiki-twoslash';
[Remark plugins](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark/blob/main/doc/plugins.md) allow you to extend your Markdown with new capabilities. This includes [auto-generating a table of contents](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-toc), [applying accessible emoji labels](https://github.com/florianeckerstorfer/remark-a11y-emoji), and more. We encourage you to browse [awesome-remark](https://github.com/remarkjs/awesome-remark) for a full curated list!
This example applies the [`remark-toc`](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-toc) plugin to `.mdx` files. To customize plugin inheritance from your Markdown config or Astro's defaults, [see the `extendPlugins` option](#extendplugins).
[Rehype plugins](https://github.com/rehypejs/rehype/blob/main/doc/plugins.md) allow you to transform the HTML that your Markdown generates. We encourage you to browse [awesome-rehype](https://github.com/rehypejs/awesome-rehype) for a full curated list of plugins!
We apply our own (non-removable) [`collect-headings`](https://github.com/withastro/astro/blob/main/packages/integrations/mdx/src/rehype-collect-headings.ts) plugin. This applies IDs to all headings (i.e. `h1 -> h6`) in your MDX files to [link to headings via anchor tags](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/a#linking_to_an_element_on_the_same_page).
This example applies the [`rehype-minify`](https://github.com/rehypejs/rehype-minify) plugin to `.mdx` files. To customize plugin inheritance from your Markdown config or Astro's defaults, [see the `extendPlugins` option](#extendplugins).
By default, Astro inherits all [remark](#remarkplugins) and [rehype](#rehypeplugins) plugins from [the `markdown` option in your Astro config](https://docs.astro.build/en/guides/markdown-content/#markdown-plugins). This also respects the [`markdown.extendDefaultPlugins`](https://docs.astro.build/en/reference/configuration-reference/#markdownextenddefaultplugins) option to extend Astro's defaults. Any additional plugins you apply in your MDX config will be applied _after_ your configured Markdown plugins.
This example applies [`remark-toc`](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-toc) to Markdown _and_ MDX, and [`rehype-minify`](https://github.com/rehypejs/rehype-minify) to MDX alone:
You may _only_ want to extend [Astro's default plugins](https://docs.astro.build/en/reference/configuration-reference/#markdownextenddefaultplugins) without inheriting your Markdown config. This example will apply the default [GitHub-Flavored Markdown](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-gfm) and [Smartypants](https://github.com/silvenon/remark-smartypants) plugins alongside [`remark-toc`](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-toc):
```js "extendPlugins: 'astroDefaults'"
// astro.config.mjs
import remarkToc from 'remark-toc';
export default {
markdown: {
remarkPlugins: [/** ignored */]
},
integrations: [mdx({
remarkPlugins: [remarkToc],
// Astro defaults applied
extendPlugins: 'astroDefaults',
})],
}
```
#### `false`
If you don't want to extend any plugins, set `extendPlugins` to `false`:
These are plugins that modify the output [estree](https://github.com/estree/estree) directly. This is useful for modifying or injecting JavaScript variables in your MDX files.
We suggest [using AST Explorer](https://astexplorer.net/) to play with estree outputs, and trying [`estree-util-visit`](https://unifiedjs.com/explore/package/estree-util-visit/) for searching across JavaScript nodes.