🜃 Markdown Extra Tokens

374 2026-07-30 snippet ♑︎ ♀︎

Sublime highlighting is two separate steps: a .sublime-syntax (YAML) tokenizes text into named scopes, and a .sublime-color-scheme (JSON) maps those scopes to colors. A token can be perfectly scoped and still look uncolored if no rule targets it, so Command Palette → "Show Scope Name" is the first move when something isn't highlighting.

MarkdownEditing already covers footnotes, GFM task-list checkboxes, GitHub-style alert blockquotes, tables, and frontmatter. What it misses: definition lists and the Pandoc-style ==mark== / ~sub~ / ^sup^ inline extras.

Sublime's extends: key layers a new syntax file on top of MarkdownEditing's without touching its source, so package updates don't wipe the change:

name: Markdown Extra Tokens
scope: text.html.markdown
version: 2
extends: Packages/MarkdownEditing/syntaxes/Markdown.sublime-syntax

contexts:
  markdown:
    meta_prepend: true
    - include: definition-lists

  inlines:
    meta_append: true
    - include: mark-highlight

MarkdownEditing's paragraph-catchall rule is deliberately last in its markdown context, so overriding with meta_append: true there means the new rule won't work, it has to be meta_prepend: true. inlines is shared by every paragraph body, list item, and blockquote, so anything added there works everywhere text is parsed, not just top-level paragraphs.

Install via Preferences → Browse Packages… → User/, with a companion .sublime-settings file ({"extensions": ["md"]}, named after the syntax) to set it as the default for .md files without the manual "Open all with current extension as…" step. The color scheme applies automatically as an addon on top of whatever base scheme is active.

The single-tilde ~subscript~ rule doesn't work with GFM strikethrough (~~text~~) depending on rule ordering. The definition-list block also assumes a blank-line-free term immediately followed by a : definition line, which covers PHP Markdown Extra style, but not every dialect.

The full files are split into Markdown Extra SyntaxThe .sublime-syntax file extends MarkdownEditing to add scopes for definition lists, ==mark==, ~subscript~, and ^superscript^. See markdown-extra-tokens for the overview and markdown-extra-color-scheme for the color rules. yaml %YAML 1.2 --- Markdown Extra Tokens ====================== Extends MarkdownEditing (Packages/MarkdownEditing/syntaxes/Markdown.sublime-syntax) to add scopes… and Markdown Extra Color SchemeThe .sublime-color-scheme file maps the new scopes from markdown-extra-syntax to colors. Any .sublime-color-scheme dropped in Packages/User/ merges onto the active base scheme automatically. See markdown-extra-tokens for the overview. json { "name": "Markdown Extra Tokens Addon", "author": "brennan", // Any .sublime-color-scheme….