Wenmode

Build exactly the Markdown dialect your Python application needs. Wenmode gives you fast CommonMark-style parsing, explicit rule composition, mdast-compatible AST output, safe HTML defaults, streaming, and pluggable renderers.

Quick Start Recipes

Wenmode is designed for applications that need more control than a single Markdown-to-HTML helper can provide: documentation systems, user-generated content, static-site pipelines, AI/AST workflows, custom Markdown dialects, and format converters.

Why Wenmode?

Composable syntax

Start with CommonMark-style Markdown, switch to GitHub-flavored Markdown, use streaming output, or pass the exact rule list your product needs.

Presets

AST-first workflows

Parse to mdast-compatible nodes for indexing, transforms, storage, analysis, or conversion before choosing an output format.

Node model

Pluggable output

Render HTML, normalized Markdown, reStructuredText, or your own output by registering handlers for the node types you care about.

Recipes

Safe HTML defaults

Escape raw HTML and sanitize unsafe URLs by default, then opt into trusted HTML only when your application has a separate sanitization layer.

Security

Streaming support

Emit HTML chunks as Markdown is parsed when latency matters, using a preset that avoids document-wide deferred resolution.

Usage

Fast and lightweight

Keep runtime dependencies at zero and enable only the syntax rules you need, so larger dialects do not become the default cost for every parse.

Compatibility

Wenmode separates parsing, rendering, syntax rules, and directive rendering so you can start with a CommonMark-style parser and then opt in to only the Markdown features you need.

Install Wenmode from PyPI:

pip

pip install wenmode

uv

uv add wenmode

from wenmode import Wenmode

wenmode = Wenmode()
text = '''
# Hello

This is **wenmode**.
'''
expected = '''
<h1>Hello</h1>
<p>This is <strong>wenmode</strong>.</p>
'''

html = wenmode.render(text)

assert html == expected.lstrip()

Choose your path

Goal	Start here
Parse Markdown and render HTML	Usage
Choose CommonMark, GFM, streaming, or a custom dialect	Presets
Render user-authored Markdown safely	Security
Add a table of contents, heading IDs, or a custom renderer	Recipes
Build application pipelines around Wenmode	Integrations
Troubleshoot escaping, directives, streaming, or custom renderers	Troubleshooting
Migrate from another Markdown parser	Migration guides
Review benchmark methodology and results	Benchmarks
Build new syntax rules	Custom rules
Check compatibility, compliance, changelog, and project status	Compatibility, Compliance, and Changelog