Build from source

Use this guide to build and install Comfit packages from a source checkout. Run commands from the repository root, and follow the sections for the packages you need.

Prerequisites

Install Rust with Cargo, C/C++ build tools, Git, and patch. Some grammars also require Node.js 22 or later to generate parser sources.

Additional requirements depend on the package:

Node.js, rehype, markdown-it, and browser packages require Node.js 22 or later and pnpm.
The Python package requires Python 3.11 or later. The commands below use uv.
Browser packages require the WebAssembly tools listed in their section below.

Prepare the grammars

Install the pinned Tree-sitter CLI and prepare the parser sources and queries:

Shell

cargo install tree-sitter-cli --version 0.27.2 --locked
cargo grammars update

cargo grammars update downloads pinned parser sources, resolves query inheritance, and validates the generated data without compressing it. Consumer builds compile the required grammars from crates/comfit_grammars/data; cargo grammars build is an optional grammar-only build. Use cargo grammars build --release before packaging the Rust grammar crate to compress prebuilt parsers at zstd level 12 and build optimized grammars. Later Cargo builds use these local files without downloading grammars. The sources in .grammars/prepared remain uncompressed for WASM builds.

Rust

Shell

cargo build -p comfit --release --features rust,render-html

Use language features to select the parsers included in the build. Use all-languages instead of rust to include every bundled grammar. Add render-ansi for terminal output or theme-toml to parse custom theme files.

Command line

Build and install the comfit command:

Shell

cargo install --path crates/comfit_cli --locked
comfit ansi --list-languages

You can also run it directly from the checkout:

Shell

cargo run -p comfit-cli --release -- ansi crates/comfit/src/lib.rs --theme catppuccin-mocha

Node.js and rehype

Install JavaScript dependencies and build the packages:

Shell

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm --dir npm/node build:release
pnpm --dir npm/rehype build
pnpm --dir npm/markdown-it build

The Node build produces the current platform's addon and JavaScript entry point in npm/node/dist. The Markdown plugins write their output to npm/rehype/dist and npm/markdown-it/dist.

To install the builds in another application, create package archives:

Shell

pnpm --dir npm/node pack
pnpm --dir npm/rehype pack
pnpm --dir npm/markdown-it pack

Install the resulting .tgz files in your application. For either Markdown plugin, install its archive together with the Node archive so it uses your Node package build.

Browser packages

Install the WebAssembly target and pinned build tools:

Shell

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
cargo install wasm-bindgen-cli --version 0.2.130 --locked
cargo install wasm-opt --version 0.116.1

Then build the engine, grammar assets, and theme stylesheets:

Shell

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
cargo wasm build
pnpm --filter @comfit/wasm --filter @comfit/wasm-grammars -r bundle
pnpm --dir npm/css build

Each package writes its output to its own dist directory. The engine and grammar assets generate concurrently. Add --release to cargo wasm build for optimized assets. Emscripten is not required because Tree-sitter uses its WASI toolchain.

Python

Build and install the extension into the checkout's Python environment:

Shell

uv sync --package comfit-hl --locked
uv run --package comfit-hl python -c 'import comfit; print(comfit.languages())'

To build and install into an existing Python environment instead, run python -m pip install ./python/comfit after preparing the grammars.

These Python builds use the development profile. To build a release wheel:

Shell

uv build --package comfit-hl --wheel --out-dir dist -C 'maturin.build-args=--profile release'