mdstrip

README

mdstrip

Strip Markdown formatting from text while preserving the content.

Features

• Remove Markdown formatting syntax (headers, emphasis, lists, etc.)
• Process files or stdin
• Optional preservation of links and code blocks
• Fast and lightweight
• Cross-platform support

Installation

Using Homebrew

brew install daikw/tap/mdstrip

Using Go

go install github.com/daikw/mdstrip/cmd@latest

Download Binary

Download the latest release from the releases page.

Usage

Basic Usage

Strip Markdown from a file:

mdstrip input.md

Strip Markdown from stdin:

echo "# Hello **world**" | mdstrip
# Output: Hello world

Save output to a file:

mdstrip input.md -o output.txt

Options

• -o, --output : Output file (default: stdout)
• -l, --keep-links : Keep link URLs in output
• -c, --keep-code : Keep code block markers
• -V, --verbose : Enable verbose logging
• --version : Show version information

Examples

# Remove all Markdown formatting
echo "# Title\n**Bold** and *italic* text" | mdstrip
# Output: Title\nBold and italic text

# Keep links
echo "Visit [GitHub](https://github.com)" | mdstrip --keep-links
# Output: Visit GitHub (https://github.com)

# Process multiple files
for f in *.md; do mdstrip "$f" -o "${f%.md}.txt"; done

What Gets Removed

• Headers (# H1, ## H2, etc.)
• Emphasis (**bold**, *italic*, __underline__)
• Lists (- item, * item, 1. item)
• Code blocks (```code```)
• Inline code (`code`)
• Links ([text](url))
• Images (![alt](url))
• Blockquotes (> quote)
• Horizontal rules (---, ***)
• HTML tags
• Escape characters

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.22 or later
• Make (optional)

Building

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/daikw/mdstrip
cd mdstrip

# Download dependencies
make deps

# Build
make build

# Run tests
make test

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by various Markdown stripping tools in the ecosystem
• Built with urfave/cli for CLI framework
• Uses goreleaser for releases