Markdown flavors

EnrichedMarkdownText parses more than the CommonMark core introduced in Core concepts: tables, task lists, LaTeX math, and extra inline syntax. Some of that is gated behind a Markdown flavor, some is toggled through md4cFlags, and a few pieces are always on. This guide explains the flavor first, because it is the main switch, and then the rest of the parsing model.

Why there are flavors

CommonMark is the strict, unambiguous specification for Markdown's core: headings, emphasis, lists, links, blockquotes, code. It deliberately leaves out everything that isn't universal, so different tools have historically layered their own extensions on top - tables, task lists, strikethrough, and more.

The most widely used of these supersets is GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM): CommonMark plus a well-defined set of extensions. Enriched Markdown lets you choose which dialect the parser uses so you only pay for the features you actually want.

The flavor prop

EnrichedMarkdownText takes a flavor prop that selects the dialect:

• commonmark (default) - the core syntax only.
• github - CommonMark plus the GFM extensions.

<EnrichedMarkdownText flavor="github" markdown={markdown} />

What GFM adds

This is the canonical list of everything flavor="github" changes. The other pages link here rather than repeating it.

At parse time, three extensions switch on:

Feature	Syntax
Tables	| col | col | | --- | --- |
Task lists	- [x] done, - [ ] todo
Strikethrough	~~text~~

In commonmark these stay literal - ~~text~~ renders as tildes and a | a | b | line is just text. A fourth parser flag, admonitions, is on by default but forced off under commonmark, so > [!NOTE] is a GitHub-only callout in practice too.

At render time, github additionally unlocks:

Feature	What you get
Tables	Column alignment, rich text in cells, header styling, horizontal scrolling
Code blocks	A block component with a header bar, language label and copy button, plus onCopyPress
Block math	$$...$$ as a standalone, scrollable display equation rather than an inline attachment
Videos	The <video> player (the tag itself is parsed in both flavors)
Blockquote containers	Blockquotes and admonitions as real container views, with a block context menu
Task list toggling	Interactive checkboxes, reported through onTaskListItemPress

And two things you give up under github:

• numberOfLines and ellipsizeMode are ignored - independent block segments cannot honor a document-wide line cap.
• A text selection cannot span two segments, and the selection offsets handed to contextMenuItems are relative to the segment, not the whole string.

note

Bare-URL autolinking and spoilers (||text||) are always on, independent of the flavor, and <video> is promoted in both flavors even though only github renders a player. See LaTeX math for the math details.

More than extensions: how the flavor renders

The flavor does more than toggle syntax - it also decides how the document is laid out in the native view tree, which is often the bigger practical difference between the two.

• commonmark renders the whole document as one native text view (a single attributed string). Because everything lives in one text run, selection and copy flow naturally across the entire document and the view stays lightweight. The trade-off is that block structures that can't be expressed inside a single text run - real tables, fenced code blocks with a header bar and copy button, display equations - are not rendered as such.
• github splits the document into segments, rendering each block as its own native view. That is what makes the richer block components possible: tables with column alignment, block-style code blocks (header, language label, copy button), display math, and block-level callbacks (reacting to a task-list checkbox toggle or a code-block copy). The trade-off is that a text selection is confined to a single segment - it cannot span two blocks - and the selection offsets handed to contextMenuItems are relative to the segment rather than the whole string.

As a rule of thumb, reach for commonmark when the content is mostly prose and seamless selection matters most, and github when you need tables, rich code blocks, or block-level interactions.

note

The prop has no effect on the web build, which always parses the GFM extensions - its renderer builds a DOM tree, so it has none of the single-text-run constraints that make the flavor meaningful on iOS and Android. See Web support.

Beyond flavors: individual parser extensions

A second set of inline extensions is toggled independently of the flavor, through the md4cFlags prop. Each is opt-in per feature rather than bundled into a dialect:

• underline - _text_
• superscript - ^text^
• subscript - ~text~
• highlight - ==text==

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The flag set also carries latexMath and admonitions (both on by default) and the newline options hardSoftBreaks and preserveBlankLines. See the md4cFlags reference for what each flag enables and its default.

admonitions is the one flag gated by both layers: the flag must be on and the flavor must be github, because commonmark forces it off.

The parsing model

Putting it together, three layers decide which syntax the parser recognizes:

1. CommonMark core - always parsed: headings, emphasis, lists, links, blockquotes, code, and images (everything in Core concepts), plus two always-on extras: bare-URL autolinks and spoilers.
2. The flavor - flavor="github" adds the GFM extensions above (tables, task lists, strikethrough); flavor="commonmark" leaves them off.
3. md4cFlags - layer extra inline extensions on top of either flavor (underline, superscript, subscript, highlight) and tune math, admonitions and newline handling (latexMath, admonitions, hardSoftBreaks, preserveBlankLines). admonitions is the exception to "on top of either flavor": it is forced off under commonmark.

For a given (flavor, md4cFlags) pair the same string always parses the same way - those are the only inputs that change which syntax is recognized.

Enabling each feature

Mapping the rich text features back to the three layers above - what each one needs to be switched on:

• Tables, task lists, strikethrough - the GFM extensions covered above; flavor="github".
• Admonitions - the admonitions flag (on by default) and flavor="github".
• LaTeX math - the latexMath flag (on by default); block equations also need flavor="github". Rendering additionally needs the native math engine, which the enableMath build flag includes by default.
• Editor-style text - the hardSoftBreaks and preserveBlankLines flags.
• Code-block highlighting - automatic for language-tagged fenced blocks, independent of the flavor, as long as the enableCodeHighlight build flag is on (it is by default). The header and copy button do need flavor="github".
• Mentions - not a parser feature at all; ordinary links with custom URL schemes.
• Markdown streaming - the streamingAnimation prop (off by default), tuned by streamingConfig, which itself needs flavor="github" to have any effect.

Reference

• flavor - the dialect switch.
• md4cFlags - the individual parser extensions and their defaults.
• Element structure - every supported element and which ones are GitHub-only.
• Feature support - the per-target matrix.