---
title: Markdown and MDX
description: Learn how to configure MDX to write JSX in your markdown files.
url: "https://nextjs.org/docs/14/app/building-your-application/configuring/mdx"
version: 14.2.35
lastUpdated: 2024-04-05
prerequisites:
  - "Building Your Application: /docs/14/app/building-your-application"
  - "Configuring: /docs/14/app/building-your-application/configuring"
---


[Markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax) is a lightweight markup language used to format text. It allows you to write using plain text syntax and convert it to structurally valid HTML. It's commonly used for writing content on websites and blogs.

You write...

```md
I **love** using [Next.js](https://nextjs.org/)
```

Output:

```html
<p>I <strong>love</strong> using <a href="https://nextjs.org/">Next.js</a></p>
```

[MDX](https://mdxjs.com/) is a superset of markdown that lets you write [JSX](https://react.dev/learn/writing-markup-with-jsx) directly in your markdown files. It is a powerful way to add dynamic interactivity and embed React components within your content.

Next.js can support both local MDX content inside your application, as well as remote MDX files fetched dynamically on the server. The Next.js plugin handles transforming markdown and React components into HTML, including support for usage in Server Components (the default in App Router).

## `@next/mdx`

The `@next/mdx` package is used to configure Next.js so it can process markdown and MDX. **It sources data from local files**, allowing you to create pages with a `.mdx` extension, directly in your `/pages` or `/app` directory.

Let's walk through how to configure and use MDX with Next.js.

## Getting Started

Install packages needed to render MDX:

```bash filename="Terminal"
npm install @next/mdx @mdx-js/loader @mdx-js/react @types/mdx
```

Update the `next.config.js` file at your project's root to configure it to use MDX:

```js filename="next.config.js"
const withMDX = require('@next/mdx')()

/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
  // Configure `pageExtensions` to include MDX files
  pageExtensions: ['js', 'jsx', 'mdx', 'ts', 'tsx'],
  // Optionally, add any other Next.js config below
}

module.exports = withMDX(nextConfig)
```

Now you can use markdown and import React components directly inside your MDX page:

```mdx
import { MyComponent } from 'my-components'

# Welcome to my MDX page!

This is some **bold** and _italics_ text.

This is a list in markdown:

- One
- Two
- Three

Checkout my React component:

<MyComponent />
```

Navigating to the `/my-mdx-page` route should display your rendered MDX.

## Remote MDX

If your markdown or MDX files or content lives *somewhere else*, you can fetch it dynamically on the server. This is useful for content stored in a separate local folder, CMS, database, or anywhere else. A popular community package for this use is [`next-mdx-remote`](https://github.com/hashicorp/next-mdx-remote#react-server-components-rsc--nextjs-app-directory-support).

> **Good to know**: Please proceed with caution. MDX compiles to JavaScript and is executed on the server. You should only fetch MDX content from a trusted source, otherwise this can lead to remote code execution (RCE).

The following example uses `next-mdx-remote`:

Navigating to the `/my-mdx-page-remote` route should display your rendered MDX.

## Layouts

## Remark and Rehype Plugins

You can optionally provide `remark` and `rehype` plugins to transform the MDX content.

For example, you can use `remark-gfm` to support GitHub Flavored Markdown.

Since the `remark` and `rehype` ecosystem is ESM only, you'll need to use `next.config.mjs` as the configuration file.

```js filename="next.config.mjs"
import remarkGfm from 'remark-gfm'
import createMDX from '@next/mdx'

/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
  // Configure `pageExtensions`` to include MDX files
  pageExtensions: ['js', 'jsx', 'mdx', 'ts', 'tsx'],
  // Optionally, add any other Next.js config below
}

const withMDX = createMDX({
  // Add markdown plugins here, as desired
  options: {
    remarkPlugins: [remarkGfm],
    rehypePlugins: [],
  },
})

// Merge MDX config with Next.js config
export default withMDX(nextConfig)
```

## Frontmatter

Frontmatter is a YAML like key/value pairing that can be used to store data about a page. `@next/mdx` does **not** support frontmatter by default, though there are many solutions for adding frontmatter to your MDX content, such as:

* [remark-frontmatter](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-frontmatter)
* [remark-mdx-frontmatter](https://github.com/remcohaszing/remark-mdx-frontmatter)
* [gray-matter](https://github.com/jonschlinkert/gray-matter).

To access page metadata with `@next/mdx`, you can export a metadata object from within the `.mdx` file:

```mdx
export const metadata = {
  author: 'John Doe',
}

# My MDX page
```

## Custom Elements

One of the pleasant aspects of using markdown, is that it maps to native `HTML` elements, making writing fast, and intuitive:

```md
This is a list in markdown:

- One
- Two
- Three
```

The above generates the following `HTML`:

```html
<p>This is a list in markdown:</p>

<ul>
  <li>One</li>
  <li>Two</li>
  <li>Three</li>
</ul>
```

When you want to style your own elements for a custom feel to your website or application, you can pass in shortcodes. These are your own custom components that map to `HTML` elements.

```tsx filename="mdx-components.tsx" switcher
import type { MDXComponents } from 'mdx/types'
import Image, { ImageProps } from 'next/image'

// This file allows you to provide custom React components
// to be used in MDX files. You can import and use any
// React component you want, including inline styles,
// components from other libraries, and more.

export function useMDXComponents(components: MDXComponents): MDXComponents {
  return {
    // Allows customizing built-in components, e.g. to add styling.
    h1: ({ children }) => <h1 style={{ fontSize: '100px' }}>{children}</h1>,
    img: (props) => (
      <Image
        sizes="100vw"
        style={{ width: '100%', height: 'auto' }}
        {...(props as ImageProps)}
      />
    ),
    ...components,
  }
}
```

```js filename="mdx-components.js" switcher
import Image from 'next/image'

// This file allows you to provide custom React components
// to be used in MDX files. You can import and use any
// React component you want, including inline styles,
// components from other libraries, and more.

export function useMDXComponents(components) {
  return {
    // Allows customizing built-in components, e.g. to add styling.
    h1: ({ children }) => <h1 style={{ fontSize: '100px' }}>{children}</h1>,
    img: (props) => (
      <Image
        sizes="100vw"
        style={{ width: '100%', height: 'auto' }}
        {...props}
      />
    ),
    ...components,
  }
}
```

## Deep Dive: How do you transform markdown into HTML?

React does not natively understand markdown. The markdown plaintext needs to first be transformed into HTML. This can be accomplished with `remark` and `rehype`.

`remark` is an ecosystem of tools around markdown. `rehype` is the same, but for HTML. For example, the following code snippet transforms markdown into HTML:

```js
import { unified } from 'unified'
import remarkParse from 'remark-parse'
import remarkRehype from 'remark-rehype'
import rehypeSanitize from 'rehype-sanitize'
import rehypeStringify from 'rehype-stringify'

main()

async function main() {
  const file = await unified()
    .use(remarkParse) // Convert into markdown AST
    .use(remarkRehype) // Transform to HTML AST
    .use(rehypeSanitize) // Sanitize HTML input
    .use(rehypeStringify) // Convert AST into serialized HTML
    .process('Hello, Next.js!')

  console.log(String(file)) // <p>Hello, Next.js!</p>
}
```

The `remark` and `rehype` ecosystem contains plugins for [syntax highlighting](https://github.com/atomiks/rehype-pretty-code), [linking headings](https://github.com/rehypejs/rehype-autolink-headings), [generating a table of contents](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-toc), and more.

When using `@next/mdx` as shown above, you **do not** need to use `remark` or `rehype` directly, as it is handled for you. We're describing it here for a deeper understanding of what the `@next/mdx` package is doing underneath.

## Using the Rust-based MDX compiler (Experimental)

Next.js supports a new MDX compiler written in Rust. This compiler is still experimental and is not recommended for production use. To use the new compiler, you need to configure `next.config.js` when you pass it to `withMDX`:

```js filename="next.config.js"
module.exports = withMDX({
  experimental: {
    mdxRs: true,
  },
})
```

## Helpful Links

* [MDX](https://mdxjs.com)
* [`@next/mdx`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@next/mdx)
* [remark](https://github.com/remarkjs/remark)
* [rehype](https://github.com/rehypejs/rehype)
* [Markdoc](https://markdoc.dev/docs/nextjs)
---

For an index of all available documentation, see [/docs/14/llms.txt](/docs/14/llms.txt)