tocer

A command line interface for generating Markdown table of contents.

https://github.com/bkuhlmann/tocer

Keywords

Repository

A command line interface for generating Markdown table of contents.

README.adoc

:toc: macro
:toclevels: 5
:figure-caption!:

= Tocer

Tocer (a.k.a. Table of Contenter) is a command line interface for generating table of contents for
Markdown files. Use this tool to automatically manage and update your documentation with minimal
effort. Works on single files or multiple files within nested directory structures.

toc::[]

== Features

* Supports Markdown ATX-style headers. Example: `# Header`.
** Does not support header suffixes. Example: `# Header #`.
** Does not support header prefixes without spaces. Example: `#Header`.
* Supports table of contents generation for single or multiple files.
* Supports custom label. Default: `## Table of Contents`.
* Supports file list filtering. Default: `"README.md"`.
* Prepends table of contents to Markdown documents that don’t have table of contents.
* Rebuilds Markdown documents that have existing table of contents.

== Requirements

. A UNIX-based system.
. link:https://www.ruby-lang.org[Ruby].

== Setup

To install _with_ security, run:

[source,bash]
----
# 💡 Skip this line if you already have the public certificate installed.
gem cert --add <(curl --compressed --location https://alchemists.io/gems.pem)
gem install tocer --trust-policy HighSecurity
----

To install _without_ security, run:

[source,bash]
----
gem install tocer
----

You can also add the gem directly to your project:

[source,bash]
----
bundle add tocer
----

== Usage

=== Command Line Interface (CLI)

From the command line, run: `tocer --help`

image:https://alchemists.io/images/projects/tocer/screenshots/usage.png[Usage,width=581,height=326,role=focal_point]

To generate the table of contents at a specific position within your Markdown files, add the
following lines to your file(s) prior to generation:

[source,markdown]
----


----

In the case that Tocer has auto-generated a table of contents for a Markdown file; the existing
table of contents has become stale; or placement of the table of contents has changed, you can
re-run Tocer on that file to auto-update it with new table of contents.

=== Customization

This gem can be configured via a global configuration: `~/.config/tocer/configuration.yml`.

It can also be configured via link:https://alchemists.io/projects/xdg[XDG] environment
variables.

The default configuration is as follows:

[source,yaml]
----
label: "## Table of Contents"
patterns:
  - "README.md"
root_dir: "."
----

Feel free to take this default configuration, modify, and save as your own custom
`configuration.yml`.

The `configuration.yml` file can be configured as follows:

* `label`: The header label for the table of contents.
* `patterns`: The list of included files.
* `root_dir`: The root path to use for processing files.

There are multiple ways the include list can be defined. Here are some examples:

[source,yaml]
----
# Use an empty array to ignore all files:
:patterns: []

# Use an array of wildcards for groups of files with similar extensions:
:patterns:
  - "*.md"
  - "*.mkd"
  - "*.markdown"

# Use a mix of wild cards and relative names/paths to customized as necessary:
:patterns:
  - "README.md"
  - "docs/*.md"
  - "*.markdown"

# Use a recursive glob to traverse and update all sub-directories:
:patterns:
  - "**/*.md"
----

=== Rake

You can add Rake support by adding the following to your `Rakefile`:

[source,ruby]
----
begin
  require "tocer/rake/register"
rescue LoadError => error
  puts error.message
end

Tocer::Rake::Register.call
----

Once required and registered, the following tasks will be available (i.e. `bundle exec rake -T`):

....
rake toc[label,includes]   # Insert/Update Table of Contents
....

You can invoke the task as follows (quotes are only necessary if spaces are used):

[source,bash]
----
rake toc["## Example, *.md"]
----

== Development

To contribute, run:

[source,bash]
----
git clone https://github.com/bkuhlmann/tocer
cd tocer
bin/setup
----

You can also use the IRB console for direct access to all objects:

[source,bash]
----
bin/console
----

== Tests

To test, run:

[source,bash]
----
bin/rake
----

== link:https://alchemists.io/policies/license[License]

== link:https://alchemists.io/policies/security[Security]

== link:https://alchemists.io/policies/code_of_conduct[Code of Conduct]

== link:https://alchemists.io/policies/contributions[Contributions]

== link:https://alchemists.io/policies/developer_certificate_of_origin[Developer Certificate of Origin]

== link:https://alchemists.io/projects/tocer/versions[Versions]

== link:https://alchemists.io/community[Community]

== Credits

* Built with link:https://alchemists.io/projects/gemsmith[Gemsmith].
* Engineered by link:https://alchemists.io/team/brooke_kuhlmann[Brooke Kuhlmann].

Owner

Citation (CITATION.cff)

cff-version: 1.2.0
message: Please use the following metadata when citing this project in your work.
title: Tocer
abstract: A command line interface for generating Markdown table of contents.
version: 19.3.0
license: Hippocratic-2.1
date-released: 2025-07-19
authors:
  - family-names: Kuhlmann
    given-names: Brooke
    affiliation: Alchemists
    orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5810-6268
keywords:
 - ruby
 - command line interface
 - markdown
 - documentation
 - table of contents
repository-code: https://github.com/bkuhlmann/tocer
repository-artifact: https://rubygems.org/gems/tocer
url: https://alchemists.io/projects/tocer

GitHub Events

Committers

Last synced: 9 months ago

Issues and Pull Requests

Last synced: 6 months ago

Packages