Plugins don't work

[grintroy]

Initial checklist

• I read the support docs
• I read the contributing guide
• I agree to follow the code of conduct
• I searched issues and discussions and couldn’t find anything (or linked relevant results below)

Affected package

vscode-remark@3.0.0

Steps to reproduce

• Install VS Code v1.97.2
• Install remark for VS Code v3.0.0 from the extension store
• Create a markdown file
• Create a .remarkrc.yaml file with the following:

plugins:
  - remark-math

Actual behavior

Error in code and no formatting done:

Cannot process file
Error: Cannot find module `remark-math`
    at Function.<anonymous> (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:816:5266)
    at Function.freeze (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:810:6475)
    at Function.parse (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:810:6618)
    at tO (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:821:3578)
    at r (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:810:1373)
    at a (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:810:1128)
    at i (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:810:1543)
    at aO (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:821:4528)
    at r (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:810:1373)
    at a (/Users/user/.vscode/extensions/unifiedjs.vscode-remark-3.0.0/out/remark-language-server.js:810:1128)

Expected behavior

Markdown file formatted with plugins enabled

Runtime

NA

Package manager

NA

Operating system

macOS Sequoia 15.3.1

Build and bundle tools

No response

[Murderlon]

Hi, you need to actually install the plugin, it won't be installed magically.

[github-actions]

Hi! This was closed. Team: If this was fixed, please add phase/solved. Otherwise, please add one of the no/* labels.

[github-actions]

Hi! Thanks for reaching out! Because we treat issues as our backlog, we close issues that are questions since they don’t represent a task to be completed.

See our support docs for how and where to ask questions.

Thanks,
— bb

[grintroy]

@Murderlon it’s not as obvious for somebody unfamiliar with npm like myself, and the documentation isn’t clear about installing plugins specifically for the VS Code environment either.

At least my expectation was that the plugins come packaged in an extension, so that the ease of use is comparable to Ruff in a way.

[wooorm]

The readme talks about the ecosystem of 150+ plugins — clicking the link and more you can see that anybody can make their own plugins! So no, we cannot include anybody’s plugin on your computer.

Fine if you come from some other tool and expect things — but our expectation is also that you take some time to read up on things.

[Murderlon]

In terms of mindset, you wouldn't install plugins specifically for VS Code, you would install them because your project uses remark to check markdown. As a nice-to-have on top you can use vscode-remark to get it in your editor directly without running the CLI or npm script.

vscode-remark is not a zero-config editor plugin to check all markdown everywhere. It's for places where you already use remark.

[grintroy]

Thanks for the comments. But I must say, I wouldn't create a new issue without reading through the readme's on vscode-remark, remarkjs, remark, remark-lint and so on – I actually did it for about an hour today, but as I said, after reading through it, I still struggled to make sense of it.

I guess it's great for people who started with the CLI or npm version, but I believe it's quite confusing for those who just searched for markdown formatters for VS Code online and wanted to try Remark.

Maybe it would be nice to have a note in the readme file, to explicitly state that plugins need to be installed via some another way, just as a suggestion?

[wooorm]

The readme here states, in Use importantly, that you should set up remark-cli. First do that before using this. In the remark-cli readme, there are examples of how to do things, how to install things