MCPcopy Index your code
hub / github.com/dmnd/dedent

github.com/dmnd/dedent @v1.7.2

Chat with this repo
repository ↗ · DeepWiki ↗ · release v1.7.2 ↗ · + Follow
8 symbols 19 edges 9 files 1 documented · 12% 88 cross-repo links updated 4mo agov1.7.2 · 2026-03-01★ 1,1866 open issues
What it actually does AI analysis from the code graph — generated when you open this
loading…
README

dedent

A string tag that strips indentation from multi-line strings. ⬅️

<a href="#contributors" target="_blank"><img alt="All Contributors: 18 👪" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/all_contributors-18_👪-21bb42.svg" /></a>


<a href="https://github.com/dmnd/dedent/blob/main/.github/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md" target="_blank"><img alt="🤝 Code of Conduct: Kept" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/code_of_conduct-enforced-21bb42" /></a>
<a href="https://codecov.io/gh/dmnd/dedent" target="_blank"><img alt="🧪 Coverage" src="https://codecov.io/gh/dmnd/dedent/branch/main/graph/badge.svg"/></a>
<a href="https://github.com/dmnd/dedent/blob/main/LICENSE.md" target="_blank"><img alt="📝 License: MIT" src="https://img.shields.io/github/license/dmnd/dedent?color=21bb42"></a>
<a href="http://npmjs.com/package/dedent" target="_blank"><img alt="📦 npm version" src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/dedent?color=21bb42" /></a>
<img alt="💪 TypeScript: Strict" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/typescript-strict-21bb42.svg" />

Usage

npm i dedent
import dedent from "dedent";

function usageExample() {
    const first = dedent`A string that gets so long you need to break it over
                                             multiple lines. Luckily dedent is here to keep it
                                             readable without lots of spaces ending up in the string
                                             itself.`;

    const second = dedent`
        Leading and trailing lines will be trimmed, so you can write something like
        this and have it work as you expect:

            * how convenient it is
            * that I can use an indented list
                 - and still have it do the right thing

        That's all.
    `;

    const third = dedent(`
        Wait! I lied. Dedent can also be used as a function.
    `);

    return first + "\n\n" + second + "\n\n" + third;
}

console.log(usageExample());
A string that gets so long you need to break it over
multiple lines. Luckily dedent is here to keep it
readable without lots of spaces ending up in the string
itself.

Leading and trailing lines will be trimmed, so you can write something like
this and have it work as you expect:

    * how convenient it is
    * that I can use an indented list
        - and still have it do the right thing

That's all.

Wait! I lied. Dedent can also be used as a function.

Options

You can customize the options dedent runs with by calling its withOptions method with an object:

import dedent from 'dedent';

dedent.withOptions({ /* ... */ })`input`;
dedent.withOptions({ /* ... */ })(`input`);

options returns a new dedent function, so if you'd like to reuse the same options, you can create a dedicated dedent function:

import dedent from 'dedent';

const dedenter = dedent.withOptions({ /* ... */ });

dedenter`input`;
dedenter(`input`);

alignValues

When an interpolation evaluates to a multi-line string, only its first line is placed where the ${...} appears. Subsequent lines keep whatever indentation they already had inside that value (often none), so they can appear “shifted left”.

Enable alignValues to fix that visual jump. When true, for every multi-line interpolated value, each line after the first gets extra indentation appended so it starts in the same column as the first line.

import dedent from "dedent";

const list = dedent`
    - apples
    - bananas
    - cherries
`;

const withoutAlign = dedent`
    List without alignValues (default):
        ${list}
    Done.
`;

const withAlign = dedent.withOptions({ alignValues: true })`
    List with alignValues: true
        ${list}
    Done.
`;

console.log(withoutAlign);
console.log("---");
console.log(withAlign);
List without alignValues (default):
    - apples
- bananas
- cherries
Done.
---
List with alignValues: true
    - apples
    - bananas
    - cherries
Done.

escapeSpecialCharacters

JavaScript string tags by default add an extra \ escape in front of some special characters such as $ dollar signs. dedent will escape those special characters when called as a string tag.

If you'd like to change the behavior, an escapeSpecialCharacters option is available. It defaults to:

  • false: when dedent is called as a function
  • true: when dedent is called as a string tag
import dedent from "dedent";

// "$hello!"
dedent`
    $hello!
`;

// "\$hello!"
dedent.withOptions({ escapeSpecialCharacters: false })`
    $hello!
`;

// "$hello!"
dedent.withOptions({ escapeSpecialCharacters: true })`
    $hello!
`;

For more context, see 🚀 Feature: Add an option to disable special character escaping.

trimWhitespace

By default, dedent will trim leading and trailing whitespace from the overall string.

This can be disabled by setting trimWhitespace: false.

import dedent from "dedent";

// "hello!"
dedent`
    hello! 
`;

// "\nhello! \n"
dedent.withOptions({ trimWhitespace: false })`
    hello! 
`;

// "hello!"
dedent.withOptions({ trimWhitespace: true })`
    hello! 
`;

License

MIT

Contributors

Adrian Jost Adrian Jost 💻 Andri Möll Andri Möll 🐛 Benny Powers - עם ישראל חי! Benny Powers - עם ישראל חי! 🔧 Craig Spence Craig Spence 💻 Desmond Brand Desmond Brand 🐛 💻 📖 🤔 🚇 🚧 📆 🔧 Gareth Jones Gareth Jones 💻 🐛 Gray Zhang Gray Zhang 🐛
Haroen Viaene Haroen Viaene 💻 🚧 Hyeseong Kim Hyeseong Kim 🔧 🚇 John L. Armstrong IV John L. Armstrong IV 🐛 Josh Goldberg ✨ Josh Goldberg ✨ 🐛 💻 📖 🤔 🚇 🚧 📆 🔧 Pratap Vardhan Pratap Vardhan 💻 Simon Lydell Simon Lydell 🐛 Yusuke Iinuma Yusuke Iinuma 💻
Yves M. Yves M. 🔧 d07riv d07riv 🐛 mizdra mizdra 💻 sirian sirian 🐛

💙 This package was templated with create-typescript-app.

Extension points exported contracts — how you extend this code

DedentOptions (Interface)
(no doc)
src/types.ts
Dedent (Interface)
(no doc)
src/types.ts

Core symbols most depended-on inside this repo

dedent
called by 42
src/dedent.ts
asTag
called by 1
macro.js
asFunction
called by 1
macro.js
createDedent
called by 1
src/dedent.ts
alignValue
called by 1
src/dedent.ts
prevalMacros
called by 0
macro.js

Shape

Function 6
Interface 2

Languages

TypeScript100%

Modules by API surface

src/dedent.ts3 symbols
macro.js3 symbols
src/types.ts2 symbols

For agents

$ claude mcp add dedent \
  -- python -m otcore.mcp_server <graph>

⬇ download graph artifact