style/table

Formats tables, also inside lists and block quotes: by default it pads every cell to its column's width and writes the delimiter row to match, keeping each column's alignment. Cell text and each row's number of cells stay as written.

Style rule, fixed by format. Presets: recommended (warn), github (warn), forgejo (warn), gitea (warn), obsidian (warn), vitepress (warn). Dialects: all but CommonMark. Options: style, pipeStyle, alignedDelimiter, padding.

Before:

| Sensor | Unit |
|:--|--:|
| Temperature | °C |

After:

| Sensor      | Unit |
| :---------- | ---: |
| Temperature | °C   |

Option	Values	Default
style	"aligned", "compact", "tight"	"aligned"
pipeStyle	"leadingAndTrailing", "leadingOnly", "trailingOnly", "noLeadingOrTrailing", "consistent", "perTable"	"leadingAndTrailing"
alignedDelimiter	Boolean	false
padding	"right", "alignment"	"right"

• style: aligned pads every cell to its column's width, measured in display columns (including emoji and CJK), and keeps the delimiter row's column alignment. compact writes one space around cell text and three-character delimiters, such as | :-- | --: |. tight writes no padding: |a|b|. Unlike markdownlint's any, each value names a target output: accepting any of several styles would leave a formatter without a target, so choose the desired style or turn the rule off to keep spacing as written.
• pipeStyle: "consistent" takes the first table header's borders for the document; "perTable" takes each table's own header. The other values request specific borders.
• alignedDelimiter: aligns delimiter pipes with the header in compact and tight tables; short headers gain padding to fit the minimum three-character delimiters. Body cells still use the selected style.
• padding: "alignment" pads right-aligned text on the left and centered text on both sides (an odd extra space goes on the right). It applies to aligned cells and to headers padded for alignedDelimiter. "right" puts all extra spaces on the right.

For example, with { "style": "tight", "pipeStyle": "noLeadingOrTrailing", "alignedDelimiter": true }:

Alpha|Beta
-----|----
x|y

With { "padding": "alignment" }, right and centered columns instead pad as follows:

| Right | Center |
| ----: | :----: |
|     x |   y    |

Borders: pipes needed to keep a one-column table are kept: when neither border is requested, such a table uses both. A table keeps its leading border when a row's first cell is empty or starts like another block, such as - x, # x, or 1. x, which would otherwise start that block; it keeps its trailing border when a row's last cell is empty, which would otherwise vanish. Without a trailing border, the last cell gets no padding, so no line ends in blank space. A preferred form that would change meaning stays as written.

In lists and block quotes: each row keeps the quote markers, list indentation, and line ending before it as written, and column widths are measured after them, so the rows line up when their prefixes have the same width; style/list-indent and the other container rules format the prefixes. Every option applies as it does elsewhere:

> | Sensor      | Unit |
> | :---------- | ---: |
> | Temperature | °C   |

A header written on its list item's marker line keeps its leading pipe, or its lack of one: markdown-it, which VitePress uses, reads - Sensor | Unit above an indented delimiter row as a table outside the list, with the marker in its first cell. Such a header without a leading pipe has none added, and its table stays as written when a row needs one.

Edge cases and advanced usage

Left as written:

• Tables with more cells in a row than in the header.
• Tables in footnote definitions, and indented tables outside lists and block quotes.
• A table containing a standalone colon-container boundary such as ::: or :::tip: site generators use it to open or close a container, where GFM reads another row. Cells written with table borders, such as | ::: |, are formatted normally.
• In VitePress, a table that markdown-it reads on other lines, in other containers, or not at all, such as a one-column table whose header has no pipe, a header written as a lazy line in a block quote, or a header on its list item's marker line above a delimiter row indented less than four columns, which markdown-it reads outside the list.

Dialect notes

In Obsidian:

• An existing leading border is kept, and one-column tables keep both borders.
• A body row that changes its header's leading-pipe convention, or has only its leading pipe, can begin paragraph text instead. That row and the rest of the primary table keep their source and preceding boundary, so adding table borders cannot absorb the paragraph or split pipes inside links.
• A one-column table stays as written unless both its header and delimiter have leading and trailing pipes: Live Preview shows the other forms as source text. Reading view also accepts matching trailing-only pipes; missing final pipes or mismatched leading borders instead continue paragraph text, including across a Tab-only line into later literal rows.
• A table directly after a list item's closing code fence keeps its literal rows: Live Preview shows them as source text. A table after a heading, indented code, a root fence, or a blank line still formats.
• In a list or block quote, a table directly below paragraph text in the same block stays as written. A table starting its own list item or immediately following a callout's single-line title formats normally. A table whose container prefixes hold a Tab stays as written: Reading view can show those rows as literal code.
• A callout marker must follow its quote marker with zero or one space. A marker after extra spaces or a Tab keeps the paragraph-continuation protection for a table below it.