github-action-count-markdown-words

GitHub Action to count words in markdown files for:

• each document total
• each section (by heading level, configurable)
• repository-wide total

Scanned file extensions: .md, .markdown, .Rmd, .qmd.

Features

• Counts text words from markdown content
• Excludes image caption text (for example ![caption](img.png))
• Reports per-document totals and per-section totals
• Supports section depth input (depth); by default all heading levels are included
• Publishes results in CI logs using info tables and in the workflow summary

Inputs

Name	Required	Default	Description
path	No	.	Root directory to scan for markdown files
depth	No	(all levels)	Maximum heading depth to include in section tables
exclude	No	README.md	Comma/newline-separated markdown file paths to exclude (relative to path)

Outputs

Name	Description
repository_total_words	Total words in all scanned markdown files
results_json	JSON payload with document totals and section breakdowns

Usage

name: Count markdown words
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  words:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: JJ/github-action-count-markdown-words@v1
        with:
          path: .
          depth: 4
          exclude: |
            README.md
            docs/generated.md

This is going to generate a markdown summary, which you can check at the "actions" tab of your repo, like this one:

Markdown word count

Document	Total words
portafolio-edad-moderna.qmd	1919

Repository total words: 1919

Sections for portafolio-edad-moderna.qmd

Level	Section	Words
1	Portafolio de Historia del Arte de la Edad Moderna en España	106
2	Palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz en el Viso del Marqués	213
3	Arquitectura del palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz	11
4	Autor	81
4	Cronología	32
4	Tipología	45
4	Análisis descriptivo	957
3	Esculturas de la escalera	58
4	Autor	41
4	Cronología	24
4	Tipología	66
4	Análisis descriptivo	135
3	Frescos del edificio	0
4	Autor	0
4	Cronología	0
4	Tipología:	0
4	Análisis descriptivo	0
3	Contexto histórico-cultural	0
4	Autor	0
4	Cronología	0
4	Tipología:	0
4	Análisis descriptivo	0
4	Contexto histórico-cultural	0
4	Autor	0
4	Cronología	0
4	Tipología:	0
4	Análisis descriptivo	0
4	Contexto histórico-cultural	0
4	Autor	0
4	Cronología	0
4	Tipología:	0
4	Análisis descriptivo	0
4	Contexto histórico-cultural	0
4	Autor	0
4	Cronología	0
4	Tipología:	0
4	Análisis descriptivo	0
4	Contexto histórico-cultural	0
4	Autor	0
4	Cronología	0
4	Tipología:	0
4	Análisis descriptivo	0
4	Contexto histórico-cultural	0
4	Autor	0
4	Cronología	0
4	Tipología:	0
4	Análisis descriptivo	0
4	Contexto histórico-cultural	0
2	Créditos de las imágenes	17
2	Referencias	0

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Run tests:

npm test

Build single-file action bundle with ncc:

npm run build

License

This is (c) JJ Merelo and is licensed under the AGPL v3. See LICENSE for details.