Code Embedder

Seamlessly update code snippets in your README files! 🔄📝🚀

Description • How it works • Setup - Github Action • Setup - Pre-commit Hook • Examples • Contributing • Development

📚 Description

Code Embedder is a GitHub Action and a pre-commit hook that automatically updates code snippets in your markdown (README) files. It finds code blocks in your README that reference specific scripts, then replaces these blocks with the current content of those scripts. This keeps your documentation in sync with your code.

✨ Key features

• 🔄 Automatic synchronization: Keep your README code examples up-to-date without manual intervention.
• 🛠️ Easy setup: Simply add the action to your GitHub workflow / pre-commit hook and format your README code blocks.
• 📝 Section support: Update only specific sections of the script in the README. This is language agnostic.
• 🧩 Object support: Update only specific objects (functions, classes) in the README. The latest version supports only 🐍 Python objects (other languages to be added soon).

By using Code Embedder, you can focus on writing and updating your actual code 💻, while letting the Code-Embedder take care of keeping your documentation current 📚🔄. This reduces the risk of outdated or incorrect code examples in your project documentation.

🔍 How it works

The Code Embedder scans markdown files for special tags that specify which parts of your scripts to embed. When it finds these tags, it automatically updates the code blocks with the latest content from your source files. When used as a GitHub Action, any changes are automatically committed and pushed to your repository 🚀.

📄 Full script updates

In the README (or other markdown) file, the full script is marked with the following tag:

 ```language:path/to/script
 ```

📂 Section updates

In the README (or other markdown) file, the section of the script is marked with the following tag:

 ```language:path/to/script:s:section_name
 ```

Note

Notice that the path/to/script is followed by s: in the tag to indicate that the section section_name is being updated.

You must also add the following comment tags in the script file path/to/script, where the section is located:

[Comment sign] code_embedder:section_name start
...
[Comment sign] code_embedder:section_name end

The comment sign is the one that is used in the script file, e.g. # for Python, or // for JavaScript. For example, in python script you add # code_embedder:A start and # code_embedder:A end to new lines to mark the start and end of the section A you want to include in the README.

The section_name must be unique in the file, otherwise the Code-Embedder will use the first section found.

🧩 Object updates

In the README (or other markdown) file, the object of the script is marked with the following tag:

 ```language:path/to/script:o:object_name
 ```

Note

Notice that the path/to/script is followed by o: in the tag to indicate that the object object_name is being updated.

Note

The object name must match exactly the name of the object (function, class) in the script file, including the case (e.g. if class is Person then object name must be Person, not person). Currently, only 🐍 Python objects are supported.

🔧 Setup - Github Action

Use Code Embedder as a Github Action by adding the following to your .github/workflows/code-embedder.yaml file:

name: Code Embedder

on: pull_request

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  code_embedder:
    name: "Code embedder"
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.ref }}

      - name: Run code embedder
        uses: kvankova/code-embedder@v1.1.1
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

🔧 Setup - Pre-commit Hook

You can set up Code Embedder as a pre-commit hook using either:

1. Installation via PyPI
2. Direct repository reference in your .pre-commit-config.yaml file

A. Installation via PyPI

Install the package:

pip install code-embedder==v1.1.1

Your .pre-commit-config.yaml file should look like this:

- repo: local
  hooks:
    - id: code-embedder
      name: Code embedder
      entry: code-embedder run
      language: system

B. Direct repository reference

Alternatively, you can reference the repository directly in your .pre-commit-config.yaml file:

- repo: https://github.com/kvankova/code-embedder
  rev: v1.1.1
  hooks:
    - id: code-embedder
      name: Code embedder
      entry: code-embedder run
      language: system

🔧 Options

Command code-embedder run has the following options:

Option	Description
--all-files	Process all files in the repository. In pre-commit hook, it by default checks only the changed files.

💡 Examples

📄 Full script update

Let's say you have the following README file:

# README

This is a readme.

```python:main.py
```

The main.py file contains the following code:

print("Embedding successful")

Once code-embedder runs, the code block sections are filled with the content of the script located at main.py and updated in the README file.

# README

This is a readme.

```python:main.py
print("Embedding successful")
```

With any changes to main.py, the code block section is updated in the README file with the next code-embedder run.

📂 Section update

Now we have the following README file:

# README

This is a readme.

```python:main.py:s:A
```

The main.py file contains the following code:

print("Hello, world!")

# code_embedder:A start
print("Embedding successful")
# code_embedder:A end

Once code-embedder runs, the code block section will be updated in the README file with the content of the section A from the script located at main.py (in case of using it as a Github Action, the changes are then pushed to the repository 🚀).

# README

This is a readme.

```python:main.py:s:A
print("Embedding successful")
```

With any changes to the section A in main.py, the code block section is updated in the README file with the next code-embedder run.

🧩 Object update

The tag used for object update follows the same convention as the tag for section update with the following changes:

• use o: instead of s:
• use object_name

Note

The object_name must match exactly the name of the object (function, class) in the script file, including the case. If you define class Person in the script, you must use Person as the object name in the README, not lowercase person.

For example, let's say we have the following README file:

# README

This is a readme.

Function `print_hello` is defined as follows:
```python:main.py:o:print_hello
```

Class `Person` is defined as follows:
```python:main.py:o:Person
```

The main.py file contains the following code:

...
def print_hello():
    print("Hello, world!")
...

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
    def say_hello(self):
        print(f"Hello, {self.name}!")
...

Once code-embedder runs, the code block section will be updated in the README file with the content of the function print_hello and class Person from the script located at main.py (in case of using it as a Github Action, the changes are then pushed to the repository 🚀).

# README

This is a readme.

Function `print_hello` is defined as follows:
```python:main.py:o:print_hello
def print_hello():
    print("Hello, world!")
```

Class `Person` is defined as follows:
```python:main.py:o:Person
class Person:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
    def say_hello(self):
        print(f"Hello, {self.name}!")
```

With any changes to the function print_hello or class Person in main.py, the code block sections are updated in the README file with the next code-embedder run.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions to improve this package!

• If you have an idea for a new feature ✨, open a new feature request on GitHub.
• If you spot a bug 🐛, open a new issue on GitHub.
• If you want to contribute to the code, please pick an issue that is not assigned to anyone and comment on it, so that we know you are working on it.

🛠️ Development

1. Fork this project
2. Install poetry
3. Install the dependencies by using the following command:

   poetry install --with dev

4. Make changes to the codebase and run the tests to make sure everything works as expected. ✅

   poetry run pytest

5. Commit your changes, push them to the repository 🚀, and open a new pull request.