highlight.js update to support highlighting the Jai language

[J-Chris-Findlay-RESIDEO]

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I understand GitHub uses highlight.js to apply syntax highlighting. I have completed a highlight.js language definition for the Jai language, and it's PR into the main repo (highlightjs/highlight.js#4536) is ready for merging, I am wondering how often GitHub updates its highlight.js dependency, so I might know how soon this will become part of GitHub.

If this is not the right place for this query/request please let me know where I should put it. Thanx. (c:

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[TongyiDai]

There are two separate pipelines here. GitHub documents that it uses Linguist for language detection and to select third-party grammars for syntax highlighting; GitHub.com highlighting is based on TextMate-compatible grammars, not directly on highlight.js. Jai is already present in Linguist and currently maps source.jai to the SogoCZE/Jails grammar.

Also, highlightjs/highlight.js#4536 currently adds only one row to SUPPORTED_LANGUAGES.md; the actual Jai grammar lives in the separate highlightjs/highlightjs-jai repository. Even after that documentation PR merges and a highlight.js release includes it, there is no documented GitHub.com deployment cadence that would make it appear on GitHub.

If the goal is GitHub.com code highlighting, the relevant path is to improve or replace Jai's grammar in github-linguist/linguist following its Fixing syntax highlighting / script/add-grammar --replace guidance. If the goal is downstream highlight.js users, continue with #4536, but treat that as a separate release timeline.

[amiriguesss]

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I understand GitHub uses highlight.js to apply syntax highlighting. I have completed a highlight.js language definition for the Jai language, and it's PR into the main repo (highlightjs/highlight.js#4536) is ready for merging, I am wondering how often GitHub updates its highlight.js dependency, so I might know how soon this will become part of GitHub.

If this is not the right place for this query/request please let me know where I should put it. Thanx. (c:

From what I've seen, GitHub doesn't track highlight.js releases very closely — they run a pinned/patched version and bump it every few months at best, sometimes longer. I remember a while back their highlighted version lagged the upstream releases by quite a bit, and I don't think that's changed much. They also carry their own local patches, so "merged upstream" and "shipping on GitHub" aren't the same event.
The other thing worth knowing is that highlight.js is only half the story here. GitHub's language detection lives in Linguist, so even once your grammar is in highlight.js, the file still has to be recognized as Jai for it to get picked up. That usually means a separate PR against github/linguist (adding the language to languages.yml, the extensions/filenames, and ideally a few test samples in the vendor samples). If you haven't done that yet, it's probably the more useful next step — it's also the part that's publicly trackable, so you'll see progress there instead of guessing at GitHub's internal dependency bumps.
Realistically I'd guess somewhere in the range of a few months to a year before it's live on github.com, and there's no official SLA or schedule they commit to. Nothing you can do to speed up the dependency side, but getting the Linguist side merged is the thing that's actually in your hands.
Congrats on getting the grammar finished, by the way — that's a solid chunk of work.

[J-Chris-Findlay-RESIDEO]

Thanx for the input. It's published to npm already too.

[TongyiDai]

Publishing highlightjs-jai to npm still does not create a GitHub.com deployment path. The current highlight.js PR #4536 changes only the supported-languages documentation; the Jai implementation remains an external Highlight.js package.

More importantly, GitHub.com's relevant public integration is already elsewhere: GitHub Linguist currently recognizes .jai as Jai, maps it to the TextMate scope source.jai, and vendors the SogoCZE/Jails grammar. Therefore there is no known GitHub-side Highlight.js version bump to wait for.

If a concrete Jai file is highlighted incorrectly on GitHub, the actionable next step is a minimal public .jai reproduction and an issue in github-linguist/linguist containing the rendered-file URL, the tokens that are wrong, and the expected rendering. That gives maintainers a testable grammar problem; the npm publication and #4536 remain useful for Highlight.js consumers, but they are a separate pipeline.