#FAQ

#Do I have to install it first

No.

npx @nekoleapuki/pamphlet-cli build plan.md

npx downloads it, runs it once, and leaves nothing behind. If you use it often, install it.

#Why is the command pamphlet but the package @nekoleapuki/pamphlet-cli

The unscoped name pamphlet was taken in 2018 (https://www.npmjs.com/package/pamphlet, latest 4.0.0). It is not an abandoned package and cannot be reclaimed.

Once installed, the command is pamphlet.

#Why did my diagram not render

Check the code first:

Only Mermaid works; a ```d2 fence always reports DIAG-301. See The other seven diagram types.

#Why does it need a 150MB browser

Mermaid needs a real browser's layout engine to measure text; jsdom does not implement SVGTextElement.getBBox(). A Mermaid organisation member ruled out the jsdom approach explicitly (https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid/issues/3886#issuecomment-1341694822).

A text-only document never launches the browser, so installing it costs you nothing at runtime.

#Why is my :::tabs not working

Almost certainly the colon count. The outside needs more than the inside:

::::tabs        ← four
:::tab[One]     ← three
content
:::
::::

With equal counts, the first ::: closes the outer one.

#Can I change the fonts and colours

Yes. The built-in themes are sorted by document type, each with its own palette and layout:

pamphlet build plan.md --theme fiction

You can also put it in frontmatter so it travels with the document (--theme overrides it). To change just a colour or two, see Changing the theme colours.

#Why did the HTML I pasted break the page

Because raw HTML passes through unfiltered. A <style> block can override the entire theme system.

That is the design, not a bug — see CommonMark basics.

#Why is the output so large

Run:

pamphlet build plan.md --verbose

It itemises the bill. The usual culprits are diagram SVG (48% in the example document) and embedded images (base64 inflates them by 33.3%).

Pamphlet sets no size limit; what to cut is your call.

#They cannot open it on their phone

Since iOS 18.5 Safari does not open local HTML files directly, and WeChat's browser blocks them too. Three workarounds in What the output is.

#My footnote disappeared

Writing [^1] now fails with DOC-105 rather than vanishing silently. Alternatives in GFM extensions.

#Can I write inline maths

No. Only the block ```math fence — install the MathJax engine and it works.

$ is everywhere in technical writing ($ npm install, $HOME, $99), and a false positive would turn ordinary prose into a formula.

#Will upgrading break my documents

During 0.x only patch compatibility is promised: 0.0.1 → 0.0.2 breaks nothing, 0.0 → 0.1 may break syntax.

Put pamphlet lint in CI and you find out immediately. See Checking documents in CI.

#I lost the source file

As long as the output was built with default options, the source is inside it:

pamphlet extract plan.html > recovered.md

Outputs built with --no-embed-source do not carry it.

#Can it build a multi-page site

No. One source file = one HTML file, with no cross-page navigation or site-wide search.

For a multi-page site use VitePress / Rspress / mdBook — the site you are reading is built with Rspress.