markdown: Render checkboxes in markdown table cells#50595

iam-liam · 2026-03-03T12:06:30Z

Render [x] and [ ] as checkbox widgets when they appear as the sole content of a markdown table cell. Previously these were displayed as raw text. List-item checkboxes were already rendered correctly; this extends the same treatment to table cells.

Fixes #50045.

What this does

Table cells containing only [x], [X], or [ ] now render as visual checkboxes instead of plain text
Both markdown rendering paths are covered: the markdown crate (agent panel, chat) and the markdown_preview crate (file preview)
Checkboxes are display-only, matching the existing list-item checkbox behavior

How it works

pulldown-cmark splits [x] in table cells into three separate Text events ([, x, ]) rather than emitting a TaskListMarker event (which only fires for list items per the GFM spec). The fix operates at each crate's natural interception point:

markdown crate: After all text events for a table cell have been buffered, replace_pending_checkbox() checks the accumulated text before the cell div is finalized. If it matches the checkbox pattern, the pending text is replaced with a Checkbox widget.
markdown_preview crate: In render_markdown_text(), text chunks whose trimmed content matches the checkbox pattern are rendered as MarkdownCheckbox widgets instead of InteractiveText.

Scope

Three files, purely additive:

crates/markdown/src/markdown.rs — replace_pending_checkbox() on builder, called at TableCell end
crates/markdown_preview/src/markdown_renderer.rs — checkbox detection in render_markdown_text()
crates/markdown_preview/src/markdown_parser.rs — test only

No changes to parser data models, GPUI, or any shared infrastructure.

What's not in scope

HTML <input type="checkbox"> — pulldown-cmark strips these as raw HTML. Supporting them requires HTML tag parsing, which is a separate concern.
Interactive (click-to-toggle) checkboxes in tables — table checkboxes are display-only. List-item checkboxes in Zed support Cmd+click toggling, but extending that to table cells would require tracking source ranges across the split parser events, which is a separate enhancement.

Follow-up

Table checkbox interactivity (Cmd+click toggle) is straightforward to add as a follow-up — the source ranges are already available in markdown_preview, and the markdown crate would need minor callback plumbing.

Screenshots

Markdown checkbox before

Markdown checkbox after

Test plan

Unit tests (2 new):

test_table_with_checkboxes (markdown_preview) — parser delivers [x]/[ ] text into table cell structures
test_table_checkbox_detection (markdown) — parser events accumulate checkbox text in table cells, confirming replace_pending_checkbox detection logic

Automated:

cargo test -p markdown — 27 tests pass (26 existing + 1 new)
cargo test -p markdown_preview — 61 tests pass (60 existing + 1 new)

Manual (verified against test-checkbox-table.md):

Release Notes:

Fixed [x] and [ ] checkboxes not rendering in markdown table cells (Checkboxes aren't rendered in tables in markdown preview within agent panel #50045)

Veykril

Thanks!

iam-liam · 2026-03-17T11:47:36Z

@Veykril does this also need rebasing? Happy to do it if needed, and do a new commit. saves you from needing to

Veykril · 2026-03-17T12:12:30Z

yea

Detect `[x]`, `[X]`, and `[ ]` patterns in table cells and render them as checkbox widgets instead of raw text. Both the `markdown` crate (agent panel) and `markdown_preview` crate (file preview) are covered. pulldown-cmark splits these into three separate Text events per the GFM spec, so detection operates on accumulated cell text rather than individual parser events. Fixes zed-industries#50045 Liam

iam-liam · 2026-03-19T14:58:10Z

@Veykril done

…0595) Render `[x]` and `[ ]` as checkbox widgets when they appear as the sole content of a markdown table cell. Previously these were displayed as raw text. List-item checkboxes were already rendered correctly; this extends the same treatment to table cells. Fixes zed-industries#50045. ## What this does - Table cells containing only `[x]`, `[X]`, or `[ ]` now render as visual checkboxes instead of plain text - Both markdown rendering paths are covered: the `markdown` crate (agent panel, chat) and the `markdown_preview` crate (file preview) - Checkboxes are display-only, matching the existing list-item checkbox behavior ## How it works pulldown-cmark splits `[x]` in table cells into three separate `Text` events (`[`, `x`, `]`) rather than emitting a `TaskListMarker` event (which only fires for list items per the GFM spec). The fix operates at each crate's natural interception point: - **`markdown` crate**: After all text events for a table cell have been buffered, `replace_pending_checkbox()` checks the accumulated text before the cell div is finalized. If it matches the checkbox pattern, the pending text is replaced with a `Checkbox` widget. - **`markdown_preview` crate**: In `render_markdown_text()`, text chunks whose trimmed content matches the checkbox pattern are rendered as `MarkdownCheckbox` widgets instead of `InteractiveText`. ## Scope Three files, purely additive: - `crates/markdown/src/markdown.rs` — `replace_pending_checkbox()` on builder, called at `TableCell` end - `crates/markdown_preview/src/markdown_renderer.rs` — checkbox detection in `render_markdown_text()` - `crates/markdown_preview/src/markdown_parser.rs` — test only No changes to parser data models, GPUI, or any shared infrastructure. ## What's not in scope - **HTML `<input type="checkbox">`** — pulldown-cmark strips these as raw HTML. Supporting them requires HTML tag parsing, which is a separate concern. - **Interactive (click-to-toggle) checkboxes in tables** — table checkboxes are display-only. List-item checkboxes in Zed support Cmd+click toggling, but extending that to table cells would require tracking source ranges across the split parser events, which is a separate enhancement. ## Follow-up Table checkbox interactivity (Cmd+click toggle) is straightforward to add as a follow-up — the source ranges are already available in `markdown_preview`, and the `markdown` crate would need minor callback plumbing. ## Screenshots **Markdown checkbox before** <img width="1603" height="863" alt="md-checkbox-before-1" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8539d79d-c74f-4d14-a3e5-525e4d0083aa" /> <img width="1599" height="892" alt="md-checkbox-before-2" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7badfab1-651f-4fab-8879-deb109c56670" /> **Markdown checkbox after** <img width="1832" height="889" alt="md-checkbox-after-1" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/463b6334-9f50-41c0-ab7e-24d238244873" /> <img width="1795" height="886" alt="md-checkbox-after-2" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/57d3d9de-1d23-42ba-bc0a-5aa0c699b13d" /> ## Test plan **Unit tests** (2 new): - `test_table_with_checkboxes` (markdown_preview) — parser delivers `[x]`/`[ ]` text into table cell structures - `test_table_checkbox_detection` (markdown) — parser events accumulate checkbox text in table cells, confirming `replace_pending_checkbox` detection logic **Automated**: - [x] `cargo test -p markdown` — 27 tests pass (26 existing + 1 new) - [x] `cargo test -p markdown_preview` — 61 tests pass (60 existing + 1 new) **Manual** (verified against `test-checkbox-table.md`): - [x] Basic `[x]`/`[ ]` in a status column - [x] Checkbox-only column alongside text - [x] Multiple checkbox columns in one table - [x] Left, center, and right column alignments - [x] Uppercase `[X]` variant - [x] Leading/trailing whitespace in cell - [x] Checkboxes alongside other inline elements (links, bold text) - [x] Single-column and minimal two-column tables - [x] Normal table text unaffected by detection - [x] List checkboxes still render correctly (regression) - [x] Agent panel: asked agent to output table with checkbox columns Release Notes: - Fixed `[x]` and `[ ]` checkboxes not rendering in markdown table cells (zed-industries#50045)

tredondo · 2026-04-16T22:40:38Z

Any issues if the checkboxes were clickable? #53587

iam-liam · 2026-04-24T08:01:01Z

@tredondo PR 54747 fixes the interactive checkboxes in markdown. Agent panel is a follow up, but would need to touch another part of the codebase.

Extend the table cell checkbox rendering added in zed-industries#50595 so that checkboxes participate in the existing `on_checkbox_toggle` pipeline. When a consumer supplies a toggle callback (for example `markdown_preview`, which rewrites the source file), clicking a table cell checkbox now toggles `[x]` ↔ `[ ]` in the underlying source — matching the behavior of list-item checkboxes. The marker's source range is reconstructed from the per-chunk source mappings on the pending line, since pulldown-cmark splits `[x]` in table cells into three separate `Text` events.

Closes zed-industries#53587 Follow-up to zed-industries#50595. [zed-industries#50595](zed-industries#50595) added display-only checkboxes when `[x]` / `[X]` / `[ ]` appears as the sole content of a markdown table cell. That PR called out interactivity as a later step — this PR delivers it. https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c666ee4c-7e31-4450-ab33-c07c82949818 ## What this does When a consumer of `MarkdownElement` supplies an `on_checkbox_toggle` callback, table-cell checkboxes now invoke it on click with the source range of the `[x]` / `[ ]` marker and the new checked state. This mirrors the existing list-item checkbox path. For markdown preview (`markdown_preview_view.rs`) the callback is already wired to edit the source buffer, so clicking a checkbox in a previewed `.md` file now flips `[x]` to `[ ]` and back in the file, the same as it already did for list checkboxes. ## How it works `replace_pending_checkbox` previously took the cell's outer source range and always built a visualization-only checkbox. It now takes the optional toggle callback instead, and reconstructs the marker's exact source range from `pending_line.source_mappings` — pulldown-cmark emits `[x]` in a table cell as three separate `Text` events, so the per-chunk mappings are needed to recover the 3-character range to rewrite. If a callback was supplied, the checkbox attaches an `on_click` that invokes it with that range and `!checked`; otherwise it falls back to the prior visualization-only rendering. Two free helpers (`source_range_for_rendered` / `source_index_for_rendered`) were extracted so the mapping logic is unit-testable. ## Scope One file: `crates/markdown/src/markdown.rs`. No changes to `markdown_preview` — since zed-industries#52008 it renders through the shared `MarkdownElement`, so its existing `on_checkbox_toggle` wiring picks up table checkboxes for free. ## Relation to zed-industries#53587 [zed-industries#53587](zed-industries#53587) reports that markdown checkboxes in the **agent panel** can't be clicked. This PR is a necessary piece of that fix — without it, even if the agent panel wired `on_checkbox_toggle`, its table checkboxes would stay inert. It does not fully close zed-industries#53587 on its own: the agent panel's `MarkdownElement` instances in `conversation_view.rs` / `thread_view.rs` don't currently wire `on_checkbox_toggle`, and wiring it there requires deciding how clicks should mutate the in-memory agent response (no source file to edit into). That's a follow-up. ## Test plan **Unit tests** (2 new, both in `crates/markdown/src/markdown.rs`): - `test_table_checkbox_marker_source_range` — walks parser events for a table with checkboxes, replays what the builder accumulates, and asserts the reconstructed source range slices to exactly `[x]` / `[ ]` in the original markdown (including a padded-whitespace case). - `test_source_range_for_rendered_handles_split_chunks` — pins the mapping helper against the three-chunk layout pulldown-cmark produces. **Automated**: - [x] `cargo test -p markdown` — 46 tests pass (44 existing + 2 new) - [x] `cargo test -p markdown_preview` — 3 tests pass - [x] `./script/clippy -p markdown` — clean **Manual** (against a preview of a markdown file with checkbox tables): - [x] Click a checked `[x]` table cell — it becomes `[ ]` in the source and rerenders as unchecked - [x] Click an unchecked `[ ]` — becomes `[x]` - [x] Uppercase `[X]` toggles on click (replacement writes `[x]` / `[ ]`, matching the list-item behaviour) - [x] Padded-whitespace cells still target just the three marker characters - [x] Multiple checkbox columns in one table all independently clickable - [x] Alignment variants (left/center/right) behave the same - [x] Non-checkbox table text unaffected - [x] List-item checkboxes continue to work (regression) Release Notes: - Made table-cell markdown checkboxes clickable in markdown preview, matching list-item checkbox behavior Co-authored-by: Lukas Wirth <lukas@zed.dev>

…0595) Render `[x]` and `[ ]` as checkbox widgets when they appear as the sole content of a markdown table cell. Previously these were displayed as raw text. List-item checkboxes were already rendered correctly; this extends the same treatment to table cells. Fixes zed-industries#50045. ## What this does - Table cells containing only `[x]`, `[X]`, or `[ ]` now render as visual checkboxes instead of plain text - Both markdown rendering paths are covered: the `markdown` crate (agent panel, chat) and the `markdown_preview` crate (file preview) - Checkboxes are display-only, matching the existing list-item checkbox behavior ## How it works pulldown-cmark splits `[x]` in table cells into three separate `Text` events (`[`, `x`, `]`) rather than emitting a `TaskListMarker` event (which only fires for list items per the GFM spec). The fix operates at each crate's natural interception point: - **`markdown` crate**: After all text events for a table cell have been buffered, `replace_pending_checkbox()` checks the accumulated text before the cell div is finalized. If it matches the checkbox pattern, the pending text is replaced with a `Checkbox` widget. - **`markdown_preview` crate**: In `render_markdown_text()`, text chunks whose trimmed content matches the checkbox pattern are rendered as `MarkdownCheckbox` widgets instead of `InteractiveText`. ## Scope Three files, purely additive: - `crates/markdown/src/markdown.rs` — `replace_pending_checkbox()` on builder, called at `TableCell` end - `crates/markdown_preview/src/markdown_renderer.rs` — checkbox detection in `render_markdown_text()` - `crates/markdown_preview/src/markdown_parser.rs` — test only No changes to parser data models, GPUI, or any shared infrastructure. ## What's not in scope - **HTML `<input type="checkbox">`** — pulldown-cmark strips these as raw HTML. Supporting them requires HTML tag parsing, which is a separate concern. - **Interactive (click-to-toggle) checkboxes in tables** — table checkboxes are display-only. List-item checkboxes in Zed support Cmd+click toggling, but extending that to table cells would require tracking source ranges across the split parser events, which is a separate enhancement. ## Follow-up Table checkbox interactivity (Cmd+click toggle) is straightforward to add as a follow-up — the source ranges are already available in `markdown_preview`, and the `markdown` crate would need minor callback plumbing. ## Screenshots **Markdown checkbox before** <img width="1603" height="863" alt="md-checkbox-before-1" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8539d79d-c74f-4d14-a3e5-525e4d0083aa" /> <img width="1599" height="892" alt="md-checkbox-before-2" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7badfab1-651f-4fab-8879-deb109c56670" /> **Markdown checkbox after** <img width="1832" height="889" alt="md-checkbox-after-1" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/463b6334-9f50-41c0-ab7e-24d238244873" /> <img width="1795" height="886" alt="md-checkbox-after-2" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/57d3d9de-1d23-42ba-bc0a-5aa0c699b13d" /> ## Test plan **Unit tests** (2 new): - `test_table_with_checkboxes` (markdown_preview) — parser delivers `[x]`/`[ ]` text into table cell structures - `test_table_checkbox_detection` (markdown) — parser events accumulate checkbox text in table cells, confirming `replace_pending_checkbox` detection logic **Automated**: - [x] `cargo test -p markdown` — 27 tests pass (26 existing + 1 new) - [x] `cargo test -p markdown_preview` — 61 tests pass (60 existing + 1 new) **Manual** (verified against `test-checkbox-table.md`): - [x] Basic `[x]`/`[ ]` in a status column - [x] Checkbox-only column alongside text - [x] Multiple checkbox columns in one table - [x] Left, center, and right column alignments - [x] Uppercase `[X]` variant - [x] Leading/trailing whitespace in cell - [x] Checkboxes alongside other inline elements (links, bold text) - [x] Single-column and minimal two-column tables - [x] Normal table text unaffected by detection - [x] List checkboxes still render correctly (regression) - [x] Agent panel: asked agent to output table with checkbox columns Release Notes: - Fixed `[x]` and `[ ]` checkboxes not rendering in markdown table cells (zed-industries#50045)

Closes zed-industries#53587 Follow-up to zed-industries#50595. [zed-industries#50595](zed-industries#50595) added display-only checkboxes when `[x]` / `[X]` / `[ ]` appears as the sole content of a markdown table cell. That PR called out interactivity as a later step — this PR delivers it. https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c666ee4c-7e31-4450-ab33-c07c82949818 ## What this does When a consumer of `MarkdownElement` supplies an `on_checkbox_toggle` callback, table-cell checkboxes now invoke it on click with the source range of the `[x]` / `[ ]` marker and the new checked state. This mirrors the existing list-item checkbox path. For markdown preview (`markdown_preview_view.rs`) the callback is already wired to edit the source buffer, so clicking a checkbox in a previewed `.md` file now flips `[x]` to `[ ]` and back in the file, the same as it already did for list checkboxes. ## How it works `replace_pending_checkbox` previously took the cell's outer source range and always built a visualization-only checkbox. It now takes the optional toggle callback instead, and reconstructs the marker's exact source range from `pending_line.source_mappings` — pulldown-cmark emits `[x]` in a table cell as three separate `Text` events, so the per-chunk mappings are needed to recover the 3-character range to rewrite. If a callback was supplied, the checkbox attaches an `on_click` that invokes it with that range and `!checked`; otherwise it falls back to the prior visualization-only rendering. Two free helpers (`source_range_for_rendered` / `source_index_for_rendered`) were extracted so the mapping logic is unit-testable. ## Scope One file: `crates/markdown/src/markdown.rs`. No changes to `markdown_preview` — since zed-industries#52008 it renders through the shared `MarkdownElement`, so its existing `on_checkbox_toggle` wiring picks up table checkboxes for free. ## Relation to zed-industries#53587 [zed-industries#53587](zed-industries#53587) reports that markdown checkboxes in the **agent panel** can't be clicked. This PR is a necessary piece of that fix — without it, even if the agent panel wired `on_checkbox_toggle`, its table checkboxes would stay inert. It does not fully close zed-industries#53587 on its own: the agent panel's `MarkdownElement` instances in `conversation_view.rs` / `thread_view.rs` don't currently wire `on_checkbox_toggle`, and wiring it there requires deciding how clicks should mutate the in-memory agent response (no source file to edit into). That's a follow-up. ## Test plan **Unit tests** (2 new, both in `crates/markdown/src/markdown.rs`): - `test_table_checkbox_marker_source_range` — walks parser events for a table with checkboxes, replays what the builder accumulates, and asserts the reconstructed source range slices to exactly `[x]` / `[ ]` in the original markdown (including a padded-whitespace case). - `test_source_range_for_rendered_handles_split_chunks` — pins the mapping helper against the three-chunk layout pulldown-cmark produces. **Automated**: - [x] `cargo test -p markdown` — 46 tests pass (44 existing + 2 new) - [x] `cargo test -p markdown_preview` — 3 tests pass - [x] `./script/clippy -p markdown` — clean **Manual** (against a preview of a markdown file with checkbox tables): - [x] Click a checked `[x]` table cell — it becomes `[ ]` in the source and rerenders as unchecked - [x] Click an unchecked `[ ]` — becomes `[x]` - [x] Uppercase `[X]` toggles on click (replacement writes `[x]` / `[ ]`, matching the list-item behaviour) - [x] Padded-whitespace cells still target just the three marker characters - [x] Multiple checkbox columns in one table all independently clickable - [x] Alignment variants (left/center/right) behave the same - [x] Non-checkbox table text unaffected - [x] List-item checkboxes continue to work (regression) Release Notes: - Made table-cell markdown checkboxes clickable in markdown preview, matching list-item checkbox behavior Co-authored-by: Lukas Wirth <lukas@zed.dev>

cla-bot Bot added the cla-signed The user has signed the Contributor License Agreement label Mar 3, 2026

zed-community-bot Bot added the first contribution the author's first pull request to Zed. NOTE: the label application is automated via github actions label Mar 3, 2026

iam-liam marked this pull request as ready for review March 3, 2026 12:28

MrSubidubi added the area:preview/markdown Feedback for Zed's Markdown preview label Mar 9, 2026

zelenenka added the guild Pull requests by someone in Zed Guild. NOTE: the label application is automated via github actions label Mar 16, 2026

Veykril approved these changes Mar 17, 2026

View reviewed changes

Veykril changed the title ~~Render checkboxes in markdown table cells~~ markdown: Render checkboxes in markdown table cells Mar 17, 2026

Veykril enabled auto-merge (squash) March 17, 2026 09:04

Veykril self-assigned this Mar 17, 2026

auto-merge was automatically disabled March 19, 2026 14:57
Head branch was pushed to by a user without write access

iam-liam force-pushed the fix/markdown-checkbox-rendering-in-tables branch from 06dc3b3 to 5637c9b Compare March 19, 2026 14:57

github-actions Bot added the size/M label Mar 19, 2026

Veykril enabled auto-merge (squash) March 19, 2026 15:27

Veykril merged commit bb769b9 into zed-industries:main Mar 19, 2026
30 checks passed

iam-liam mentioned this pull request Apr 24, 2026

markdown: Make table cell checkboxes clickable #54747

Merged

11 tasks

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Uh oh!

markdown: Render checkboxes in markdown table cells#50595