zprint

zprint is a library and command line tool providing a variety of pretty printing capabilities for both Clojure code and Clojure/EDN structures. It can meet almost anyone's needs. As such, it supports a number of major source code formatting approaches.

Quickstart

• Latest pre-compiled binaries for macOS and Linux are here on GitHub
• Run the same code in babashka
• Library to use in the REPL or embed in your project:

Overview

zprint does far more than just properly indent code. Before:

(defn change-start-column [new-start-column style-vec [inline-comment-index
  start-column spaces-before :as comment-vec]] (if (zero? inline-comment-index)
  style-vec (let [delta-spaces (- new-start-column start-column) new-spaces
  (+ spaces-before delta-spaces) previous-element-index (dec
  inline-comment-index) [s c e :as previous-element] (nth style-vec
  previous-element-index) new-previous-element (cond (= e :indent) [(str "\n"
  (blanks new-spaces)) c e] (= e :whitespace) [(str (blanks new-spaces))
  c e 26] :else nil)] (assoc style-vec previous-element-index
  new-previous-element))))

After:

(defn change-start-column
  [new-start-column style-vec
   [inline-comment-index start-column spaces-before :as comment-vec]]
  (if (zero? inline-comment-index)
    style-vec
    (let [delta-spaces (- new-start-column start-column)
          new-spaces (+ spaces-before delta-spaces)
          previous-element-index (dec inline-comment-index)
          [s c e :as previous-element] (nth style-vec previous-element-index)
          new-previous-element
            (cond (= e :indent) [(str "\n" (blanks new-spaces)) c e]
                  (= e :whitespace) [(str (blanks new-spaces)) c e 26]
                  :else nil)]
      (assoc style-vec previous-element-index new-previous-element))))

Recent Additions!

• There have been several requests for differing treatment of "trailing right" characters. Those are characters that terminate a collection: )]}, which also fall on their own line, either because of :respect-nl or because of a comment. Some have requested that these characters be indented to the indent of the structure involved. Others have requested that (unless required by a comment) they be brought up to the previous line so that they are not "trailing right" characters anymore. Both capabilties are now supported, the first by :indent-trailing-right? and the second by :collapse-trailing-right?, for lists, vectors, maps and sets. See the reference manual for details.
• :no-wrap-after has been around for a while. This lets you specify an element where you would prefer the next element be on the same line. It has been completely re-implemented and now works well in many more situations.
• Formatting for tagged-literals was completely reimplemented.
• The zprint executables now have the ability to locate and process multiple files directly. See the reference manual and look up the {:files {:glob "<filespec>"}} key-value pair for the options map.
• The style :sort-require will sort the requires in an ns macro, as suggested by how-to-ns. This will interoperate with :ns-justify well, but be sure and put the :sort-require to the left of (i.e., before) the :ns-justify. This will sort the elements of the :refer vector as well.
• :ns-justify has been modified to support explicit parameters for the variance in the :require, :require-macros and :import sections of the ns macro. They are :require-max-variance, :require-macros-max-variance and :import-max-variance and may be used in a style map. For example {:style-call :ns-justify :require-max-variance 1000} will try as hard as possible to justify the :require list in an ns macro.
• A new pre-compiled binary is available for macOS running on Apple Silicon. While the macOS Intel binary runs fine on Apple Silicon, the Apple Silicon binary runs considerably (up to 3x) faster! Download zprintma-1.3.0 from the release to get the Apple Silicon version.
• You can now run zprint as a babashka task or use bbin. It starts very quickly and runs faster than the uberjar on even very large files. If using a task, you don't need to install a new version, just edit bb.edn. See the simple detals here
• All changes

See zprint:

• classic zprint -- ignores whitespace in function definitions and formats code with a variety of heuristics to look as good as hand-formatted code (see examples)
• respect blank lines -- similar to classic zprint, but blank lines inside of function defintions are retained, while code is otherwise formatted to look beautiful (see examples)
• indent only -- very different from classic zprint -- no code ever changes lines, it is only correctly indented on whatever line it was already on (see examples)

In addition, zprint is very handy to use at the REPL.

Use zprint:

• to format whole files
• while using an editor
• at the REPL
• with a team
• with different formatting for different projects
• to format a range of lines in a file
• to format a babashka script
• to correct indentation but not otherwise reformat a file
• and have it run even faster
• from inside a Clojure(script) program

Get zprint:

• a standalone binary for macOS starts in <50 ms
• a standalone binary for Linux starts in <50 ms
• a VS Code extension for zprint
• using babashka
• an uberjar for any Java enabled platform starts in several seconds
• an accelerated uberjar for any Java enabled platform starts in about 1s
• a library to use at the REPL
• other ways to access zprint

Get something other than the default formatting:

Without learning how to configure zprint:

Maybe one of the existing "styles" will meet your needs. All you have to do is put {:style ...} on the command line or as the third argument to a zprint call. For example, {:style :community} or {:style :respect-bl}.

Some commonly used styles:

• Format using "community" standards
• Respect blank lines
• Indent Only
• Respect all newlines
• Detect and format hiccup vectors
• Justify all pairs
• Backtranslate quote, deref, var, unquote in structures
• Detect keywords in vectors, if found respect newlines
• Sort dependencies in project.clj
• Support "How to ns"

Learn how to alter zprint's formatting behavior:

• How do I change zprint's behavior?

I want to change...

• how user defined functions are formatted
• the indentation in lists
• the configuration to track the "community" standard
• how blank lines in source are handled
• how map keys are formatted
• the colors used for formatting source
• how the second element of a pair is indented
• how comments are handled
• how blank lines are handled at the top level
• how vectors are formatted based on their content
• how constants are defined when formatting constant pairs
• the options map by defining functions to format based on content
• anything else...

Usage

Clojure 1.9, 1.10, 1.10.3, 1.11.1, 1.12.0:

Leiningen (via Clojars)

Clojurescript:

zprint has been tested in each of the following environments:

• figwheel-main 0.2.16 (Clojurescript 1.11.4)
• shadow-cljs 2.18.0
• planck 2.28.0 (Clojurescript 1.11.132)

It requires tools.reader at least 1.0.5, which all of the environments above contain.

Clojure 1.8:

The last zprint release built with Clojure 1.8 was [zprint "0.4.15"].

In addition to the zprint dependency, you also need to include the following library when using Clojure 1.8:

[clojure-future-spec "1.9.0-alpha17"]

The zprint Reference

• Entire reference document
• What does zprint do?
• Features
• The zprint API
• Configuration
  • Configuration uses an options map
  • Where to put an options map
  • Simplified Configuration -- using :style
    • Respect blank lines
    • Indent Only
    • Format using "community" standards
    • Respect all newlines
    • Detect and format hiccup vectors
    • Justify all pairs
    • Backtranslate quote, deref, var, unquote in structures
    • Detect keywords in vectors, if found respect newlines
    • Sort dependencies in project.clj
    • Support "How to ns"
    • Add newlines between pairs in let binding vectors
    • Add newlines between cond, assoc pairs
    • Add newlines between extend clauses
    • Add newlines between map pairs
    • Prefer hangs and improve performance for deeply nested code and data
  • Options map format
    • Option Validation
    • What is Configurable
  • Generalized Capabilities
  • Syntax Coloring
  • Function Classification for Pretty Printing
    • Changing or Adding Function Classifications
    • Replacing functions with reader-macros
    • Controlling single and multi-line output
    • A note about two-up printing
    • A note on justifying two-up printing
  • Formatting large or deep collections
  • Widely Used Configuration Parameters
  • Configurable Elements
    • :agent
    • :array
    • :atom
    • :binding
    • :comment
    • :delay
    • :extend
    • :fn
    • :future
    • :list
    • :map
    • :object
    • :pair
    • :pair-fn
    • :promise
    • :reader-cond
    • :record
    • :set
    • :spec
    • :style
    • :style-map
    • :tab
    • :vector
    • :vector-fn

Testing and Development

Information on testing and development can be found here.

Note: Changed the default branch to main.

Contributors

A number of folks have contributed to zprint, not all of whom show up on GitHub because I have integrated the code or suggestions manually. Thanks for all of the great contributions!

• Finding and fixing ~ @stuff formatted as ~@stuff: @frenchy64
• Exposing sci.core in babashka: @borkdude
• Tests running in babashka: @borkdude
• Additional colors and color-map entries: @RingMan
• Updated rewrite-cljs dependency to 0.4.5 @rundis/
• Readme updates: @mathiasn, @Quezion, @vemv, @arichiardi, @bhurlow, @kommen.
• --url and --url-only: @coltnz
• Use UTF-8 locale to build the native image: @mynomoto
• Suggestion/encouragement to implement :respect-bl: @agriffis
• Thread safety suggestions: @fazzone
• :option-fn and :fn-format for enhanced vector formatting: @milankinen
• Fixed missing require in spec.cljc: @Quezion
• Corrected readme: @agriffis
• Fixed nested reader conditional: @rgould1
• Clarified and added useful example for clj usage: @bherrmann7
• Sublime text plugin instructions: @ekinnear
• Use body indentation for the ns macro: @pesterhazy
• Suggested fix for international chars and graalVM native image: @huahaiy

Thanks to everyone who has contributed fixes as well as everyone who has reported an issue. I really appreciate all of the help making zprint better for everybody!

Acknowledgements

At the core of zprint is the rewrite-clj library originally created by Yannick Scherer, ported to Clojurescript by Magnus Rundberget, and recently merged into a single, supported, documented, and updated library by Lee Read. This is a great library! I would not have attempted zprint if rewrite-clj didn't exist to build upon.

Additionally, allowing options maps containing functions to be read from files safely is made possible by sci, the Small Clojure Interpreter by Michael Borkent (@borkdude). This is a very well designed and implemented addition to Clojure that required almost no effort to integrate into zprint.

License

Copyright © 2016-2025 Kim Kinnear

Distributed under the MIT License. See the file LICENSE for details.