Introduction

Streamdown is a React component library that makes rendering streaming Markdown content seamless and beautiful. Built specifically for AI-powered applications, it handles the unique challenges that arise when Markdown is tokenized and streamed in real-time.

The Problem with Streaming Markdown

When you stream Markdown content from AI models, new challenges emerge that traditional Markdown renderers weren't designed to handle:

• Incomplete syntax - Bold text that hasn't been closed yet: **This is bol
• Partial code blocks - Code blocks missing their closing backticks
• Unterminated links - Links without closing brackets: [Click here
• Progressive rendering - Content that updates token-by-token

Traditional Markdown renderers like react-markdown will either render these incomplete elements incorrectly or not at all, creating a jarring user experience.

The Streamdown Solution

Streamdown intelligently handles incomplete Markdown by:

1. Parsing incomplete blocks - Automatically detects and completes unterminated Markdown syntax
2. Progressive formatting - Applies styling to partial content as it streams in
3. Seamless transitions - Smoothly updates from incomplete to complete states
4. Zero configuration - Works out of the box with sensible defaults