Gray-matter is a JavaScript utility for parsing front matter from a string or file. It extracts the front-matter into a `data` object and returns the remaining `content`, and it parses YAML by default but also supports JSON, Coffee, and TOML (plus custom parsers) with configurable delimiters. It is used by many static site and build tools to handle front-matter reliably.
Project status
- Actively maintained: Evidence is mixed, but the latest upstream push is 2025-06-14, suggesting some ongoing work, even though the most recent published updates in the provided list are from 2019.
- Update cadence: Based on the listed versions, there has been a multi-year gap (2019 to 2026) with no new published updates shown, indicating a quiet release pattern relative to today (2026-06-09).
AI summary generated 2026-06-09
Recent updates
4.0.2
2019-01-11Release 4.0.2 has no publisher-provided release notes. The diff shows only TypeScript declaration changes (gray-matter.d.ts) plus a version bump in package.json, with no runtime code modifications.
4.0.1
2018-04-02Release 4.0.1 does not include any publisher release notes. The provided diff only shows a version bump plus documentation updates that add a new `file.isEmpty` boolean property to the documented `gray-matter` return value.
Features4.0.0
2018-04-02Release 4.0.0 is published without any release notes content in the provided release_notes payload. The code diff shows a fairly large set of functional changes, including new options/behaviors and upgrades to core dependencies.
BreakingFeatures3.1.1
2017-10-21Release 3.1.1 contains minimal changes. The provided release notes are empty, so there is no documented guidance on what changed.
3.1.0
2017-10-19gray-matter 3.1.0 refactors the core `matter()` implementation (including how results are cached) and adjusts several internals related to parsing and serialization. The diff also updates the benchmark harness to generate `stats.json` and `stats.md`, and adds a test fixture for YAML files that end front matter with the closing `...` marker. No release notes were provided for this version.
3.0.8
2017-10-05Release 3.0.8 includes a package version bump and upgrades to several runtime and development dependencies. The diff also shows test updates to use extend-shallow for merging default options instead of Object.assign. No release notes were provided, so the functional impact of these changes is not documented.
3.0.7
2017-09-22gray-matter 3.0.7 contains no published release notes. The code changes are a small internal refactor that replaces Object.assign with extend-shallow when building option and data objects, and it adds extend-shallow as a runtime dependency.
3.0.6
2017-09-15Release 3.0.6 contains small internal and documentation updates compared to 3.0.5, plus a minor package metadata change. No release notes were provided, so the changes below are inferred directly from the diff.
3.0.5
2017-09-14Release 3.0.5 does not include any publisher-provided release notes. The diff shows only configuration/metadata updates (CI matrix, package engines, and bower metadata), with no actual library logic changes visible in the provided diff.
3.0.4
2017-09-14Release 3.0.4 was published on 2017-09-14, but the publisher did not provide any release notes. As a result, no specific changes, fixes, or migration guidance can be extracted from the release documentation.
v0.5.0
2014-08-29Version v0.5.0 significantly refactors gray-matter's public API and parsing behavior. The main changes center on the return shape from parsing, safer YAML parsing, and introducing optional code-evaluation front matter parsers controlled by options.eval.
SecurityFeaturesv0.3.5
2014-04-20v0.3.5 makes small internal adjustments, including newline normalization of returned front matter parsing output and changes to console warning messages when optional parsers are missing or fail. The published release notes were not provided, so the diff must be treated as the source of truth.
v0.3.4
2014-03-25Release v0.3.4 was published on 2014-03-25, but no release notes were provided by the publisher. Without change documentation, there is insufficient information to identify new features, bug fixes, breaking changes, or migration requirements.
v0.3.3
2014-03-25Release v0.3.3 contains a small internal refactor of index.js plus dependency version bumps in package.json. No release notes were provided, so the changes visible in the diff are effectively undocumented from the perspective of consumers.
Breakingv0.3.2
2014-03-25Release v0.3.2 has no published release notes. The code diff is minimal (3 files, +3 and -3 lines) but includes a behavioral change in the autodetection path of the main `matter` function.
v0.3.1
2014-03-17Release v0.3.1 has no provided release notes. The only substantive code change is in the parser module, where CoffeeScript and TOML dependencies are now loaded lazily at parse-time instead of at module-load time, and warning messages were adjusted to include the input source.
v0.3.0
2014-03-16Release v0.3.0 introduces TOML front-matter support, including autodetection and dedicated tests for parsing TOML. The code diff also includes packaging changes in package.json that move required runtime libraries into devDependencies.
Featuresv0.2.8
2014-02-06Release v0.2.8 has no publisher-provided release notes. The diff shows only metadata, test configuration, and gitignore changes, with no evidence of functional library code changes.
v0.2.7
2014-02-06v0.2.7 makes the front-matter parser accept delimiter configuration options via a new `delimsOpts` option, and passes it through to the delimiter evaluation logic. The release notes are missing (none provided), so these changes are not documented in the published text.
Featuresv0.2.6
2014-02-03Release v0.2.6 was published on 2014-02-03, but no release notes were provided by the publisher. As a result, no specific developer-impacting changes (features, fixes, breaking changes, or security updates) can be confirmed from the release notes.