Compose Highlight for Android

A Jetpack Compose library for beautiful syntax highlighting - powered by Highlight.js running in a hidden WebView, converting tokenised HTML to native Compose AnnotatedString. Supports 190+ languages with no custom lexers to maintain.

📚 Full documentation →

Install

dependencies {
    implementation("dev.hossain:compose-highlight:0.40.0")
}

Quick Start

Wrap your UI hierarchy in HighlightThemeProvider, then use any of the three built-in composables:

HighlightThemeProvider(
    lightHighlightTheme = rememberTomorrowLightTheme(),
    darkHighlightTheme = rememberTomorrowNightTheme(),
) {
    // 1. Static Code Block (for docs, snippets, guides)
    SyntaxHighlightedCode(
        code            = "data class Config(val enableHighlight: Boolean = true)",
        language        = "kotlin",
        showLineNumbers = true,
    )

    // 2. Real-time / LLM Streaming Code Block (zero-flicker progressive rendering)
    StreamingSyntaxHighlightedCode(
        code            = streamedText,
        language        = "typescript",
        showLineNumbers = true,
    )

    // 3. Interactive Code Editor (debounced inline syntax highlighting)
    var editorValue by remember { mutableStateOf(TextFieldValue("val x = 42")) }
    SyntaxHighlightedTextEditor(
        value           = editorValue,
        onValueChange   = { editorValue = it },
        language        = "kotlin",
    )
}

Demo

📊 Performance: Cold start ~120-180ms & warm start ~8-20ms, see more details and comparison here. Or, use the performance check UI in sample app 📱

Sample App	All Themes
2026-06-06.16.21.49.mp4	2026-06-06.16.23.30.mp4

Production App Demo

See it in action in the CodeMateX app's code block settings.

Links

• 📚 Docs: github.io/android-compose-highlight/
• 🔖 API Reference: github.io/android-compose-highlight/api/
• 📝 Blog: hossain.dev/syntax-highlighting-on-android-highlight-js-native-compose-engine/
• 📱 Sample App: sample [⬇️ APK]
• ✨ Compare Other Libs: github.com/android-syntax-highlighter-compose

License

MIT