Vaaky Highlighter — Syntax Highlighter, Code Blocks, Line Numbers for Gutenberg
Vaaky Highlighter — Syntax Highlighter, Code Blocks, Line Numbers for Gutenberg
Description
Vaaky Highlighter is a lightweight syntax highlighter plugin for the WordPress Gutenberg editor. Add beautiful code blocks with line numbers, a copy-to-clipboard button, optional filename label, automatic language detection, and 35+ themes. Powered by Highlight.js — a fast, dependency-free alternative to Prism.
Syntax highlighting is powered by Highlight.js, a fast and dependency-free JavaScript library that supports multiple programming languages and themes.
Vaaky Highlighter is ideal for developers, bloggers, technical writers, and documentation sites who want elegant syntax-highlighted code without unnecessary bloat.
Using it is simple: add the Vaaky Highlighter Sourcecode block in Gutenberg, paste your code, and publish — the plugin handles everything automatically.
View the live demo of all supported themes:
Demo Page
What’s new in 1.2.0
- Line numbers for code blocks
- Floating copy-to-clipboard button on every block
- Optional filename label (renders as a tab above the code)
- Word-wrap toggle per block + global default
- Visual theme picker (no more guessing from a dropdown)
- Modernized build using @wordpress/scripts
- Drops PHP 5.6 / WordPress 6.0 support — now requires PHP 7.4 / WordPress 6.5
Usage
- Add the Vaaky Highlighter block in the Gutenberg editor
- Paste or write your code
- Select a language (optional)
- Save and view your page on the frontend
Supported Languages
- Apache
- Bash
- C
- C#
- C++
- CSS
- DNS Zone file
- DOS
- Django
- Dockerfile
- Go
- HTML / XML
- Handlebars
- JSON
- Java
- JavaScript
- Markdown
- Nginx
- Objective-C
- PHP
- Plaintext
- PostgreSQL & PL/pgSQL
- PowerShell
- Python
- R
- Ruby
- Rust
- SCSS
- SQL / MySQL
- Shell
- Twig
- TypeScript
- YAML / YML
Installation
Minimum Requirements
- WordPress 6.5 or higher
- PHP 7.4 or higher
Automatic Installation
- Go to Plugins Add New in your WordPress dashboard
- Search for Vaaky Highlighter
- Click Install Now
- Activate the plugin
Manual Installation
- Download the plugin ZIP file
- Go to Plugins Add New
- Click Upload Plugin
- Upload the ZIP file and activate
For help, see the official WordPress guide:
https://wordpress.org/support/article/managing-plugins/#manual-plugin-installation
Screenshots
Plugin settings — visual theme picker with live previews of 35+ themes, plus System Information and Quick Links sidebar
Plugin settings — more theme previews plus the Block Defaults section (Code Overflow, Show Line Numbers, Word Wrap)
Frontend rendering — TypeScript and JavaScript code blocks with line numbers and the floating copy button
Frontend rendering — multi-language showcase (Dockerfile, Java, R, Ruby, PowerShell, Bash) with line numbers
Frontend rendering — PHP and Twig code blocks with line numbers and syntax highlighting
Faq
Yes. Vaaky Highlighter is built specifically for the Gutenberg block editor and integrates seamlessly as a custom code block.
Vaaky Highlighter uses Highlight.js with automatic language detection.
The plugin supports 30 syntax highlighting themes, including:
Dark themes:
Monokai (Sublime), Visual Studio 2015, GitHub Dark, Android Studio, Tokyo Night Dark, Rose Pine, Nord
Light themes:
GitHub, StackOverflow Light, Google Code, Tokyo Night Light, Rose Pine Dawn
Leave the language selection empty. Highlight.js will automatically detect the language.
If detection fails, you can request support via GitHub:
https://github.com/finallyRaunak/vaaky-highlighter/issues
Yes. Toggle line numbers per block from the block inspector, or set a global default under Settings Vaaky Highlighter.
Yes. You can use the shortcode:
[vaakyHighlighterCode lang="php"]Your code here[/vaakyHighlighterCode]
The lang attribute is optional. If omitted, the language will be auto-detected.
Reviews
Elevate Your WordPress Development Experience with Code Highlighter Extension
By 
I found Vaaky Highlighter to be a useful and easy-to-use plugin for highlighting code on my WordPress site. The only downside was that it lacked some customization options for the code block, such as line numbers and font size
Vaaky Highlighter highly recommend
By 
Vaaky Highlighter is a great plugin for adding syntax highlighting to code snippets on WordPress sites. It's easy to use and supports a wide range of languages making it a reliable choice. Overall, I highly recommend it with a 5 star rating.
Changelog
1.2.0
- Add line numbers, copy button, filename label, word-wrap toggle
- Add visual theme picker in settings
- Add dismissible wp.org review prompt after 7-day grace period
- Migrate build to @wordpress/scripts and block.json (apiVersion 3)
- Fix XSS in admin sidebar UTM parameters
- Bump minimum PHP to 7.4 and minimum WordPress to 6.5
- Replace deprecated webhat.in author metadata with techunfiltered.dev
- Drop Facebook link; update Twitter handle to @__RaunakGupta
- Fix Go language slug (‘golang’ ‘go’) so highlighting actually works
1.1.0 – 2026-01-10
- Updated WordPress compatibility to 6.9
- Upgraded Highlight.js from v11.2.0 to v11.11.1
- Added support for 24 additional languages
- Added new themes: Tokyo Night, Rose Pine, Nord
- Updated all existing themes
- Fixed WordPress.org compatibility warnings