Gistful for GitHub
Embed GitHub Gists with a block, the [gist] shortcode or a pasted URL — cached, sanitized, with dark mode.
Gistful for GitHub is a modern replacement for the abandoned GistPress. Gists are fetched on the server, cached and sanitized, then styled with the plugin's own CSS: no scripts and no browser requests to GitHub from the plugin's assets. It understands the same [gist] shortcode and pasted URLs as GistPress, so existing posts keep working, and adds a native block, dark mode and a migration tool that imports GistPress's backups and cleans up its data.
Key features
- ●Gutenberg block, [gist] shortcode (including [gist]URL[/gist]) and gist URLs pasted on their own line.
- ●Drop-in replacement for GistPress: same shortcode attributes, same file anchors, takes over automatically when both are active.
- ●Line ranges (including open-ended ones like 5-), highlighted lines, line numbers and multi-file gists.
- ●Dark mode: automatic (follows the visitor's system) or forced light or dark, with syntax colours for every token GitHub emits.
- ●Server-side fetching with caching, a per-post backup copy for outages and a short-lived fallback through the GitHub API.
- ●Hardened HTML sanitizing, GitHub-only hosts, size and time limits; optional API token from a wp-config.php constant only.
- ●Markdown and CSV gists render inline; notebooks, maps and 3D models get a link to GitHub.
- ●GistPress migration page: scan, import backups, clean up, and convert block-editor embeds to Gistful blocks.
- ●WP-CLI command to clear the cache, and a clean uninstall.
You can install this plugin manually over SSH — connect to your server and run these commands inside your wp-content/plugins directory:
Alternatively, download the ZIP above and upload it from Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin in your WordPress dashboard, or via FTP/SFTP.
- Copy buttons: "Copy" on every code and CSV file and "Copy all" on gists with more than one such file. They copy exactly the lines shown (no line numbers; CSV files copy as CSV rebuilt from the table; Markdown, shown rendered, has no button), announce the result to screen readers and fall back to the legacy copy command on sites without HTTPS. A small deferred script, served from the site, loads only on pages that show a gist with something to copy; without JavaScript nothing changes. Opt out globally (Settings > Gistful), per block (Display panel) or with
copy="no"on the shortcode. - Fix: GitHub occasionally serves a gist without syntax highlighting, and that copy was cached for the full TTL (and could replace the highlighted backup), so code showed without colours until the cache was cleared. Such a response (even a one-line snippet) is now treated like the API fallback: cached for at most one hour, never stored over a highlighted backup of the same code, and replaced by that backup when the post has one. Copies are compared by their code, so an edited gist always shows its current code and updates the backup.
- Plugins screen: "View on GitHub" (when the row does not already link to the repository) and "More plugins by Gioxx" links under the plugin description.
For the full version history, see CHANGELOG.md.
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