From c6932e195869fd8a3e8ffd0f644e314f19704fc9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sarthak Agrawal <sarthakagrawal927@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2026 10:50:55 +0530
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] perf: optimize reference link masking

---
 src/Lexer.ts | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/Lexer.ts b/src/Lexer.ts
index 64cbe8101c..46380b50a7 100644
--- a/src/Lexer.ts
+++ b/src/Lexer.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { _Tokenizer } from './Tokenizer.ts';
 import { _defaults } from './defaults.ts';
 import { other, block, inline } from './rules.ts';
-import type { Token, TokensList, Tokens } from './Tokens.ts';
+import type { Links, Token, TokensList, Tokens } from './Tokens.ts';
 import type { MarkedOptions } from './MarkedOptions.ts';
 
 /**
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ export class _Lexer<ParserOutput = string, RendererOutput = string> {
   public inlineQueue: { src: string, tokens: Token[] }[];
 
   private tokenizer: _Tokenizer<ParserOutput, RendererOutput>;
-
+  private linksForInline: Links | null = null;
   constructor(options?: MarkedOptions<ParserOutput, RendererOutput>) {
     // TokenList cannot be created in one go
     this.tokens = [] as unknown as TokensList;
@@ -90,9 +90,16 @@ export class _Lexer<ParserOutput = string, RendererOutput = string> {
 
     this.blockTokens(src, this.tokens);
 
-    for (let i = 0; i < this.inlineQueue.length; i++) {
-      const next = this.inlineQueue[i];
-      this.inlineTokens(next.src, next.tokens);
+    if (Object.keys(this.tokens.links).length > 0) {
+      this.linksForInline = this.tokens.links;
+    }
+    try {
+      for (let i = 0; i < this.inlineQueue.length; i++) {
+        const next = this.inlineQueue[i];
+        this.inlineTokens(next.src, next.tokens);
+      }
+    } finally {
+      this.linksForInline = null;
     }
     this.inlineQueue = [];
 
@@ -307,12 +314,20 @@ export class _Lexer<ParserOutput = string, RendererOutput = string> {
 
     // Mask out reflinks
     if (this.tokens.links) {
-      const links = Object.keys(this.tokens.links);
-      if (links.length > 0) {
+      const linksForInline = this.linksForInline;
+      if (linksForInline) {
         maskedSrc = maskedSrc.replace(this.tokenizer.rules.inline.reflinkSearch, match0 =>
-          links.includes(match0.slice(match0.lastIndexOf('[') + 1, -1))
+          Object.hasOwn(linksForInline, match0.slice(match0.lastIndexOf('[') + 1, -1))
             ? '[' + 'a'.repeat(match0.length - 2) + ']'
             : match0);
+      } else {
+        const links = Object.keys(this.tokens.links);
+        if (links.length > 0) {
+          maskedSrc = maskedSrc.replace(this.tokenizer.rules.inline.reflinkSearch, match0 =>
+            links.includes(match0.slice(match0.lastIndexOf('[') + 1, -1))
+              ? '[' + 'a'.repeat(match0.length - 2) + ']'
+              : match0);
+        }
       }
     }
 

From 171e3df610c9baba89bf61f4f848330a2f8bf969 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sarthak Agrawal <sarthakagrawal927@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:22:00 +0530
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] simplify reference link lookup

---
 src/Lexer.ts | 38 +++++++++-----------------------------
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/Lexer.ts b/src/Lexer.ts
index 46380b50a7..f33dc4926c 100644
--- a/src/Lexer.ts
+++ b/src/Lexer.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { _Tokenizer } from './Tokenizer.ts';
 import { _defaults } from './defaults.ts';
 import { other, block, inline } from './rules.ts';
-import type { Links, Token, TokensList, Tokens } from './Tokens.ts';
+import type { Token, TokensList, Tokens } from './Tokens.ts';
 import type { MarkedOptions } from './MarkedOptions.ts';
 
 /**
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ export class _Lexer<ParserOutput = string, RendererOutput = string> {
   public inlineQueue: { src: string, tokens: Token[] }[];
 
   private tokenizer: _Tokenizer<ParserOutput, RendererOutput>;
-  private linksForInline: Links | null = null;
+
   constructor(options?: MarkedOptions<ParserOutput, RendererOutput>) {
     // TokenList cannot be created in one go
     this.tokens = [] as unknown as TokensList;
@@ -90,16 +90,9 @@ export class _Lexer<ParserOutput = string, RendererOutput = string> {
 
     this.blockTokens(src, this.tokens);
 
-    if (Object.keys(this.tokens.links).length > 0) {
-      this.linksForInline = this.tokens.links;
-    }
-    try {
-      for (let i = 0; i < this.inlineQueue.length; i++) {
-        const next = this.inlineQueue[i];
-        this.inlineTokens(next.src, next.tokens);
-      }
-    } finally {
-      this.linksForInline = null;
+    for (let i = 0; i < this.inlineQueue.length; i++) {
+      const next = this.inlineQueue[i];
+      this.inlineTokens(next.src, next.tokens);
     }
     this.inlineQueue = [];
 
@@ -313,23 +306,10 @@ export class _Lexer<ParserOutput = string, RendererOutput = string> {
     let maskedSrc = src;
 
     // Mask out reflinks
-    if (this.tokens.links) {
-      const linksForInline = this.linksForInline;
-      if (linksForInline) {
-        maskedSrc = maskedSrc.replace(this.tokenizer.rules.inline.reflinkSearch, match0 =>
-          Object.hasOwn(linksForInline, match0.slice(match0.lastIndexOf('[') + 1, -1))
-            ? '[' + 'a'.repeat(match0.length - 2) + ']'
-            : match0);
-      } else {
-        const links = Object.keys(this.tokens.links);
-        if (links.length > 0) {
-          maskedSrc = maskedSrc.replace(this.tokenizer.rules.inline.reflinkSearch, match0 =>
-            links.includes(match0.slice(match0.lastIndexOf('[') + 1, -1))
-              ? '[' + 'a'.repeat(match0.length - 2) + ']'
-              : match0);
-        }
-      }
-    }
+    maskedSrc = maskedSrc.replace(this.tokenizer.rules.inline.reflinkSearch, match0 =>
+      Object.hasOwn(this.tokens.links, match0.slice(match0.lastIndexOf('[') + 1, -1))
+        ? '[' + 'a'.repeat(match0.length - 2) + ']'
+        : match0);
 
     // Mask out escaped characters.
     // Every mask must keep the length it replaces: emStrong and del line