loom-md-tables

name	loom-md-tables
description	Fix markdown table alignment and spacing issues. Use when formatting tables in markdown files, aligning columns, normalizing cell padding, or ensuring proper GFM table structure. Runs a Python script to normalize column widths while preserving alignment markers.
allowed-tools	["Read","Edit","Bash(python *)"]
triggers	["markdown table","md table","table formatting","column alignment","pipe table","GFM table","table generator","align columns","table spacing","table layout","fix table","format table","table structure"]

Markdown Table Formatting

Utility for fixing markdown table alignment and spacing. Normalizes column widths, ensures consistent padding, and preserves alignment markers.

Quick Examples

# Preview fixed output
python fix-md-tables.py document.md

# Fix in-place
python fix-md-tables.py document.md -i

Common Patterns

Status tables:

| Stage | Status    | Branch     |
| ----- | --------- | ---------- |
| build | Complete  | loom/build |
| test  | Executing | loom/test  |

Configuration tables:

| Option     | Default | Description           |
| ---------- | ------- | --------------------- |
| timeout    | 300     | Session timeout (sec) |
| auto_merge | false   | Enable auto merging   |

Right-aligned numbers (script preserves the ---: marker but left-pads the cell text — GFM still renders these right-aligned when displayed):

| Item  | Count | Total |
| ----- | ----: | ----: |
| Files | 42    | 500   |
| Lines | 1,234 | 5,000 |

Features

• Aligns each column to its widest cell (separators get a minimum width of 3)
• Single-space padding; cell content is always left-padded (ljust) regardless of the alignment marker
• Preserves the alignment marker in the separator row (:---, :---:, ---:), so GFM rendering still honors it
• Pads ragged rows to the table's max column count (short rows gain empty trailing cells)
• Inserts a blank line before and after each table when missing

Invocation

The script lives in this skill's directory, so pass its path (or copy it to the target dir). allowed-tools permits Bash(python *); invoke via python, not ./.

python /path/to/skills/loom-md-tables/fix-md-tables.py FILE.md      # preview to stdout
python /path/to/skills/loom-md-tables/fix-md-tables.py FILE.md -i   # -i or --in-place: rewrite

⚠ Only lines that both start and end with | are treated as table rows — indented tables and rows missing an outer pipe are skipped. It normalizes whitespace/widths only; it does not validate column-count mismatches beyond padding them.

Alignment Markers

Syntax	Alignment
---	Left (default)
:---	Left
---:	Right
:---:	Center

Verify before done

• Ran preview (no -i) first and eyeballed the diff before rewriting in place.
• Separator markers (:---, ---:, :---:) survived; alignment intent intact.
• Tables that didn't get touched actually start and end with | (indented/loose tables are skipped by design).