Use backticks inside backticks in JSdoc / PHPdoc etc

Question

We can document code with backticks in JSdoc to see it styled like interpreted markdown when hovering over the definition:

/** * This function is similar to `someFunction(foo)` */ function bar() { ... }

This shows up as approximately the following on hover:

This function is similar to someFunction(foo)

But how can we document code that uses backticks, like tagged templates?

/** * This function is similar to `taggedFn\`foo ${someVar}\`` */ function boo() { ... }

This shows up as approximately the following on hover (the formatting issues are intentional to illustrate the problem):

This function is similar to taggedFn\ foo ${someVar}``

This last example is how some other apps like Discord normally handle it: by allowing to escape backticks with a backslash as is common in markdown. However, this doesn't work in VSCode when hovering over the function definition as shown in the example output.

Note: Not tagging this question for JSdoc / PHPdoc because while these are the only instances where VSCode does this type of markdown rendering in code, it's not actually related to JSdoc or the others.

Answer 1 · 2025-11-14 20:50:41Z

You can wrap with triple ticks:

* This function is similar to ```taggedFn`foo ${someVar}` ```

Note the `[space]``` at the end - you need that space for disambiguation.

So basically a code fence around the outside - I "think" it is the look you are after. Inside triple ticks, any backtick is just a regular character.

Answer 2 · 2025-11-14 21:08:40Z

Thank you Mark, that works great! I hope I never need triple backticks inside triple backticks.

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Use backticks inside backticks in JSdoc / PHPdoc etc

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