diff --git a/app/helpers/gitlab_markdown_helper.rb b/app/helpers/gitlab_markdown_helper.rb
index 89d2a648494..2f760af02fd 100644
--- a/app/helpers/gitlab_markdown_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/gitlab_markdown_helper.rb
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ module GitlabMarkdownHelper
 
     context[:project] ||= @project
 
+    text = Banzai.pre_process(text, context)
+
     html = Banzai.render(text, context)
 
     context.merge!(
diff --git a/lib/banzai.rb b/lib/banzai.rb
index 093382261ae..b467413a7dd 100644
--- a/lib/banzai.rb
+++ b/lib/banzai.rb
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ module Banzai
     Renderer.render_result(text, context)
   end
 
+  def self.pre_process(text, context)
+    Renderer.pre_process(text, context)
+  end
+
   def self.post_process(html, context)
     Renderer.post_process(html, context)
   end
diff --git a/lib/banzai/pipeline/pre_process_pipeline.rb b/lib/banzai/pipeline/pre_process_pipeline.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c174f0b862d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/banzai/pipeline/pre_process_pipeline.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+module Banzai
+  module Pipeline
+    class PreProcessPipeline < BasePipeline
+      def self.filters
+        [
+        ]
+      end
+
+      def self.transform_context(context)
+        context.merge(
+          pre_process: true
+        )
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/banzai/renderer.rb b/lib/banzai/renderer.rb
index 891c0fd7749..ae714c87dc5 100644
--- a/lib/banzai/renderer.rb
+++ b/lib/banzai/renderer.rb
@@ -31,6 +31,12 @@ module Banzai
       Pipeline[context[:pipeline]].call(text, context)
     end
 
+    def self.pre_process(text, context)
+      pipeline = Pipeline[:pre_process]
+
+      pipeline.to_html(text, context)
+    end
+
     # Perform post-processing on an HTML String
     #
     # This method is used to perform state-dependent changes to a String of