Markdown

Plain-text markup with simple conventions for headings, lists, links, and code — the universal docs and chat format.

Definition

Markdown is a lightweight markup language where # marks a heading, * marks a list, and **text** is bold. It renders to HTML in browsers, GitHub READMEs, Slack messages, Notion blocks, and almost every LLM response. CommonMark is the most-followed spec; GitHub Flavored Markdown adds tables, task lists, and fenced code blocks.

When to use

See also