Markdown

Why Learn Markdown

Markdown is plain text formatting that renders as HTML. It is widely supported across development, documentation, and communication platforms.

Category	Platforms
Development	GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, VS Code, Jupyter
Documentation	Astro Starlight, Docusaurus, MkDocs, GitBook, Hugo
Note Taking	Obsidian, Notion, Typora, Logseq
Communication	Slack, Discord, Reddit, Stack Overflow
AI / Agents	ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, OpenCode

Paragraphs

Paragraphs are created by separating text with a blank line. A single line break does not create a new paragraph.

This is the first paragraph.

This is the second paragraph.

This is the first paragraph.

This is the second paragraph.

Headings

Syntax	Output
# Heading 1	Heading 1
## Heading 2	Heading 2
### Heading 3	Heading 3
#### Heading 4	Heading 4
##### Heading 5	Heading 5
###### Heading 6	Heading 6

Text Formatting

Syntax	Output
**bold text**	bold text
*italic text*	italic text

Lists

Unordered

Syntax	Notes
- item	Dash prefix
* item	Asterisk prefix, same result
- item	Two spaces to nest

- Item one
- Item two
  - Nested item

• Item one
• Item two
  • Nested item

Ordered

Syntax	Notes
1. item	Numbers increment automatically

1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item

1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item

Code

Syntax	Output	Notes
`inline code`	inline code	Inline code span
```language / ```	Can’t render in table	Fenced block, language optional

For fenced code blocks, wrap content in triple backticks with an optional language for syntax highlighting:

```js
console.log("hello world");
```

console.log("hello world");

Tables

Columns are separated by | pipes. The second row is the separator and must have at least three dashes per column. Alignment is optional.

Syntax	Notes
| col | col |	Header row
| --- | --- |	Separator row (required)
| :---: |	Center aligned
| ---: |	Right aligned

Note

Pipe characters do not need to be perfectly aligned to render correctly — alignment is purely for readability in source.

Example:

| Language   | Type        | Use Case             |
| ---------- | ----------- | -------------------- |
| Python     | Interpreted | Scripting, ML, data  |
| Rust       | Compiled    | Systems, performance |
| JavaScript | Interpreted | Web, Node.js         |
| Go         | Compiled    | APIs, CLI tools      |

Language	Type	Use Case
Python	Interpreted	Scripting, ML, data
Rust	Compiled	Systems, performance
JavaScript	Interpreted	Web, Node.js
Go	Compiled	APIs, CLI tools

External Resources

Markdown Guide Comprehensive reference for basic and extended markdown syntax.

CommonMark Spec The standardized markdown spec used by most modern parsers.

GitHub Flavored Markdown GitHub's markdown extension spec covering tables, task lists, and more.

Daring Fireball John Gruber's original markdown specification.