Markdown syntax

text, links, code, tables, citations and the missing mark

Contents

1Links
2Code
3Tables
4Citations
5References

A page is written in markdown, with three extensions switched on: footnotes, tables and strikethrough.^[1] Paragraphs, bold, italics, lists and quotes are drawn as markdown draws them, and ~~text~~ strikes text through.^[1] Settings above the markdown are described on Front matter, drawings on Diagrams, and pictures on Pictures.

Second- and third-level headings are numbered in the page's contents box, and fourth- to sixth-level headings are drawn without a number.^[2] What a heading may say is described on Headings.

Links

A page links to another page by that page's file, written relative to its own, and the site turns the link into the page's address.^[3] A link to a page the wiki does not have is drawn red, and wiki check refuses it.^[4] A link to any other file in the repository becomes a path from the page to that file.^[3] A link to an address outside the wiki opens in a new tab and ends in an arrow.^[5]

Drawings are described on [Diagrams](diagrams.md), and the check on [wiki check](../commands/check.md).

Code

Code inside a sentence is written between backticks.^[1] A block of code is written between fences with its language named, and the site gives it a Copy button.^[6] A block whose language is mermaid is drawn as a diagram instead, as Diagrams describes.

Tables

A table is written as a markdown table and drawn as a wiki table, which scrolls inside its own frame on a screen narrower than it.^[7] Every row cites in at least one of its cells, as Citations describes.

Citations

A citation is a markdown footnote: a mark such as [^expiry] after the claim, and a line at the foot of the page that opens with the same mark and names the code.^[8] The site numbers each mark in the order the page first uses it, draws it as a bracketed number, and lists the entries under a References heading at the foot.^[8] A claim with nothing to cite carries {missing}, drawn as a red mark, and inside code the mark is shown as written.^[9] What a citation must name is described on Citations.

A session ends thirty minutes after its last request.[^expiry]

[^expiry]: `src/session/expiry.py` — `sweep()`.

References

src/builder/build.py — make_markdown() builds a mistune parser with the footnotes, table and strikethrough plugins; pyproject.toml pins mistune==3.3.4.
src/builder/build.py — HEADING matches h2 and h3 only, which number_headings() numbers and render_contents() lists.
src/builder/build.py — rewrite_references() turns a link to a .md file inside the pages folder into that page's address, and any other relative link into a path from the page to the file.
src/builder/build.py — rewrite_references() marks a link to a page the wiki does not have with NEW_PAGE, and dead_link_problems() refuses it.
src/builder/build.py — rewrite_references() adds OUTSIDE to a link matching OUTSIDE_LINK; src/builder/assets/wiki.css draws the arrow on a.ext.
src/builder/build.py — write_site() wraps each code block from the markdown in srcbox with a Copy button.
src/builder/build.py — write_site() wraps each table in wt and gives it the class w; src/builder/assets/wiki.css draws both.
src/builder/build.py — footnote_reference() draws CITATION with the number the footnotes plugin gives a footnote on its first use, and footnote_item() and footnote_block() list the entries under References.
src/builder/build.py — write_site() replaces MISSING with MISSING_CITATION outside CODE_HTML only.

Last updated 14 September 2026Last audited never341 wordsabout 2 minutes to read10 sources cited0 claims with no source