Markdown Syntax Overview

ToastWrite is built on CommonMark with GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) extensions. The @toastwrite/parser package parses your Markdown incrementally, and the editor provides syntax highlighting, toolbar commands, and live preview for the same syntax.

Supported features

Feature	Spec	Toolbar
Headings	ATX and Setext	Heading dropdown
Text formatting	CommonMark + GFM	Bold, italic, strike, code
Links	CommonMark + GFM autolinks	Link
Lists	CommonMark + GFM tasks	Bullet, ordered, task
Blockquotes	CommonMark	Blockquote
Alerts	GFM alerts	Blockquote
Tables	GFM	Table
Code	CommonMark fenced	Code, code block
Images	CommonMark	—
Horizontal rules	CommonMark	HR
Front matter	YAML, TOML, JSON	— (opt-in)
Reference definitions	CommonMark	— (opt-in)

Toolbar keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts use Mod as Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows/Linux.

Command	Shortcut
Bold	Mod-b
Italic	Mod-i
Strikethrough	Mod-Shift-s
Inline code	Mod-e
Code block	Mod-Shift-c
Link	Mod-Shift-k
Blockquote	Mod-Shift-q
Ordered list	Mod-Shift-7
Bullet list	Mod-Shift-8
Table	Mod-Alt-t
Heading 1–6	Mod-Alt-1 … Mod-Alt-6

Optional parser features

Some syntax requires enabling options on the editor or viewer:

new Editor({
  el: root,
  frontMatter: true,           // YAML/TOML/JSON front matter
  referenceDefinition: true, // Reference-style links and images
});

Live preview

The editor renders preview HTML through @toastwrite/parser's renderer with DOMPurify sanitization. You can hook into rendering with beforePreviewRender:

new Editor({
  el: root,
  beforePreviewRender: (html) => html.replace(/<a /g, '<a target="_blank" '),
});

Browse the sections in this category for syntax examples and usage notes for each feature.