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This page provides an overview of the types of block and inline markup features supported by CommonMark and MyST, with pointers to additional content of interest. For full details on all the nuance of these features, please look at the CommonMark Spec documentation.

MyST (Markedly Structured Text) was designed to make it easier to create publishable computational documents written with Markdown notation. It is a superset of CommonMark Markdown and draws heavy inspiration from RMarkdown syntax. In addition to CommonMark, MyST also implements and extends mdast, which is a standard abstract syntax tree for Markdown. mdast is part of the unifiedjs community and has many utilities for exporting and transforming your content.

Block Markup

Headings

type: string, (“heading”)
See also Node
depth: integer
No description for this property.
enumerated: boolean, optional
count this heading for numbering based on kind, e.g. Section 2.4.1
enumerator: string, optional
resolved enumerated value for this heading
children: array, (PhrasingContent)
See also Parent
identifier: string, optional
See also OptionalAssociation
label: string, optional
See also OptionalAssociation
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
### Heading!

Lists

type: string, (“list”)
See also Node
ordered: boolean, optional
Is item order important or not?
start: integer, optional
Starting number of ordered list
spread: boolean, optional
One or more children are separated with a blank line from others
children: array, (ListContent)
See also Parent
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
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1. quotes
2. breaks
3. links

Code

Block of preformatted text

type: string, (“code”)
See also Node
lang: string, optional
language of the code
meta: string, optional
custom information relating to the node
class: string, optional
user-defined class for code block
showLineNumbers: boolean, optional
No description for this property.
startingLineNumber: integer, optional
No description for this property.
emphasizeLines: array, optional, (integer)
No description for this property.
identifier: string, optional
See also OptionalAssociation
label: string, optional
See also OptionalAssociation
value: string
See also Literal
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
```python
print('this is python')
```

Blockquotes

type: string, (“blockquote”)
See also Node
children: array, (FlowContent)
See also Parent
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
> To be or not to be

Thematic Break

Line break

type: string, (“break”)
See also Node
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
thematic

---

break

Reference to a url resource

type: string, (“definition”)
See also Node
identifier: string
See also OptionalAssociation
label: string, optional
See also OptionalAssociation
url: string
See also Resource
title: string, optional
See also Resource
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node

Paragraph

type: string, (“paragraph”)
See also Node
children: array, (PhrasingContent)
See also Parent
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
Something

Valid HTML

Fragment of raw HTML - does not need to be valid or complete

type: string, (“html”)
See also Node
value: string
See also Literal
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
<div><p>*some text*</p></div>

Inline Markup

Hyperlink

type: string, (“link”)
See also Node
children: array, (StaticPhrasingContent)
See also Parent
url: string
See also Resource
title: string, optional
See also Resource
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
[search engine](https://www.google.com "Google")

Inline images

Image hyperlink

type: string, (“image”)
See also Node
class: string, optional
user-defined class for image
width: string, optional
image width in pixels or percentage
align: string, optional, (“left” | “center” | “right”)
No description for this property.
url: string
See also Resource
title: string, optional
See also Resource
alt: string, optional
See also Alternative
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
![fishy](fun-fish.png)

Text formatting

Emphasis

Stressed, italicized content

type: string, (“emphasis”)
See also Node
children: array, (PhrasingContent)
See also Parent
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node

Strong

Important, serious, urgent, bold content

type: string, (“strong”)
See also Node
children: array, (PhrasingContent)
See also Parent
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node

Inline Code

Fragment of code

type: string, (“inlineCode”)
See also Node
value: string
See also Literal
position: object, optional, (Position)
See also Node
data: object, optional
See also Node
Markup
AST
Render
**strong**, _emphasis_, `literal text`, \*escaped symbols\*
MyST MarkdownMyST Markdown
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