GitHub Flavored Markdown

GitHub Flavored Markdown: Lightweight Markup Language for Formatting

GitHub Flavored Markdown is a lightweight markup language used to format text on GitHub. It builds upon standard Markdown by adding some additional elements like tables, syntax highlighting, emoji support, and more.

What is GitHub Flavored Markdown?

GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) is a variant of the Markdown plain text formatting syntax that has additional features designed to make it more useful for documents published on GitHub.

Like regular Markdown, GFM is designed to be easy to read and write using any plain text editor. It includes basic formatting elements like headers, bold/italic text, lists, links, and blockquotes. But GFM adds some extras on top:

• Syntax highlighting for code blocks
• URL autolinking for links
• Task Lists for checklists
• Tables
• Strikethrough text
• Emoji support

These extras allow GFM documents to be more visually rich and structured, while still being authored in simple plain text. And because it builds on top of standard Markdown, GFM gets much of Markdown's flexibility and ubiquity for free.

Overall, GitHub Flavored Markdown makes Markdown even better suited for writing technical documentation alongside code hosted on GitHub.

GitHub Flavored Markdown Features

Official Links