Apex (beta)

Apex support in Marked is in beta. Behavior may change as the integration matures. Please report problems, unexpected rendering, or missing syntax at support.markedapp.com.

Apex is a unified Markdown processor: one engine that aims to cover the features people usually pick CommonMark, GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM), MultiMarkdown, or Kramdown for — without abandoning the other flavors.

In Marked, Apex (beta) always runs in Apex’s unified mode (all of those feature families enabled together). You do not pick a separate Apex “CommonMark mode” or “Kramdown mode” inside Marked yet; that may come later.

Check out the Markdown Dingus to experiment with Apex, or open Help Markdown Reference and choose the Apex tab for a compact cheat sheet.

Why Apex exists

Markdown “flavors” diverged for good reasons — GitHub needed task lists and tables, MultiMarkdown needed footnotes and metadata, Kramdown needed attribute lists — but picking one processor usually means giving up another’s syntax.

Apex’s goal is to consolidate those extensions so a single document can use:

• Everyday CommonMark / GFM habits (fenced code, task lists, strikethrough, GFM tables)
• MultiMarkdown-style footnotes, abbreviations, and metadata habits
• Kramdown-friendly definition lists, math, and (for advanced use) attribute lists
• Marked-oriented conveniences such as callouts, Critic Markup, and TOC markers

Full upstream documentation lives on the Apex wiki. This page covers what you need day to day in Marked’s preview.

Enabling Apex in Marked

1. Open Marked Settings, Processor pane.
2. Set Default Markdown processor to Apex (beta).
3. Or override per document with metadata such as Processor: apex (aliases: apex-beta, unified).

Aliases also work from AppleScript, Conductor “Run Processor” actions, custom processor stdout (APEX), and x-marked:// defaults URLs.

In this beta, Marked still expands its own file includes (<<[file], and related Marked include paths) before Apex runs. Apex's native include engine is left off in Marked for sandboxing. Use Marked's include features as you already do.

Basic syntax Apex adds or unifies

Standard Markdown (headings, emphasis, links, images, lists, blockquotes, code) works as you’d expect. The items below are the extras people most often need when switching to Apex.

Task lists

- [ ] Todo
- [x] Done

Strikethrough

~~removed text~~

Tables

GFM pipe tables with header separators and column alignment:

| Left | Center | Right |
| :--- | :----: | ----: |
| a    | b      | c     |

Advanced table features (rowspan ^^, colspan, captions, grid tables, CSV) are documented on the wiki: Tables.

Footnotes

Reference-style:

See the note[^1].

[^1]: Footnote text.

Inline styles familiar from MultiMarkdown / Kramdown are also supported. Details: Syntax.

Definition lists

Apple
: A fruit.
: A computer company.

Superscript and subscript

Text^super^ and H~2~O

Math

Inline $x^2$ and display $$...$$ (Marked’s MathJax / KaTeX prefs still control preview chrome).

Callouts

Obsidian / Bear-style:

> [!NOTE]
> Something worth highlighting.

Also see Marked’s Special Syntax and the Apex Callouts wiki page.

Critic Markup

<ins class="critic">insertion</ins>
<del class="critic">deletion</del>
<mark class="critic">highlight</mark>
<span class="critic comment">comment</span>

Enable Critic Markup in Marked as usual; Apex can render critic syntax in the processor pipeline. See CriticMarkup.

Abbreviations

The HTML spec is long.

Emoji shortcodes

Ship it :rocket:

Metadata

YAML front matter, MultiMarkdown-style Key: Value headers, and Pandoc title blocks are recognized. Insert values with [%key] where supported.

Configuration details: Configuration and Metadata Transforms on the wiki.

Table of contents markers

Apex understands common TOC markers, including:

• <!--TOC-->
• {{TOC}} or {{TOC:2-4}}
• Kramdown-style {:toc}

Exclude a heading with {:.no_toc} where IAL is available. More: Syntax.

Special markers

Marked-oriented HTML comments such as <!--BREAK--> (page break) and <!--PAUSE:N--> (autoscroll) continue to work with Apex previews.

Advanced topics (wiki)

Use the Apex wiki for features that are powerful but less common in everyday preview:

See also

• Choosing a Processor — when to pick MultiMarkdown, CommonMark, Kramdown, Discount, or Apex
• Settings: Processor
• Markdown Dingus
• Apex wiki home
• Report issues: support.markedapp.com

Next up: Apex configuration ▶

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