01 ·  Thoth · markdown, extended

Plain text with opt-in tools for structure, composition, and data.

Thoth is markdown extended for scale: readable cold, composable across files, structured enough for robots to read and write, and with tooling for humans and robots alike.

Thoth source
Rendered
# Authentication Guide

## Setup

{./shared/api-keys.md#install}

## Endpoints {#endpoints}

{{./endpoints.csv | as:table}}

Need higher limits? See {#endpoints}
or contact support.

Authentication Guide

Setup

API keys live in your dashboard. Each request requires the key in the Authorization header as a bearer token.

Endpoints

MethodPathDescription
GET/usersList users in the workspace.
POST/sessionsBegin a new authenticated session.
DELETE/sessions/:idRevoke an active session.

Need higher limits? See Endpoints or contact support.

02 · philosophy

Plain text, designed for what we're actually doing with it.

Markdown won because it stayed out of the way. The source was the document — no renderer, no chrome, no ceremony. Thoth keeps that instinct, and builds on it.

What we're asking markdown to do has grown. The same format now carries our knowledge bases, our technical specs, the context we hand to language models, the writing that used to live in heavier tools. Thoth is markdown shaped for that scale on purpose — and the rest of this page is how.

03 · scope

What Thoth is, and isn't.

An early-stage project benefits from being clear about its boundaries. Here's where Thoth lives, and where it doesn't.

Thoth is

  • 01

    Human-readable and -writable, first.

    The syntax is subtle enough to ignore — if you don't recognize something, the prose still reads without it.

  • 02

    A scalable way to think about content.

    Works for one file. Works for a folder of ten thousand.

  • 03

    Honest about its second audience.

    Language models read and write more markdown than people do. Thoth is designed for it.

  • 04

    Forgiving by default.

    Thoth aims to render what you meant, not just what you typed. Strictness is available when you want it, not the default.

Thoth isn't

  • 01

    Not MDX.

    Code doesn't belong in prose.

  • 02

    Not markup.

    Content first, format last. If you can read it, it's working.

  • 03

    Not the “best possible” way to do anything.

    A good enough way to do most things — and good enough is often exactly right.

  • 04

    Not Word.

    Light on formatting, on purpose. Just enough to organize and emphasize, not every tool in the toolbox.

04 · what's new

What's actually new.

Three quiet additions, in service of one principle.

04.1 · composition

Composition over cramming.

In plain markdown, every document is its own island. Need to reuse a setup section across three guides? Copy-paste, then keep them in sync forever. Thoth lets a document pull in another by reference — a section, a file, the result of a query. The same boilerplate updates in one place. A folder of small, focused files reads as one coherent document.

file ·shared/setup.md
## Install {#install}

Run the installer and confirm with `thoth --version`.

## Configure {#configure}

Drop a `thoth.json` in your project root.
file ·docs/quickstart.md
# Quick Start

{./shared/setup.md#install}

{./shared/setup.md#configure}
04.2 · syntax

A little more syntax — instead of HTML.

When markdown can't say what you need, you reach for HTML — and the prose disappears under angle brackets. Thoth gives you a little more syntax for the common cases: icons, real tables, image controls, layout, inline emphasis. Just enough to close the escape hatch.

markdown · beforebefore
Click the <i class="ph ph-floppy-disk"></i>
Save button to commit your changes.
thoth · afterafter
Click the <:floppy-disk> Save button to
commit your changes.
04.3 · data

Data where the data lives.

Hand-typed tables go stale. Thoth treats data as something to reference, not transcribe — pull from CSV, JSON, or YAML; filter, project, and format inline. When the source changes, the document changes. The prose stays prose.

markdown · beforebefore
| Product | Price | In Stock |
|--|--|--|
| Pro | $199 | yes |
| Plus | $99 | yes |
| Starter | $29 | no |
thoth · afterafter
{{./products.json | as:table}}
05 · syntax

Reducing the need for inline HTML.

Each addition is small, ignorable when you don't know it, and consistent with the rest of the format.

06 · stance

Where we're starting.

A few things we know we want.

06.1

Compatible with what you write today.

CommonMark is the baseline. What works in your current editor should mostly just work in Thoth.

06.2

Forgiving by default.

The renderer aims for the closest reasonable output for what you wrote, not the strictest interpretation. When you want to dial that up, it's a choice you can make.

06.3

Small core, room to grow.

The things that don't have to be in the core won't be — diagram types, alternate renderers, output formats are all the kind of thing that lives outside the center.

06.4

Built in the open.

The work, the discussion, and what we ship are all public from day one.

07 · audience

Built for everyone now writing markdown.

Different tools, same ground truth.

for technical writers

One source for the docs, the diagrams, the release notes, the internal wiki. Reuse a section by reference instead of copy-paste. Pull data from where it lives. Catch broken references before publish.

for developers

Markdown that's easy to drop into a build. CommonMark-compatible, plugin-friendly, with diagrams and structured data that live next to your code.

for AI and tooling teams

Documents with structure agents can address. Stable IDs, semantic tags, composable references. Round-trips cleanly through generation pipelines. Markdown that doesn't pretend its authors are all human.

for platform teams

A shared, file-based way to write content that travels across teams and tools. Open source from day one — never a vendor problem.

Thoth is just getting started.

Markdown's strength has always been its flexibility, and we want Thoth to honor that as it grows. If the approach resonates, follow along and share feedback.

Join the discussion on GitHub →
Thoth is open source.
Built by the team behind Hyroglyph.