alt.hn

3/24/2026 at 4:26:00 PM

Show HN: Email.md – Markdown to responsive, email-safe HTML

 https://www.emailmd.dev/

by dancablam

3/25/2026 at 9:18:44 AM

I'm never seen the `::: header` or `![Logo](https://...logo.png){width="200"}` kind of syntax before. Is this custom or Frankenstein solution? Or is there some kind of md-extended pattern for defining components that has been gaining steam or smthn? Markdown tooling is always confusing, since everyone has their own standard.

by bpev

3/25/2026 at 10:32:37 AM

Yep both are widely used. I forget which markdowns extensions they originated from. The Pandoc website probably has the details.

by austinjp

3/25/2026 at 10:42:47 AM

Nice. Markdown-to-email is one of those things that sounds simple until you actually try it and Outlook destroys everything. Curious how you're handling nested lists — that's usually where things fall apart. Does it degrade gracefully or just break?

by lexro_ai

3/24/2026 at 7:50:54 PM

Anything that makes email development easier is great I guess, but have personally found MJML great for solving the issues you'd run into, and not sure I want yet another abstraction layer on top of that which makes it more limited...

by safehuss

3/25/2026 at 7:42:40 AM

They address this in the docs - it is meant to make authoring the content easier for LLMs since that is easy for them to write.

It still uses MJML for the actual templates, but it is a translation layer between markdown and the template itself.

If you need to author a lot of emails with LLM this does seem like it would be a great fit.

by seer

3/25/2026 at 8:02:52 AM

If you need to author a lot of emails with LLM you should be rethinking your business strategy tbh

by vanillameow

3/25/2026 at 10:05:29 AM

Feels more like a content layer for LLMs than a replacement for MJML.

In my experience models tend to break HTML layouts pretty easily, while Markdown degrades more gracefully.

by annie511266728

3/25/2026 at 10:31:22 AM

It uses MJML under the hood.

https://mjml.io/

by austinjp

3/25/2026 at 8:02:00 AM

i never understood why the markdown mime type was not used in emailclients in webclients or desktop programs...

that would eliminate most html usage and enable longer texts than 70-85 characters per line.

by deknos

3/24/2026 at 5:49:36 PM

This appears to be a MJML wrapper with a Markdown→HTML converter attached to it. I think generating HTML from code is easier than generating Markdown, since there are many templating tools that understand HTML escaping. And writing HTML is not that hard, especially for your typical emails, so I'm not really sure if this library would be helpful in the long run.

by Kwpolska

3/24/2026 at 5:51:26 PM

I like the idea of this tool, as writing Markdown for some people is probably easier than HTML. I mean, use whatever floats your boat. I like that this exists.

by dallen33

3/24/2026 at 6:01:23 PM

Also a way to use fewer standards for storage of input and created text.

by j45

3/24/2026 at 6:31:01 PM

Markdown is the secret winner of the AI early years.

by ph4rsikal

3/25/2026 at 10:42:01 AM

I'm not so sure. It's definitely the de facto standard, but I suspect minimal HTML is better. Just enough tags to add structure and meaning (H1-H6, p, a, em, section for structure including nesting, maybe more). LLMs were trained on a lot of HTML, they're good at processing it. HTML requires more tokens than markdown but I believe it's worth it. I'll find out in a few weeks as I experiment with both.

by austinjp

3/24/2026 at 6:41:43 PM

cries in org-mode

by hatmatrix

3/24/2026 at 11:12:35 PM

org-mode is amazing for humans. I, as a real human and not a robot, use it every day.

by phyzix5761

3/24/2026 at 10:03:56 PM

I feel you on this too.

by terminalgravity

3/24/2026 at 10:03:33 PM

At this point markdown is going to be the foundation of the entire AI web. Someone the other day showed off Markdown as a responsive frontend protocol. Now we've got email. How long until we're writing classes in markdown? We can only abstract this so far before we confuse AI more than help it.

by Escapade5160

3/25/2026 at 1:32:23 AM

Look up Configuration Complexity clock

by whattheheckheck

3/24/2026 at 6:24:36 PM

Any "HTML emails" get filtered straight into the spam folder here. I think I'm not part of the target audience here.

by binaryturtle

3/25/2026 at 2:07:40 AM

Is that a thing? Is it safer to use plain text emails?

by Lord_Zero

3/25/2026 at 7:56:34 AM

> Is that a thing?

There must be literally dozens of people who do this.

by unmole

3/25/2026 at 7:09:15 AM

Very much so. While a lot of mail clients block images, they can be used to track you. Hell a lot of HTML can be used to track you if you're smart about it

by mghackerlady

3/25/2026 at 2:33:39 AM

How do you deal with things like "we sent you a one-time code to confirm your login"? Most of those are HTML-formatted today

by SergeAx

3/25/2026 at 10:25:37 AM

I still can check the SPAM folder, if needed.

But most SPAMs are HTML, so you'll have a good default last-stage in-client filtering in place in case some SPAM actually makes it through the other setup on the server (greylisting, DNS based filtering lists, policy-based filtering, etc.) :)

by binaryturtle

3/24/2026 at 6:36:09 PM

I hope .md domains do not become a security hole as Markdown raises in popularity...

by theanonymousone

3/24/2026 at 9:14:22 PM

That's a valid concern, especially given the confusion we saw with .zip or .mov TLDs. But from a security engineering perspective, the bigger 'Markdown hole' I worry about is injection. When we render untrusted AI output into HTML for email, the sanitization pipeline becomes critical. I'd be curious to see how this library handles potential XSS vectors during the MD-to-HTML conversion.

by brian93512

3/24/2026 at 8:10:10 PM

This reminds me of the infamous dot zip domain and the security chaos that had followed.

by Imustaskforhelp

3/24/2026 at 7:46:26 PM

Great project! And if you don't mind a little workaround and some Python scripting, you can turn a regular Obsidian folder into an automatic outbox. Write markdown, drag, drop, and ship.

by matzalazar

3/25/2026 at 2:11:01 AM

I'm not exactly following as to who this is for - people are going to use email templates instead of writing Markdown emails, and agents can just as easily spit out HTML. Seems like your solution is in search of a problem.

by razvan_maftei

3/24/2026 at 10:37:06 PM

Very nice. I think the kind of folks attracted to this thread might have some thoughts on a workflow I'm interested in.

When I see a news article, I want to be able to click a button on my Mac or iPhone to send the text of the article in the body of the email. Bonus points for rehosting the images from the article. And using a similar font both without carrying over any of the original external dependencies.

Normally it’s good to support the journalist but I cannot in good conscience send a link to elderly folks when this is so much safer.

by Barbing

3/24/2026 at 11:05:15 PM

Use the browser reader mode, select all, right click send email. Is it something like that you want?

by johanvts

3/25/2026 at 2:23:16 AM

Thank you! Great trick that comes pretty close.

by Barbing

3/25/2026 at 7:56:44 AM

If only there was a faster way to „select all“!

by Ringz

3/24/2026 at 9:09:43 PM

Love everything to Markdownify :) I was just wondering, is there a Neovim/Markdown email client? Potentially using something like this? I love Neomutt, or Newsboat, and other TUIs. It would be great to have something totally on Markdown. Update: I gave it a spin [1] with Go and some of my favorite CLI's.

[1] https://x.com/sspaeti/status/2036539855182627169

by articsputnik

3/24/2026 at 9:32:28 PM

There's not one that I'm aware of. Maybe it's about time there is :D

by dancablam

3/25/2026 at 6:21:46 AM

This is great! I’d love to see this supported in SendOps!

by ksajadi

3/25/2026 at 2:15:34 AM

This problem was solved almost 15 years ago

by vindin

3/24/2026 at 9:34:48 PM

Nice usage of admonitions. This is a great example of how eloquent markdown can be. Still very readable while even including the markup for 'footer' and the call out code.

by rbbydotdev

3/24/2026 at 10:45:30 PM

Would love to use this - any plans for Cloudflare Workers support? Some of the node APIs you're using block it from working on Cloudflare right now.

by runtype

3/25/2026 at 4:07:36 AM

Added support for cloudflare workers in 0.1.2. Thanks for the tip!

by dancablam

3/25/2026 at 12:48:48 AM

Good idea. I'll look into this.

by dancablam

3/24/2026 at 5:57:53 PM

I wish people just sent plain text.

by koakuma-chan

3/24/2026 at 5:59:54 PM

What about images, links? Formatted text like bold or underline?

I also prefer plain text, but in most of my emails I talk about technical stuff, or I send transactional emails that require actions, in which case showing buttons is a much better user experience than plain text.

by XCSme

3/24/2026 at 6:01:23 PM

I don’t want buttons in my emails.

by loloquwowndueo

3/24/2026 at 6:06:12 PM

But they are a lot easier to see and click (accessibility, larger hit area).

You could have a larger text instead of a button, but changing font size is also HTML and not plain-text anymore.

by XCSme

3/24/2026 at 7:30:31 PM

Every MUA I've used allows the reader to set a font size, so changing font sizes is 100% a feature of plain-text emails. Then they get the link the size they need to read it correctly and it's absolutely easy to read. This here comment is pain text. Is it hard to read this link:

http://microsoft.com/

I don't think so. I certainly didn't have to resort to HTML to make that link readable and clickable.

by antiframe

3/24/2026 at 7:20:16 PM

I don’t have problems seeing and clicking normal text, thank you very much. I don’t want buttons on my emails.

by loloquwowndueo

3/24/2026 at 8:35:23 PM

I think the OP app is meant for creating transactional emails (or bulk-send emails like newsletters).

Those templates should account for all types of people and accessibility levels (including things like ADHD, where you need a big red button to click, otherwise you get overwhelmed by a block of text).

by XCSme

3/24/2026 at 6:30:19 PM

You can just send a link, and the user's client will probably highlight it even if it is plain text.

by koakuma-chan

3/24/2026 at 6:36:11 PM

Yea, but how will they hide all the tracking URLs and base64 encoded PII from you in the email?

by recursivegirth

3/24/2026 at 6:44:19 PM

Using a URL shortener obviously. But you are right, if they only send plain text, they won't be able to include those 1x1 images at the bottom to track whether you have opened the email. Any sane email client blocks images by default, but whatever.

by koakuma-chan

3/24/2026 at 8:21:12 PM

Yeah, the first example on that site doesn't need any formatting. It just says your code is <code>

by ape4

3/24/2026 at 9:50:33 PM

I don't. Plain text is typically formatted for 72-78 monospace characters - even if you don't want formatting, the text will look bad on any device that doesn't match IBM's 80-character punch cards from 1928.

by nailer

3/24/2026 at 10:26:18 PM

In theory format=flowed solves that, but the same boomers that despise HTML mail also refuse to provide that accommodation, for anyone not behind a teletype.

by Avamander

3/24/2026 at 6:15:38 PM

A picture is worth a thousand words.

by linhns

3/24/2026 at 6:23:46 PM

Plain text? Pffft.

Human language is an unnecessary abstraction, just like images.

I wish everyone would communicate in pure Binary.

by pembrook

3/24/2026 at 7:24:52 PM

I am working on smth similar markdown reader for humans, not agents - https://mdview.io

by Igor_Wiwi

3/25/2026 at 2:08:49 AM

Does anyone use MJML in golang? What package are you using?

by Lord_Zero

3/24/2026 at 11:01:17 PM

This plus a block-based editor like editorjs would be a great addition to any custom cms.

by josegonzalez

3/25/2026 at 7:07:51 AM

Or, hear me out. Just send the markdown and skip the HTML bullshit. Any mail client will render markdown fine and the ones that don't either aren't worth using or don't want HTML mail in the first place. HTML email is the worst thing to ever happen to the internet

by mghackerlady

3/24/2026 at 6:05:10 PM

I like how you aren't hiding the fact this is MJML under the hood and don't layer complex abstractions over MJML spec like similar projects (cough react email cough).

The devs maintaining MJML deserve so much credit for dealing with Gmail/Outlook's monopoly bullshit and 2007 html.

Nice idea for those who manage content in markdown. I've moved away from putting emails in my codebase, but seems great for founders moving fast.

by pembrook

3/25/2026 at 3:15:32 AM

What’s your opinion on react email?

by r1290

3/24/2026 at 6:25:54 PM

Thanks! I agree - the MJML team has laid so much groundwork and it frankly made this project possible.

by dancablam

3/24/2026 at 9:38:44 PM

Which email client will stylize raw markdown itself, making the HTML step here superfluous?

by gojomo

3/25/2026 at 5:58:29 AM

Emacs ofc :) seriously it should not be too much work although org-mode syntax would be even easier, there is a markdown mode here: https://jblevins.org/projects/markdown-mode/ The email part is not something i have done myself but it has been a feature for a very long time and you can find plenty of guides online.

by johanvts

3/24/2026 at 10:31:46 PM

It would first require a standard for Markdown. After that there would be very little stopping anyone from implementing it. I guess a MIME type for standard Markdown would also be nice.

Pretty sure I've said it before, but it would be a nice middle ground between text and all the complexity HTML+CSS brings in (if you want to compete with other HTML clients).

by Avamander

3/25/2026 at 5:22:09 AM

The idea of Markdown was that it was supposed to be readable in plain text without any stylizing.

by SoftTalker

3/24/2026 at 8:45:46 PM

Curious why the CLI function is `mvd` instead of `mdv`?

by deanputney

3/24/2026 at 9:12:35 PM

What CLI function?

by dancablam

3/24/2026 at 6:02:14 PM

templates are cool but seems too heavy to land in primary inbox

by KhushaliT

3/25/2026 at 8:31:20 AM

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by rsmtjohn

3/25/2026 at 7:10:22 AM

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by hikaru_ai

3/25/2026 at 6:50:49 AM

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by kevinbaiv

3/24/2026 at 6:08:36 PM

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by sy0115

3/25/2026 at 12:58:53 AM

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by firefoxNX11

3/24/2026 at 7:05:58 PM

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by T3RMINATED

3/24/2026 at 4:32:54 PM

[flagged]

by jsxyzb9

3/24/2026 at 5:15:51 PM

"Write markdown. Ship emails." - I see a particular group of people interested in this, but they have their tools already.

by alfanick

3/24/2026 at 5:48:11 PM

I think you should probably let that group of people speak for themselves.

I'm in this "group" and see an immediate usefulness of this over what I'm doing now.

by SunshineTheCat