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

Show HN: Email.md – Markdown to responsive, email-safe HTML (emailmd.dev)

380 points by dancablam 78 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 94 comments

| safehuss 77 days ago | next [–] 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...

| seer 77 days ago | parent | next [–] 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.

| vanillameow 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] If you need to author a lot of emails with LLM you should be rethinking your business strategy tbh

| safehuss 77 days ago | root | parent | prev | next [–] If the goal is to write emails purely using AI, then it is trivial to attach the MJML documentation as context to your LLM using context7 MCP or something of the sort. It's not a very complex language and its documentation is not large at all.That's assuming the crawlers haven't ingested it all already...

| Kwpolska 78 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| dallen33 78 days ago | parent | next [–] 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.

| j45 78 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Also a way to use fewer standards for storage of input and created text.

| joshmoody24 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] Writing HTML for emails is a lot harder than you're making it sound. But MJML does a good job of simplifying it for most use cases.

| bpev 77 days ago | prev | next [–] I'm never seen the ::: header or {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.

| rbbydotdev 77 days ago | parent | next [–] Admonitions are :::, allows you do to do things like this, if you have custom parser, if not, your admonitions can fail gracefully as plain text:: gallery ::

| rcarr 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-directive https://talk.commonmark.org/t/generic-directives-plugins-syn...

| austinjp 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] Yep both are widely used. I forget which markdowns extensions they originated from. The Pandoc website probably has the details.

| phrotoma 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Aye, I've seen these both in kramdown and quarto.

| ph4rsikal 78 days ago | prev | next [–] Markdown is the secret winner of the AI early years.

| austinjp 77 days ago | parent | next [–] 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.

| hatmatrix 78 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] cries in org-mode

| phyzix5761 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] org-mode is amazing for humans. I, as a real human and not a robot, use it every day.

| pembrook 78 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| dancablam 78 days ago | parent | next [–] Thanks! I agree - the MJML team has laid so much groundwork and it frankly made this project possible.

| r1290 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] What’s your opinion on react email?

| pembrook 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Mostly fluff/hype. Not a value-add over just using raw MJML (which has nice VScode plugins for live previews), and in fact a long term risk to add to a codebase since react-email is just a marketing play by Resend (a startup) and will not be maintained as diligently as MJML.Also, LLMs know MJML really well.

| joshmoody24 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] This is my experience as well. MJML is the older, more reliable, better documented technology. And when it comes to debugging email rendering, you really, REALLY want as much documentation as possible.

| deknos 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| teddyh 77 days ago | parent | next [–] It’s up to the e-mail client implementors, but I would personally prefer text/enriched, RFC 1896, instead of markdown.

| binaryturtle 78 days ago | prev | next [–] Any "HTML emails" get filtered straight into the spam folder here. I think I'm not part of the target audience here.

| SergeAx 77 days ago | parent | next [–] 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

| binaryturtle 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] 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.) :)

| Lord_Zero 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] Is that a thing? Is it safer to use plain text emails?

| unmole 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–]

Is that a thing?There must be literally dozens of people who do this.

| Escapade5160 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| whattheheckheck 77 days ago | parent | next [–] Look up Configuration Complexity clock

| theanonymousone 78 days ago | prev | next [–] I hope .md domains do not become a security hole as Markdown raises in popularity...

| brian93512 77 days ago | parent | next [–] 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.

| Imustaskforhelp 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] This reminds me of the infamous dot zip domain and the security chaos that had followed.

| matzalazar 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| razvan_maftei 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| comchangs 72 days ago | prev | next [–] Nice. The LLM authoring angle is underappreciated — getting an AI to write valid MJML is painful, but Markdown is trivial.One thing I'd love: a CLI mode so I can pipe it into deployment notification hooks. Something like echo "Deploy succeeded" | emailmd | sendmail would be killer for DevOps workflows.

| creatonez 76 days ago | prev | next [–] I never actually thought about this. How are people making HTML emails so responsive? Email HTML is stuck in the IE6 era, right? So everything is just a horrible workaround with tables and ancient CSS?

| Barbing 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| johanvts 77 days ago | parent | next [–] Use the browser reader mode, select all, right click send email. Is it something like that you want?

| Barbing 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Thank you! Great trick that comes pretty close.

| Barbing 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] (if you’re down to experiment!)For the next three intriguing articles you see on arbitrary sites, does the select all trick produce an aesthetically pleasing email? Do external dependencies get carried over? Do you spend any time manually removing cruft? Does the formatting leave anything to be desired?When I do this all manually I can make it look great, and now that we’ve seen we can train computers to make stuff look great, it’s going to be a point of frustration for me until I have the one-click beautiful-article-email button.

| articsputnik 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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

| dancablam 77 days ago | parent | next [–] There's not one that I'm aware of. Maybe it's about time there is :D

| articsputnik 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] I gave Claude a spin, given all my likings ;) https://github.com/ssp-data/neomd

| annie511266728 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| austinjp 77 days ago | parent | next [–] It uses MJML under the hood.https://mjml.io/

| rbbydotdev 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| dimaberlin 77 days ago | prev | next [–] The real pain in email HTML isn't writing it — it's maintaining it. Markdown at least gives you something a human can edit 6 months later without crying.

| runtype 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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.

| dancablam 77 days ago | parent | next [–] Added support for cloudflare workers in 0.1.2. Thanks for the tip!

| runtype 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Sweet, thanks!

| dancablam 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] Good idea. I'll look into this.

| Igor_Wiwi 77 days ago | prev | next [–] I am working on smth similar markdown reader for humans, not agents - https://mdview.io

| vindin 77 days ago | prev | next [–] This problem was solved almost 15 years ago

| gojomo 77 days ago | prev | next [–] Which email client will stylize raw markdown itself, making the HTML step here superfluous?

| johanvts 77 days ago | parent | next [–] 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.

| Avamander 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] 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).

| SoftTalker 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] The idea of Markdown was that it was supposed to be readable in plain text without any stylizing.

| josegonzalez 77 days ago | prev | next [–] This plus a block-based editor like editorjs would be a great addition to any custom cms.

| KhushaliT 78 days ago | prev | next [–] templates are cool but seems too heavy to land in primary inbox

| joshmoody24 77 days ago | parent | next [–] What do you mean by "too heavy"? File size?

| Lord_Zero 77 days ago | prev | next [–] Does anyone use MJML in golang? What package are you using?

| ksajadi 77 days ago | prev | next [–] This is great! I’d love to see this supported in SendOps!

| deanputney 77 days ago | prev | next [–] Curious why the CLI function is mvd instead of mdv?

| dancablam 77 days ago | parent | next [–] What CLI function?

| mghackerlady 77 days ago | prev | next [–] 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

| koakuma-chan 78 days ago | prev | next [–] I wish people just sent plain text.

| XCSme 78 days ago | parent | next [–] 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.

| loloquwowndueo 78 days ago | root | parent | next [–] I don’t want buttons in my emails.

| XCSme 78 days ago | root | parent | next [–] 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.

| antiframe 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] 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.

| XCSme 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] 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).

| recursivegirth 78 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Yea, but how will they hide all the tracking URLs and base64 encoded PII from you in the email?

| koakuma-chan 78 days ago | root | parent | next [–] 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.

What about images, links? Formatted text like bold or underline?Easy. Don't.That's the great bit. You don't have to.https://useplaintext.email/

| XCSme 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Why isn't this website plain text then?

| einr 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Probably because it's a website and not email.

| XCSme 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] But I have to send the same sort of information (albeit shorter) via email on a regular basis.A lot of alerts, reporting, quotes, code snippets, short documentation or step by step instructions, etc.I don't just send emails to say "Hey, let's meet at 5". You know the memes with "this could have been an email", it usually is this case.Just to be clear, most of those rich emails are the automatic/transactional emails.

| einr 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] Yeah, I get it, I unfortunately live in the real world too. I like to keep it plain text whenever possible but it's extremely useful sometimes to have inline screenshots and stuff like that.I didn't mean to be sarcastic but it's just that to me, philosophically, email is a plaintext technology that had HTML bolted on to it kicking and screaming, and it's always been kind of crap. People like me hate things that are fundamentally ugly and crap even if they are useful. The web was designed for HTML from the start.

| nailer 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] 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.

| Avamander 77 days ago | root | parent | next [–] 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.

| joshmoody24 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] I used to think this, but lately I'm getting a lot of plain text marketing emails that are clearly LLMs. Now I dislike plain text emails just as much as HTML ones.

| ape4 77 days ago | parent | prev | next [–] Yeah, the first example on that site doesn't need any formatting. It just says your code is


| linhns 78 days ago | parent | prev | next [–]
A picture is worth a thousand words.
| pembrook 78 days ago | parent | prev | next [–]
Plain text? Pffft.Human language is an unnecessary abstraction, just like images.I wish everyone would communicate in pure Binary.
| | lexro_ai 77 days ago | prev | next [2 more]
[flagged]
| dancablam 77 days ago | parent | next [–]
It uses MJML under the hood to ensure email-safe HTML is generated. That should prevent many edge cases where failures can happen - but I'm sure there are some skeletons we'll have to find / fix.
| alfanick 78 days ago | prev [–]
"Write markdown. Ship emails." - I see a particular group of people interested in this, but they have their tools already.
| SunshineTheCat 78 days ago | parent [–]
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.

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