Installation
Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
For most users on macOS or Linux, Homebrew is the easiest way to install Apex:
brew tap ttscoff/thelab
brew install ttscoff/thelab/apex
Build from source
If you prefer to build from source:
git clone https://github.com/ApexMarkdown/apex.git
cd apex
git submodule update --init --recursive
make
The apex binary will be built into the build/ directory. To install system‑wide:
make install
Basic usage
Once installed, apex can be used from the command line to process Markdown:
# Process a Markdown file to HTML on stdout
apex input.md
# Output to a specific file
apex input.md -o output.html
# Generate a complete standalone HTML document
apex input.md --standalone --title "My Document"
# Pretty‑print HTML with indentation
apex input.md --pretty
Processing modes
Apex supports multiple compatibility modes:
-
--mode commonmark– pure CommonMark -
--mode gfm– GitHub Flavored Markdown -
--mode mmd/--mode multimarkdown– MultiMarkdown -
--mode kramdown– Kramdown -
--mode unified– all features enabled (default)
# Use GFM mode
apex input.md --mode gfm
# Use Kramdown mode with relaxed tables
apex input.md --mode kramdown
Syntax overview
Apex brings together a rich set of extensions and document features. Highlights include:
- Tables with captions, alignment, rowspan/colspan, and relaxed table parsing
- Footnotes with multiple syntaxes
- Definition lists, task lists, and strikethrough
- Smart typography for quotes, dashes, ellipses, and more
-
Math with LaTeX inline (
$...$) and display ($$...$$) syntax -
Wiki links like
[[Page Name]]and[[Page Name|Display Text]] -
Abbreviations and callouts (Bear/Obsidian‑style
> [!NOTE]blocks) -
GitHub emoji such as
🚀and❤️ -
Metadata blocks (YAML, MultiMarkdown, Pandoc) with powerful
[%key]and[%key:transform]variables -
Table of contents markers (
<!--TOC-->,{:toc}) -
File includes (
<<[file],{{file}},/file) and the--combine/--mmd-mergetools - Citations and bibliography with multiple syntaxes and bibliography formats
- Indices, Critic Markup, and flexible output options (HTML fragments, pretty‑printed HTML, or full documents)
For a complete syntax reference and advanced options, see the documentation links below.
Documentation & resources
The full documentation for Apex lives in the GitHub wiki:
You can find the project source, releases, and issue tracker here: