In short
Plain text with a few marks for structure. Humans read it, machines parse it. It is the language we write instructions in.
Markdown is plain text with a handful of conventions: a # for a heading, a - for a list item, asterisks for emphasis, a link in brackets. A Markdown file is a .md file. You can open it in any editor, read it without rendering it, and a machine can parse its structure without guessing.
That last property is why it matters here. An agent needs instructions it can read the same way every time. A Word document carries formatting an agent has to strip. A chat message is gone when the window closes. A Markdown file sits in a folder, gets versioned, and reads the same to the person who wrote it, the person who inherits it, and the agent that runs it.
Every instruction an agent runs on at PostScarcity AI is a Markdown file: who it is, what it may and may not do, how a page is laid out, when to stay silent. When we say we teach people to program in txt and md, this is the md.
It is not a programming language. There is nothing to compile and nothing to install. If you can write an email, you can write Markdown.
Example
What it looks like.
# Publishing rules- Post one article per day at 08:00.- Never change the author's legal substance. Structure only.- Every image is generated in the house style. Five per post.- If the validator fails, do not publish. Say what failed, in one line.
Related
Read next.
- plain textText with no hidden formatting. What you see is all there is. The most durable format there is.Read the definition
- instruction fileThe Markdown file that tells an agent who it is, what it owns, and what it may never do. The agent's job description, readable by the agent.Read the definition
- program in txt and mdThe instructions are the code. Write what you want in plain language, keep it in a file, update the file forever. No Python, no Bash.Read the definition