Quarkdown

Quarkdown

Quarkdown is a Markdown flavor and typesetting system. It compiles .qd source files to HTML, PDF, or plaintext, extending CommonMark/GFM with function calls, variables, layouts, math, custom themes, and document types. Think of it as a more readable LaTeX.

When to use

Use this skill when the user wants to write or edit a .qd file, or asks for typeset output (PDF, slides, paged article, themed wiki) instead of plain Markdown. Also when they want a polished, shareable version of a plan or report.

Do not use it when plain Markdown is the final target (chat, READMEs, GitHub issues).

New projects

If the user wants to start a new Quarkdown project, tell them to run quarkdown create [dir] themselves. It's an interactive wizard that prompts for values. Don't scaffold project files by hand.

Locating the bundled docs

Quarkdown ships a full offline copy of its wiki and stdlib API reference. Resolve the install dir once:

QUARKDOWN_INSTALL="$(quarkdown doctor get install-dir)"

Resources under $QUARKDOWN_INSTALL:

• docs/wiki/_nav.qd: wiki index. Start here to find pages by topic.
• docs/wiki/*.qd: individual wiki pages.
• docs/wiki/quickstart.qd: read this first if you are new to Quarkdown.
• docs/quarkdown-stdlib/: stdlib API reference (function signatures, parameters, return types) as HTML.

Read the relevant wiki pages before writing anything non-trivial.

Workflow

1. Locate the install dir (snippet above).
2. Read docs/wiki/_nav.qd, then docs/wiki/quickstart.qd if you don't know the syntax yet.
3. Read the specific wiki pages relevant to the task, and stdlib API pages under docs/ when you need exact function signatures.
4. Write the .qd file.
5. Compile to verify: quarkdown c <main>.qd --strict --out /tmp/quarkdown-verify. <main> is usually main.qd but confirm against the project. --strict surfaces errors; --out /tmp/quarkdown-verify keeps build artifacts out of the user's project (otherwise output lands in ./quarkdown-output relative to your CWD).
   • PDF export (--pdf) is slower because it spins up a headless browser. Only use it when the user asks for a PDF.
   • Never run live preview (-p, -w) yourself; it starts a long-running web server. Suggest the command to the user instead.
6. Report any compile errors back to the user.