---
id: MD-1
family: RT-MD
level: extended
profiles: [runtime]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/rt-md/md-1
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# MD-1 — Markdown source can never reach the reader as markup

*RT-MD (Part II) · level: extended · profiles: runtime · added in 1.0*

A markdown-to-HTML conversion usually runs over text a language model wrote, so the encoding is a safety boundary rather than a formatting nicety. Encoding the whole input once, before any block or inline pattern is applied, is the arrangement that makes the promise hold on every arm: escaping at each emission point has been shown to miss the blocks a converter rebuilds from its buffer, and to miss any block whose first character is already a tag.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. Every text node a markdown-to-HTML conversion emits must be HTML-encoded: prose, list items, blockquote lines, headings and code alike.
>
> 2. Markup present in the markdown source must never reach the reader as markup, including where a block opens with a tag.

## Related rules

- Referenced by: MD-2

---

Rule identifiers are permanent and are never renumbered. This specification carries
no implementation status: each implementation publishes its own standing against
these rules. Licensed CC BY 4.0.