Cheat Sheet
The whole syntax, one page. Carve's mnemonic: the markup looks like its output.
Everything here is core (Tier-1) — on by default, identical across every implementation — except rows marked ✦, which are opt-in extensions (Tier-2/3) you enable in your processor. Look any feature up in the feature → tier table.
Inline
| Write | Get | Mnemonic |
|---|---|---|
/italic/ | italic | slashes lean like italics |
*bold* | bold | asterisks are heavy |
/*bold italic*/ | both | combined |
_underline_ | underline | the line sits below |
~strike~ | tilde runs through | |
{^super^} | superscript | caret points up |
{,sub,} | subscript | commas pull down |
=highlight= | highlight | like a highlighter pen |
`code` | code | backticks |
!`/kaet/` | /kaet/ | inline literal — verbatim prose, no code styling; ! mirrors $-math |
[text](url) | link | |
[Page Name][] | wiki-style link | resolves to a heading |
<https://url> | autolink | |
</#section-id> | cross-reference | link text cloned from the target |
 | image | |
[^1] / ^[inline note] | footnote | reference / inline form |
[span]{.class} | span | {…} adds class, id, or attributes |
:youtube[ID] ✦ | extension | :type[content]{attrs} — syntax is core; the handler is opt-in |
@user #tag | mention / tag | social conventions |
\*literal\* | escape | backslash + any ASCII punctuation |
-- --- ... -> (c) | – — … → © | smart typography |
\ at end of line | hard break | \ (backslash-space) = no-break space |
`<br>`{=html} | raw inline | target-routed; Carve renderers emit only =html, others feed external writers (why) |
Bare delimiters work only at word boundaries; force one intraword with the brace form, e.g. H{,2,}O, mc{^2^}.
Blocks
# H1 ## H2 ### H3 (ATX headings 1-6; put attributes on the
line above: {#id .class})
--- (thematic break: --- *** ___)
- unordered 1. ordered (dialects: a. A. i. I. and the ) delimiter;
- [ ] task - [x] done more task states: [-] [_] [>] [?])
-{.c} styled item (attrs abutting the marker target the <li>)
- step one (lone + attaches the next flush-left block
+ to the item - no deep indenting)
> note for step one
:: term (definition list)
: definition
> blockquote
^ Attribution (caption / attribution: ^ prefix)
> quoted (+ at col 0 attaches the next flush-left
+ block to the quote - no > prefixing)
- list now lives inside the quote
```language "Header" [Label]
code block
```
(canonical is ```language - no space; "Header"
-> <pre title>, [Label] = code-group tab name;
both optional, space-separated, in that order)
```=html
<div>passed through when the output format matches</div>
```
::: note "Custom Title" (admonition: note tip warning danger
body info success example quote;
::: any other word = <div class="word">;
optional "Title" -> admonition-title,
must be straight-quoted - unquoted or
curly-quoted text makes the line a
plain paragraph)
::: tab [Label] (optional [Label] after the type = group
body identifier, e.g. the tab name; same
::: "Header" [Label] tokens as a code fence)
:::: outer (longer fences nest shorter ones)
::: note
inner
:::
::::
::: | (preserves per-line layout)
Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
:::
::: \ (local hard breaks; no whitespace preservation)
one
two
:::Block markers must start at column 0 (or, inside a list, at the item's content column). A marker indented past that - an indented
#,>,-,```, or:::- is literal paragraph text, not a block. Markdown tolerates 0-3 spaces of leading indent here; Carve does not.
Tables
|= Header |= Header | (|= marks a header cell; also works in body
| Cell | Cell | rows for ROW headers)
^ Table caption
|= Name |=> Age |=~ City | (column alignment glued to |=: < ~ >;
| Sum |< 12 | NYC | a data-cell marker overrides per cell)
| Name | Age | (GFM separator row accepted as a
|-------|----:| compatibility alias: marks the header
| Alice | 30 | row + column alignment)
| ^ | spanned | (^ = rowspan)
| Header | < | (< = colspan)
+ continuation cell | (+ = multi-line cell)Captions (images, quotes, tables, code listings, equations)
^ Figure 1: Caption text (one ^ adds a semantic <figcaption>)
{#fig-sun}
^ Figure #: A sunset (# = auto number; </#fig-sun> then renders
as "Figure 1")A ^ caption after a fenced code block makes a numbered listing; after a standalone $$-math block, a numbered equation.
A caption spans multiple lines like a paragraph — following lines fold in until a blank line or a block that would interrupt a paragraph (a list marker folds in, it does not end the caption):
^ A long caption that
continues on the next line.Attributes & metadata
{#id .class key=value} (attach to the preceding/following element)
*[HTML]: HyperText Markup Language (abbreviation definition)
---
title: My Document (frontmatter: leading --- block,
tags: [carve, markup] held raw; add ---toml / ---json for
--- other formats)Math, comments, editorial
Inline $`e^{i\pi}+1=0` Display $$`\int_0^1 x\,dx`
%% line comment
text %% trailing comment
%%%
block comment
%%%
{+inserted+} {-deleted-} {~old~>new~} {#a comment#} (CriticMarkup)Diagrams & charts
Fenced blocks drawn by a client library or a build step. Fence words: mermaid, d2, graphviz, wavedrom, abc, plantuml (puml), vega-lite, chart.
``` mermaid
classDiagram (UML: classDiagram, sequenceDiagram,
Parser --> Document stateDiagram-v2, erDiagram)
```
``` chart
{"type":"bar","data":{"labels":["a","b"],"datasets":[{"data":[1,2]}]}}
```Extension, off by default; falls back to a code block when unrendered. See Diagrams & Charts.
Next
- Examples — each construct next to its rendered HTML.
- Get Started — render Carve in your own project.
- Formal Grammar — the normative spec.