• alfanick 17 hours ago |
    "Write markdown. Ship emails." - I see a particular group of people interested in this, but they have their tools already.
    • SunshineTheCat 17 hours ago |
      I think you should probably let that group of people speak for themselves.

      I'm in this "group" and see an immediate usefulness of this over what I'm doing now.

  • Kwpolska 17 hours ago |
    This appears to be a MJML wrapper with a Markdown→HTML converter attached to it. I think generating HTML from code is easier than generating Markdown, since there are many templating tools that understand HTML escaping. And writing HTML is not that hard, especially for your typical emails, so I'm not really sure if this library would be helpful in the long run.
    • dallen33 17 hours ago |
      I like the idea of this tool, as writing Markdown for some people is probably easier than HTML. I mean, use whatever floats your boat. I like that this exists.
      • j45 16 hours ago |
        Also a way to use fewer standards for storage of input and created text.
  • koakuma-chan 17 hours ago |
    I wish people just sent plain text.
    • XCSme 17 hours ago |
      What about images, links? Formatted text like bold or underline?

      I also prefer plain text, but in most of my emails I talk about technical stuff, or I send transactional emails that require actions, in which case showing buttons is a much better user experience than plain text.

      • loloquwowndueo 16 hours ago |
        I don’t want buttons in my emails.
        • XCSme 16 hours ago |
          But they are a lot easier to see and click (accessibility, larger hit area).

          You could have a larger text instead of a button, but changing font size is also HTML and not plain-text anymore.

          • koakuma-chan 16 hours ago |
            You can just send a link, and the user's client will probably highlight it even if it is plain text.
            • recursivegirth 16 hours ago |
              Yea, but how will they hide all the tracking URLs and base64 encoded PII from you in the email?
              • koakuma-chan 16 hours ago |
                Using a URL shortener obviously. But you are right, if they only send plain text, they won't be able to include those 1x1 images at the bottom to track whether you have opened the email. Any sane email client blocks images by default, but whatever.
          • loloquwowndueo 15 hours ago |
            I don’t have problems seeing and clicking normal text, thank you very much. I don’t want buttons on my emails.
            • XCSme 14 hours ago |
              I think the OP app is meant for creating transactional emails (or bulk-send emails like newsletters).

              Those templates should account for all types of people and accessibility levels (including things like ADHD, where you need a big red button to click, otherwise you get overwhelmed by a block of text).

          • antiframe 15 hours ago |
            Every MUA I've used allows the reader to set a font size, so changing font sizes is 100% a feature of plain-text emails. Then they get the link the size they need to read it correctly and it's absolutely easy to read. This here comment is pain text. Is it hard to read this link:

            http://microsoft.com/

            I don't think so. I certainly didn't have to resort to HTML to make that link readable and clickable.

    • linhns 16 hours ago |
      A picture is worth a thousand words.
    • pembrook 16 hours ago |
      Plain text? Pffft.

      Human language is an unnecessary abstraction, just like images.

      I wish everyone would communicate in pure Binary.

    • ape4 14 hours ago |
      Yeah, the first example on that site doesn't need any formatting. It just says your code is <code>
    • nailer 13 hours ago |
      I don't. Plain text is typically formatted for 72-78 monospace characters - even if you don't want formatting, the text will look bad on any device that doesn't match IBM's 80-character punch cards from 1928.
      • Avamander 12 hours ago |
        In theory format=flowed solves that, but the same boomers that despise HTML mail also refuse to provide that accommodation, for anyone not behind a teletype.
  • KhushaliT 16 hours ago |
    templates are cool but seems too heavy to land in primary inbox
  • pembrook 16 hours ago |
    I like how you aren't hiding the fact this is MJML under the hood and don't layer complex abstractions over MJML spec like similar projects (cough react email cough).

    The devs maintaining MJML deserve so much credit for dealing with Gmail/Outlook's monopoly bullshit and 2007 html.

    Nice idea for those who manage content in markdown. I've moved away from putting emails in my codebase, but seems great for founders moving fast.

    • dancablam 16 hours ago |
      Thanks! I agree - the MJML team has laid so much groundwork and it frankly made this project possible.
    • r1290 7 hours ago |
      What’s your opinion on react email?
  • binaryturtle 16 hours ago |
    Any "HTML emails" get filtered straight into the spam folder here. I think I'm not part of the target audience here.
    • Lord_Zero 8 hours ago |
      Is that a thing? Is it safer to use plain text emails?
      • mghackerlady 3 hours ago |
        Very much so. While a lot of mail clients block images, they can be used to track you. Hell a lot of HTML can be used to track you if you're smart about it
      • unmole 3 hours ago |
        > Is that a thing?

        There must be literally dozens of people who do this.

    • SergeAx 8 hours ago |
      How do you deal with things like "we sent you a one-time code to confirm your login"? Most of those are HTML-formatted today
      • binaryturtle 5 minutes ago |
        I still can check the SPAM folder, if needed.

        But most SPAMs are HTML, so you'll have a good default last-stage in-client filtering in place in case some SPAM actually makes it through the other setup on the server (greylisting, DNS based filtering lists, policy-based filtering, etc.) :)

  • ph4rsikal 16 hours ago |
    Markdown is the secret winner of the AI early years.
    • hatmatrix 16 hours ago |
      cries in org-mode
      • terminalgravity 12 hours ago |
        I feel you on this too.
      • phyzix5761 11 hours ago |
        org-mode is amazing for humans. I, as a real human and not a robot, use it every day.
  • theanonymousone 16 hours ago |
    I hope .md domains do not become a security hole as Markdown raises in popularity...
    • Imustaskforhelp 14 hours ago |
      This reminds me of the infamous dot zip domain and the security chaos that had followed.
    • brian93512 13 hours ago |
      That's a valid concern, especially given the confusion we saw with .zip or .mov TLDs. But from a security engineering perspective, the bigger 'Markdown hole' I worry about is injection. When we render untrusted AI output into HTML for email, the sanitization pipeline becomes critical. I'd be curious to see how this library handles potential XSS vectors during the MD-to-HTML conversion.
  • Igor_Wiwi 15 hours ago |
    I am working on smth similar markdown reader for humans, not agents - https://mdview.io
  • matzalazar 15 hours ago |
    Great project! And if you don't mind a little workaround and some Python scripting, you can turn a regular Obsidian folder into an automatic outbox. Write markdown, drag, drop, and ship.
  • safehuss 15 hours ago |
    Anything that makes email development easier is great I guess, but have personally found MJML great for solving the issues you'd run into, and not sure I want yet another abstraction layer on top of that which makes it more limited...
    • seer 3 hours ago |
      They address this in the docs - it is meant to make authoring the content easier for LLMs since that is easy for them to write.

      It still uses MJML for the actual templates, but it is a translation layer between markdown and the template itself.

      If you need to author a lot of emails with LLM this does seem like it would be a great fit.

      • vanillameow 2 hours ago |
        If you need to author a lot of emails with LLM you should be rethinking your business strategy tbh
  • deanputney 14 hours ago |
    Curious why the CLI function is `mvd` instead of `mdv`?
    • dancablam 13 hours ago |
      What CLI function?
  • articsputnik 13 hours ago |
    Love everything to Markdownify :) I was just wondering, is there a Neovim/Markdown email client? Potentially using something like this? I love Neomutt, or Newsboat, and other TUIs. It would be great to have something totally on Markdown. Update: I gave it a spin [1] with Go and some of my favorite CLI's.

    [1] https://x.com/sspaeti/status/2036539855182627169

    • dancablam 13 hours ago |
      There's not one that I'm aware of. Maybe it's about time there is :D
  • rbbydotdev 13 hours ago |
    Nice usage of admonitions. This is a great example of how eloquent markdown can be. Still very readable while even including the markup for 'footer' and the call out code.
  • gojomo 13 hours ago |
    Which email client will stylize raw markdown itself, making the HTML step here superfluous?
    • Avamander 12 hours ago |
      It would first require a standard for Markdown. After that there would be very little stopping anyone from implementing it. I guess a MIME type for standard Markdown would also be nice.

      Pretty sure I've said it before, but it would be a nice middle ground between text and all the complexity HTML+CSS brings in (if you want to compete with other HTML clients).

      • SoftTalker 5 hours ago |
        The idea of Markdown was that it was supposed to be readable in plain text without any stylizing.
    • johanvts 5 hours ago |
      Emacs ofc :) seriously it should not be too much work although org-mode syntax would be even easier, there is a markdown mode here: https://jblevins.org/projects/markdown-mode/ The email part is not something i have done myself but it has been a feature for a very long time and you can find plenty of guides online.
  • Escapade5160 12 hours ago |
    At this point markdown is going to be the foundation of the entire AI web. Someone the other day showed off Markdown as a responsive frontend protocol. Now we've got email. How long until we're writing classes in markdown? We can only abstract this so far before we confuse AI more than help it.
    • whattheheckheck 9 hours ago |
      Look up Configuration Complexity clock
  • Barbing 12 hours ago |
    Very nice. I think the kind of folks attracted to this thread might have some thoughts on a workflow I'm interested in.

    When I see a news article, I want to be able to click a button on my Mac or iPhone to send the text of the article in the body of the email. Bonus points for rehosting the images from the article. And using a similar font both without carrying over any of the original external dependencies.

    Normally it’s good to support the journalist but I cannot in good conscience send a link to elderly folks when this is so much safer.

    • johanvts 11 hours ago |
      Use the browser reader mode, select all, right click send email. Is it something like that you want?
      • Barbing 8 hours ago |
        Thank you! Great trick that comes pretty close.
      • Ringz 3 hours ago |
        If only there was a faster way to „select all“!
  • runtype 12 hours ago |
    Would love to use this - any plans for Cloudflare Workers support? Some of the node APIs you're using block it from working on Cloudflare right now.
    • dancablam 10 hours ago |
      Good idea. I'll look into this.
    • dancablam 6 hours ago |
      Added support for cloudflare workers in 0.1.2. Thanks for the tip!
  • josegonzalez 11 hours ago |
    This plus a block-based editor like editorjs would be a great addition to any custom cms.
  • Lord_Zero 8 hours ago |
    Does anyone use MJML in golang? What package are you using?
  • razvan_maftei 8 hours ago |
    I'm not exactly following as to who this is for - people are going to use email templates instead of writing Markdown emails, and agents can just as easily spit out HTML. Seems like your solution is in search of a problem.
  • vindin 8 hours ago |
    This problem was solved almost 15 years ago
  • ksajadi 4 hours ago |
    This is great! I’d love to see this supported in SendOps!
  • mghackerlady 3 hours ago |
    Or, hear me out. Just send the markdown and skip the HTML bullshit. Any mail client will render markdown fine and the ones that don't either aren't worth using or don't want HTML mail in the first place. HTML email is the worst thing to ever happen to the internet
  • deknos 2 hours ago |
    i never understood why the markdown mime type was not used in emailclients in webclients or desktop programs...

    that would eliminate most html usage and enable longer texts than 70-85 characters per line.

  • bpev an hour ago |
    I'm never seen the `::: header` or `![Logo](https://...logo.png){width="200"}` kind of syntax before. Is this custom or Frankenstein solution? Or is there some kind of md-extended pattern for defining components that has been gaining steam or smthn? Markdown tooling is always confusing, since everyone has their own standard.
  • annie511266728 25 minutes ago |
    Feels more like a content layer for LLMs than a replacement for MJML.

    In my experience models tend to break HTML layouts pretty easily, while Markdown degrades more gracefully.