Jq-Like Tool for Markdown
There have been a few times I wanted the ability to select some text out of a Markdown doc. For example, a GitHub CI check to ensure that PRs / issues / etc are properly formatted. This can be done to some extent with regex, but those expressions are brittle and hard to read or edit later. mdq uses a familiar pipe syntax to navigate the Markdown in a structured way. It's in 0.x because I don't want to fully commit to the syntax being stable, in case real-world testing shows that the syntax needs tweaking. But I think the project is in a pretty good spot overall, and would be…
Jq-Like Tool for Markdown launched on February 23, 2025 with 325 votes, #97 of 5,999 launches that month and more than 99% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.
In plain words
mdq is a command-line tool for extracting and querying text from Markdown documents using a pipe-based syntax similar to jq. It's designed for developers who need to programmatically select specific content from Markdown files, such as validating pull request formatting in CI checks. Rather than relying on brittle regular expressions, mdq navigates Markdown in a structured way. The tool is in early development and the creator welcomes feedback on the syntax.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
like jq but for Markdown: find specific elements in a md doc - yshavit/mdq
mdq aims to do for Markdown what jq does for JSON: provide an easy way to zero in on specific parts of a document. For example, GitHub PRs are Markdown documents, and some organizations have specific templates with checklists for all reviewers to complete. Enforcing these often requires ugly regexes that are a pain to write and worse to debug. Instead, you can (for example) ask mdq for all uncompleted tasks: mdq ' - [ ] ' mdq is available under the Apache 2.0 or MIT licenses, at your option. I am open to other permissive licenses, if you have one youfrom github.com
In the maker’s words, at launch
There have been a few times I wanted the ability to select some text out of a Markdown doc. For example, a GitHub CI check to ensure that PRs / issues / etc are properly formatted. This can be done to some extent with regex, but those expressions are brittle and hard to read or edit later. mdq uses a…
Does a similar job
all alternatives →
MDV – a Markdown superset for docs, dashboards, and slides with dataApr 2026 · github.com · ▲152MDV — a Markdown superset for documents, dashboards, and slides with embedded data and visualizations. HTML + PDF export, live preview, VS Code extension. - drasimwagan/mdv
Mdx – Execute your Markdown code blocks, now in Go2024 · github.com · ▲127Hey HN! I recently came across makedown here on HN and loved the concept. Wanting to learn Go, I thought this could be a great starter project - so I started working on my own Go implementation, which I’m calling mdx (https://github.com/dim0x69/mdx). Key Features: - Define dependencies between commands - Supports shebangs - Ability to pass arguments to code blocks Would love feedback and thoughts! Ref. makedown: https://github.com/tzador/makedown. Thanks for the idea! :)
Xq – command-line XML and HTML beautifier and content extractor2022 · github.com · ▲104Command-line XML and HTML beautifier and content extractor - sibprogrammer/xq
jql – Easier jq Alternative with a Lispy Syntax Written in Go2020 · github.com · ▲217Easy JSON Query Processor with a Lispy syntax in Go - cube2222/jql
Textual Markdown – a Markdown “browser” in the terminal2022 · github.com · ▲254Hi HN, This is a TUI app which displays interactive Markdown documents. Interactive in the sense that you can scroll code fences / tables / and click links. There's a Table of Contents extracted from the MD, and a very rudimentary browser like forward + back. I'm thinking it could be the starting point for a variety of hypertext like applications in the terminal. Very much a work in progress.
More dev tools this month
the category →
open-source IDE for thoughtful software design. Contribute to devdotfast/whiteboard development by creating an account on GitHub.
Dev tools · 28d ago · github.com
Contribute to reladraw/reladraw development by creating an account on GitHub.
Dev tools · 26d ago · github.com
OpenBot▲362Grok Bot alternative: free, local, open-source, multiplayer
Dev tools · 23d ago · openbot.run
Talanoa▲346Hi HN, I’m a fullstack developer, and honestly, I’ve lost count of how many side projects I’ve worked on over the years. But one idea kept coming back to me: a different kind of email client. It first came to me in 2014: “What if we could handle emails more like conversations?” Every year, I’d revisit this concept in my “Build Notes.” Ten years later, no one had built exactly what I had in mind — so I finally decided to do it myself. That’s how Talanoa was born. I wanted something focused on people, not timelines. I was tired of marking messages as unread just to remember to reply later, or…
Dev tools · 21d ago · talanoa.email
CoreSpeed▲332One MCP for everything your agents need: apps, memory, tools
Dev tools · 28d ago · corespeed.io
Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part
Launched alongside, February 2025
the whole month →
Screen Studio 3.0▲1,832Beautiful screen recordings with instant shareable links
Growth · 2025 · screen.studio
- IG
I was at FB/Meta from late 2013 to early 2023, mostly working in the compiler/runtime spaces. I got hit in the spring 2023 layoff wave. I immediately started making games in my newfound free time (a lifelong interest, and I even worked in AA(A?) back ca. ~2000), and in October 2023 I stumbled upon the idea of a roguelike pachinko/plinko game inspired by Luck Be A Landlord. Things snowballed quickly, I started talking to publishers, then worked like crazy through all of 2024, almost the hardest I've ever worked in my career, and launched the game in December 2024. It's sold…
Work · 2025
i wanted to change the habit of reaching for my phone in the morning and doomscrolling away an hour so i built an app to help me. now i have to literally touch grass before accessing my most distracting apps the app is built in swiftui, uses the screen time apis provided by apple and google vision to recognise grass or not i'd love to get your thoughts on the concept.
Life & fun · 2025 · touchgrass.now