Markdown

Whitespace Traps

• Blank line required before lists, code blocks, and blockquotes—without it, many parsers continue the previous paragraph
• Nested lists need 4 spaces (not 2) for GitHub/CommonMark; 2 spaces breaks nesting in strict parsers
• Two trailing spaces for <br> break—invisible and often stripped by editors; prefer blank line or <br> tag
• Lines with only spaces still break paragraphs—trim trailing whitespace

Links & Images

• Parentheses in URLs break [text](url)—use %28 %29 or angle brackets: [text](<url with (parens)>)
• Spaces in URLs need %20 or angle bracket syntax
• Reference-style links [text][ref] fail silently if [ref]: url is missing—verify all refs exist
• Images without alt text: always provide ![alt](url) even if empty ![]() for accessibility tools

Code

• Triple backticks inside fenced blocks—use 4+ backticks for outer fence or indent method
• Inline backticks containing backtick—wrap with double backticks and pad: `` `code` ``
• Language hint after fence affects syntax highlighting—omit only when truly plain text