Getting Started

Getting Started

This guide will help you get up and running with Apex quickly.

Installation

First, you'll need to build Apex from source. See the Installation guide for detailed instructions.

git clone https://github.com/ApexMarkdown/apex.git
cd apex
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

Your First Conversion

Once built, you can convert Markdown to HTML:

# Basic conversion
./apex input.md > output.html

# Or pipe from stdin
echo "# Hello World" | ./apex

Understanding Modes

Apex supports multiple processor modes. The default is unified mode, which enables all features. You can also use specific modes for compatibility:

# Unified mode (default - all features)
apex document.md

# GFM mode (GitHub compatibility)
apex --mode gfm document.md

# Kramdown mode
apex --mode kramdown document.md

See the Modes page for details on what's enabled in each mode.

Common Tasks

Generate a Standalone HTML Document

apex document.md --standalone --title "My Document" --style styles.css

Pretty-Print HTML Output

apex document.md --pretty

Disable Automatic Header IDs

apex document.md --no-ids

Use Relaxed Tables

Relaxed tables are enabled by default in unified and kramdown modes. They allow tables without separator rows:

one | two
1 | 2

To disable:

apex document.md --no-relaxed-tables

Next Steps

• Learn about all available syntax features
• Understand processor modes
• Explore command line options
• Check out the C API for programmatic use