mtx — monad txt xpansion

One monad, infinite expansion. Readable in source, powerful rendered.

A plain-text expansion syntax. Semicolon trigger. Dot closer. Plain text stays plain. Nothing formats unless you type ; — formatting is opt-in, always.

• Homepage: monadtxt.com
• Guide: monadtxt.com/guide
• Web engine: digiopsys/mtxweb

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Why mtx?

The markdown problem

• _underscores_ trigger italic — breaks variable_names
• **stars** trigger bold — breaks shell globs
• # triggers headings — breaks code comments
• > triggers blockquote — breaks shell redirects
• --- triggers horizontal rules — breaks visual separators

Markdown hijacks common characters. Your plain text is never safe.

The HTML problem

HTML is powerful but unreadable in source. Open tags, close tags, matching names, entity escaping. Tag soup.

The mtx solution

One trigger character: ; Everything else is plain text. Formatting is opt-in.

;==== PAGE TITLE ;.
;===- section heading ;.

plain text stays plain. single enter = line break.
double enter = new paragraph.

;^ bold ;. and ;% italic ;. and ;` code ;. — all inline.
;- bullet item ;.
;] link text ;. ;} https://example.com ;.

One trigger. 10 closers. Zero ambiguity.

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The semcon rule

semcon = semicolon character.

• One semcon = always an operator trigger (never "just text")
• Duo semcon = always a literal semicolon in output
• No third meaning. No exceptions. Every level. Every context.

;          one semcon — operator trigger
;;         duo semcon — literal ; in output

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Three levels

Level	What	Extension	Use for
lvl1	Headings only	.tx.txt or .txt	Notes, plans, config docs
lvl2	Full doc markup	.mt.txt	Guides, specs, READMEs
lvl3	HTML replacement	.ht.txt	Web pages, forms, layouts

Levels are usage preferences, not parser restrictions. The parser handles all syntax at every level.

Plain .txt files need a header on line 1: ;#mtx;.;#mn;.

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10 closers

Every closer is ; + 1 character. One job each.

Closer	Name	Closes
;.	inline	headings, bold, italic, links, items
`;	`	block
;"	attribute	class, id, style, generic attrs
;z	raw zone	SVG, MathML, passthrough
;x	table cell	cells opened by ;[
;c	contained	inner inline (nested formatting)
;v	void	elements with no content
;b	branch	parent list with children
;,	sequence	datapod items, attr values
;>	key-value	datapod keys, attr keys

The bottom-row keyboard closers: z x c v b — ergonomic and memorable.

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Quick comparison

Headings

;==== H1 ;.         mtx — fixed width, deterministic
# H1                markdown — # also means comment in bash/python/yaml
<h1>H1</h1>        html — tag soup

Bold

;^ bold ;.          mtx — explicit trigger + closer
**bold**            markdown — ** also appears in shell globs
<strong>bold</strong>  html — verbose

Lists

Plain text lists already work — single enter = line break:

apples
bananas
cherries

1. first step
2. second step
3. third step

When you want structure (styled bullets, numbered <ol>, nesting), use mtx syntax:

;- item ;.          mtx bullet — ;- is always a bullet
;1. first ;.        mtx numbered — proper <ol>
- item              markdown — - also used in yaml, CLI flags
<li>item</li>       html — needs ul/li wrapping

Links

;] text ;. ;} url ;.        mtx — same ; pattern
[text](url)                  markdown — brackets clash with code syntax
<a href="url">text</a>      html — verbose

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lvl3 — HTML replacement

mtx replaces HTML with readable 2-character codes:

;\d.;?:card;"                <div class="card">
  ;\s0;?:label;" name: ;.     <span class="label">name: </span>
  ;\i5;\a:type;>text;" ;v     <input type="text">
;|                           </div>

Every HTML element mapped. Attributes, void elements, containers — all in mtx syntax. Readable rendered AND unrendered.

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Engines & tools

Tool	What	Repo
mtxweb	PHP web engine — parse mtx to HTML	digiopsys/mtxweb
mtxhill	Syntax highlighter (VS Code, micro, vim)	Coming soon

Planned transpilers

Source	Output	Harnesses
.mt.txt	.md	Doc conversion for markdown tools
.ht.txt	.html	Full page conversion
.cc.txt	.c	xmlrpc tag syntax
.jt.txt	.js	Marko / Svelte tag syntax
.jo.txt	.json	jq fork
.xm.txt	.xml	xmlstarlet / minixml fork
.qd.txt	Drizzle ORM	JavaScript ORM
.qj.txt	JOOQ	Java query builder
.qe.txt	EdgeQL	EdgeDB
.qr.txt	Redis ORM	Redis data store
.qs.txt	SQL	Generic SQL
.rs.txt	Rust	markup.rs tag syntax
.go.txt	Go	html/template
.am.txt	Assembly	Future
.bs.txt	Bash	Future
.vl.txt	Verilog	Future

One syntax. One trigger. Every output format.

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Design principles

• Plain text is default. Formatting is opt-in.
• ; is the only trigger. No character traps.
• 10 closers, all ; + 1 char. Zero ambiguity.
• One escape rule everywhere: ;; = literal ;
• .txt is the universal extension.
• lvl2 is a strict subset of lvl3. Zero conversion cost.
• Readable rendered AND unrendered.
• .md-inert — mtx inside .md files renders as plain text.

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Links

• Homepage: monadtxt.com
• Guide: monadtxt.com/guide
• Web engine: digiopsys/mtxweb
• Language repo: digiopsys/mtx (this repo)

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License

MIT