Engram extends familiar Markdown patterns with lightweight conventions for structured data. If you can write Markdown, you can write Engram.
Engram is for technical writers, worldbuilders, prompt engineers, and developers who refuse to choose between readable prose and structured data.
It exists because current formats fail them: JSON and YAML serve machines first, Markdown serves humans but can't be reliably parsed, and maintaining both means duplicating everything.
It works by treating context as the parser's guide. Wrap documents in --- name and --- boundaries, then write normal Markdown. A blank line before Key: Value triggers data mode; without it, that same text stays prose. Lists attach to their preceding key or label. Four-space indentation continues values across lines. If a human reads it naturally, the machine parses it correctly.
It produces documents that humans scan as documentation while machines extract as structured data—version-control friendly, portable across any Markdown renderer, readable and programmable from the same source file.
--- character-profile
# Character Profile: John Doe
A senior engineer who combines technical skill with leadership
## Basic Information
Name: John Doe
Age: 32
Occupation: Lead Software Engineer
Skills:
- Programming
- Technical Writing
- System Analysis
---This natural documentation is also fully machine-parseable with clear structure for automated processing.
Engram is a Markdown-native YAML alternative that excels at:
RPG Worldbuilding/Lore Bibles:
- Write stories and character bios where game engines can parse stats directly from the narrative text
- Seamless integration of lore and mechanics
Software Architecture Decision Records (ADRs):
- Mix high-level reasoning (prose) with specific metadata (status, deciders, date)
- Version control friendly
LLM Prompt Engineering:
- Store prompts where system instructions are prose but parameters are structured data
- Easy to read, easy to parse
Other Applications:
- Technical documentation with embedded metadata
- Configuration files that humans actually need to read
- Knowledge bases mixing narrative and structured information
- API documentation with parseable examples
- Product specifications where context and data coexist
See ENGRAM_SPEC.engram for the complete specification.
GPL v3 - See LICENSE for details.