Markdown & Formatting¶

Plain text works. Bold welcome messages work better. TBL lets you format command Answers and messages sent from Logic — but Telegram is picky about syntax, and the two places behave slightly differently.

Concept first, then examples.

Answer field formatting¶

Every command has a parse mode setting (default: Markdown). It controls how the Answer text renders when TBL sends it automatically — you don't pass parse_mode yourself for Answer.

*Welcome to my bot!*
_Pick an option below._

Set parse mode in the command editor — Command Fields.

Logic messages — you're on your own¶

Answers are formatted automatically. Messages you send in Logic need an explicit parse_mode on each call — the command setting does not carry over.

Bot for quick sends:

Bot.sendMessage("*Done!* Your settings were saved.", { parse_mode: "Markdown" })

Api when you need full control:

await Api.sendMessage({
  chat_id: chat.id,
  text: "<b>Order</b> confirmed.",
  parse_mode: "HTML"
})

Forget parse_mode and asterisks show up literally. Telegram's favorite prank.

modules.md2html — Markdown to HTML¶

Convert Telegram-style Markdown to HTML inside Logic — handy before sending HTML messages or building web content:

let md = "*Sale!* Visit [our site](https://example.com)"
let html = modules.md2html(md)

await Api.sendMessage({
  chat_id: chat.id,
  text: html,
  parse_mode: "HTML"
})

See md2html module for details and plan buffer limits.

Libs.tgutil helpers¶

User input plus raw Markdown equals broken messages. Escape and link helpers keep things safe:

let safe = Libs.tgutil.escapeText(userInput, "markdown")
let link = Libs.tgutil.getLinkFor(user, "markdown")

See tgutil.

Rich messages (Api)¶

Tables and advanced layouts? Api rich message fields:

await Api.sendMessage({
  chat_id: chat.id,
  rich_message: {
    markdown: "# Order Summary\n\n| Item | Qty |\n| --- | --- |\n| Widget | 2 |"
  }
})

See Sending Messages.

Public web & .md commands¶

Commands with a .md extension served via public web use content type text/markdown. For HTML public pages, use .html commands with EJS.

Common mistakes¶

Start with plain Markdown in Answer. Level up to HTML and md2html when you need links and tables.

See also¶

• Command Fields — parse mode setting
• Your First Bot — formatted welcome message
• md2html