---
title: "Markdown Versions of Your Articles"
description: "Every article in your knowledge base can be served as clean Markdown, so AI assistants and coding agents read your docs without the page around them."
url: "https://support.helpdocs.io/article/5polbjhcsf-markdown-versions-of-your-articles"
category: "HelpDocs AI"
updated_at: "2026-10-14T12:41:54Z"
---

# Markdown Versions of Your Articles

AI assistants and coding agents read your docs too. When they load an article as a normal web page, they have to dig your content out of the navigation, scripts and styling around it. That's slow and messy. Markdown versions give them a format they already understand.

Just add `.md` to the end of any article URL to get that article as Markdown:

```bash
https://yourdomain.helpdocs.io/article/abc123-getting-started.md
```

Open any published article. Add .md to the end of the URL in your address bar and press Enter 🎉

You don't need to set anything up per article. Every article gets a Markdown version, and it updates whenever you publish a change.

How do AI tools find .md files? 👀

Most agents won't know to add `.md` themselves, so HelpDocs points them to it in three ways:

- **Content negotiation.** Tools like Claude Code tell the server they prefer Markdown. When they do, they get Markdown from your normal article URL. Browsers still get the regular page.
- **llms.txt.** If you've enabled [llms.txt](/article/bt8w8nl5ru-understanding-llms-txt), its article links point to the Markdown versions.
- **Alternate links.** Every article page includes a link to its Markdown version that tools can discover.

### How to Enable Markdown Articles

![Screenshot of card for markdown version](https://files.helpdocs.io/Ytt2uahFxY/articles/5polbjhcsf/1791912068913/image-5.png)

1. Head to **Settings** > **AI**
2. Scroll to **AI Visibility**
3. Click **Markdown articles** card
4. Hit **Save**

### What's In The Markdown

Each file starts with a short header holding the article's title, description and link, followed by the article itself. [Clips](/article/m27mmeeghp-understanding-clips) and [variables](/article/0ass9d069f-understanding-variables) are filled in, so the Markdown matches what a reader sees on the page. The table of contents is left out, since tools build their own from your headings.

Here's a quick look at the top of a file:

```markdown
Title: Getting Started
Description: Everything you need to set up your Knowledge Base.
Link: https://yourdomain.helpdocs.io/article/abc123-getting-started

Welcome to your new Knowledge Base. This guide walks you through the basics.
```

### Who Can See It

The Markdown version plays by exactly the same rules as the article page. If a visitor can't see an article, they can't see its Markdown either.

- Draft and archived articles aren't available.
- Articles restricted to [permission groups](/article/zcf0rx726v-managing-permission-groups) are only served to people in those groups.
- Team passwords, IP allowlists and logged-in-only Knowledge Bases all still apply.

**Requests for the Markdown version still show up in your analytics**. That means visits from AI tools and agents are counted just like any other article view.