# How to use Markdown reference links with Documenter.jl

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-markdown-reference-links-with-documenter-jl/84232>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** documenter, markdown\
**Created:** [July 14, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-markdown-reference-links-with-documenter-jl/84232 "2022-07-14T17:58:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![samo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/samo/32/35398_2.png) [@samo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/samo)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-markdown-reference-links-with-documenter-jl/84232/1 "2022-07-14T17:58:33Z")

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I usually use [Markdown reference links](https://riptutorial.com/markdown/example/2215/reference-link) quite often in Markdown files for documentation, e.g. to write:

```julia
CellArrays relies on [StaticArrays.jl], [Adapt.jl] and the Julia GPU packages [CUDA.jl] and [AMDGPU.jl]. [StaticArrays.jl] is required ....

```

Then, I have the reference links a **single time** , nicely grouped and easy updatable at the end of the document:

```julia
[Adapt.jl]: https://github.com/JuliaGPU/Adapt.jl
[AMDGPU.jl]: https://github.com/JuliaGPU/AMDGPU.jl
[CellArrays.jl]: https://github.com/omlins/CellArrays.jl
[CUDA.jl]: https://github.com/JuliaGPU/CUDA.jl
[StaticArrays.jl]: https://github.com/JuliaArrays/StaticArrays.jl

```

**With Documentor.jl these reference links are however not expanded. Does anybody have a solution for this?**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mortenpi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mortenpi/32/158_2.png) [@mortenpi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mortenpi)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 8:10am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-markdown-reference-links-with-documenter-jl/84232/2 "2022-07-15T08:10:30Z")

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The Julia Markdown parser unfortunately does not support reference links and so they’re unavailable with Documenter (essentially, it’s not valid/meaningful [Julia Flavored Markdown](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/Markdown/)). I do hope to get [CommonMark](https://github.com/MichaelHatherly/CommonMark.jl/) support into Documenter at some point, which does support them.

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**Author:** ![tfiers](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tfiers/32/32427_2.png) [@tfiers](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tfiers)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 11:27am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-use-markdown-reference-links-with-documenter-jl/84232/3 "2022-10-31T11:27:03Z")

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Do you think a patch to Julia flavoured markdown that implements this would be accepted?  
It already has similar (and very nice) [footnote syntax](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/Markdown/#Footnote-references).