Writing pages

What Genbeya adds to Markdown besides References, wherever it shows Markdown: wiki pages, task descriptions, task comments, and Markdown files previewed in Code. The source stays plain Markdown, so it reads well on GitHub and in any editor; Genbeya only shows it richer. What GitHub does not know shows there as plain Markdown. Wiki covers links, tables of contents, diagrams and images.

Inserting blocks

In the editor of pages and task descriptions, / at the start of a line lists blocks to insert: math, a diagram, callouts, a table, code, a diff, a collapsible section, a footnote and the table of contents. Pick one with the arrow keys and Enter, then Tab moves between its fields.

Mentions

Write @ and a person’s handle to mention them: @ada. Genbeya shows the mention as a chip with the person’s initials and name; hover it for their email, click it for a card with their name, handle and email and Tasks assigned to …, which opens the board filtered to their tasks.

Typing @ in an editor or the comment box lists the repository’s people. Keep typing to find someone by handle, name or email, and press Enter or Tab to insert their handle. The handle goes into the file, so the text reads @ada on GitHub too.

You write	Genbeya shows
@ada	A chip with Ada’s initials and name
@nobody, a handle no one has	@nobody, as written
ada@example.com, an email	The email, as written
`@ada` in code, or in a link	As written

Who is in the list

The repository’s people are everyone who:

• authored one of the latest 5000 commits of the checked-out branch, with names and emails as .mailmap corrects them;
• is assigned a task, or wrote a comment on one;
• is listed under people in .genbeya.yml — see Settings.

The same person under several names or emails counts once: commits with the same email are one person, named as most of their commits name them, and names that match ignoring case are one person too. A person listed in the settings takes the commits, assignments and comments of their email and aliases.

Handles

A handle is letters, digits, - and _, starting and ending with a letter or digit, up to 39 characters, like a GitHub username. Handles are unique, ignoring case:

1. A person listed in the settings has the handle written there.
2. Everyone else gets the part of their email before the @ (ada.lovelace@example.com → ada-lovelace, GitHub’s 123+ada@users.noreply.github.com → ada), or their name when the email has none (Grace Hopper → grace-hopper).
3. When two people would get the same handle, the one whose email comes first alphabetically keeps it; the other tries their name, then their first name, then the handle with a number (alex-2).

A derived handle can change when a new person with the same email name joins. List people in the settings to pin their handles.

Assignees

The Assignee menu of a task offers the same people and assigns their handle; Someone else… still takes any name. Cards, the list and the filters show assignees by name, however a task writes them — assignee: ada, assignee: Ada Lovelace and assignee: ada@example.com are the same person.

Find mentions of me in the command palette (Ctrl+K) searches pages, tasks and code for your handle, once your Git name or email is one of the repository’s people.

Dates

A date written as 2026-10-11 shows as a chip in your language, such as 11 Oct 2026, with how far away it is as a tooltip (in 3 days, 2 weeks ago). The file keeps the ISO date, which sorts, greps and reads the same everywhere.

In a task list, the date of an open item says when it is due: red once it has passed, yellow when it is today or within two days. Ticked items stay neutral.

- [ ] Send the offer 2026-10-12
- [ ] Book the venue 2026-11-30
- [x] Agree on the budget 2026-10-01

Only whole, valid dates count: 2026-02-30, 2026-10-11T10:00, notes/2026-10-11.md, dates in code and in links stay as written.

Inserting a date

Type // in an editor or the comment box for a list of dates: Today, Tomorrow, Next Monday, In a week, End of month and Pick a date…, a calendar (arrow keys move by day and week, Page Up and Page Down by month, Enter picks, Esc closes). Keep typing to narrow it down:

Type	Inserts
//tom	Tomorrow
//fri, //next fri	The coming Friday
//3d, //2w, //1m, //1y, //in 3 days	That far from today
//eom	The last day of the month
//2026-12-24	That date

// after a letter, a digit or a : starts nothing, so URLs such as https:// type as usual, and neither does // in code.

Task fields of type date (see Tasks) show on cards and in the list the same way, overdue in red until the task reaches the last workflow state.

Math

Write LaTeX between dollar signs, as on GitHub:

Write	For
$E = mc^2$	A formula in the text: $E = mc^2$
$`a^2 + b^2`$	The same, for formulas with dollar signs or other Markdown in them
$$ on lines of their own around the formula	A formula on its own line
```math	The same, as a code block

$$\int_0^1 x^2 \, dx = \frac{1}{3}$$

A dollar sign only starts a formula when a non-space follows it, and only ends one after a non-space and before anything but a digit — so prices such as $5 and$10 stay text. Write \$ for a dollar sign that should never start one.

• In the editor, the formula under the cursor shows typeset in a tooltip.
• Formulas Genbeya cannot read show their source in red; point at it for the reason.
• Copy LaTeX, at the top right of a formula on its own line, copies its source.

Genbeya typesets with KaTeX, which knows most of LaTeX’s math. Commands that link or load something (\href, \url, \includegraphics, \htmlClass) show as red text instead.

Code blocks

After the language, a code block takes the options Docusaurus uses; GitHub ignores them:

Write	Get
```ts title="src/app.ts"	The file name above the code
```ts showLineNumbers	Line numbers; showLineNumbers=10 starts at 10
```ts {2,4-6}	Lines 2 and 4 to 6 highlighted
```ts ins={3} del={4}	Line 3 marked as added, line 4 as removed
```diff	Added and removed lines in green and red
```diff-ts	The same, with the code highlighted as TypeScript

const timeout = 1000;
const timeout = 5000;

Every code block has buttons to wrap long lines and to copy the code.

Callouts

GitHub’s alerts — > [!NOTE], [!TIP], [!IMPORTANT], [!WARNING] and [!CAUTION] — get a few additions known from Obsidian:

> [!WARNING] Mind the migration
> A title after the marker replaces "Warning".

> [!TIP]- Folded
> `-` starts the callout folded; click its title to open it.

> [!NOTE]+ Open
> `+` makes it foldable, but open.

More kinds share the colours of the five: info, todo, abstract, summary and quote look like a note; hint, success and done like a tip; example and question like important; attention like a warning; danger, error, bug and failure like caution. GitHub shows callouts with these additions as quotes.

Footnotes

Mark a footnote with [^1] and write it anywhere in the page as [^1]: The note.¹ Notes are listed at the end of the page; pointing at a footnote shows its note, and the arrow after a note leads back.

Keys and collapsible sections

Pages leave out HTML, except for the few tags GitHub documents use:

Write	Get
<kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>S</kbd>	Keys: Ctrl+S
H<sub>2</sub>O, x<sup>2</sup>	H2O, x2
<br>	A line break, for example in a table cell
<details> with a <summary>	A section that opens on click

A collapsible section

Leave a blank line after </summary> and before </details>, and Markdown inside works as anywhere else.

The tags must be written exactly like this, without attributes (<details open> starts the section open).

Diagrams

```mermaid draws Mermaid diagrams: flowcharts, sequence, class, state and entity-relationship diagrams, Gantt charts, timelines, mind maps, user journeys, pie and quadrant charts, Git graphs and more. ```plantuml draws PlantUML diagrams. Graphviz (```dot) is not supported: its engine would add more than a megabyte to Genbeya, and Mermaid’s flowcharts cover most of what it is used for.

Footnotes

1. Like this one. ↩︎