The Markdown space handles a project’s text files: README files, plans, specifications, decisions, prompts, journals and AGENTS.md. What you save remains Markdown, readable by Git, your scripts and other people’s tools.
Two ways to edit the same file
A selector switches between Visual and Source. You can also choose View > Toggle Source and Visual (⇧⌘E).
Visual displays the hierarchy, styles, tables, images, checkboxes, equations and diagrams. Source displays literal Markdown, presented as code.
Both edit the same document. You can switch between them in the middle of a sentence.
Visual mode is an editor: Balise converts your changes back to Markdown. Balise never saves HTML in place of your source file.
Choose Visual mode typography
Settings > Markdown offers three global typography themes: Default Mac Theme, the spacious editorial New York theme and the more compact GitHub theme.
Changes apply immediately to open windows and preserve the cursor, selection, scroll position and undo history. Only typography, reading width and spacing change; colors remain those of macOS and follow light or dark appearance automatically.
The typography does not belong to the document. Literal Markdown, Source mode, printing, export and rich copying remain unchanged.
Export a document
File > Export… prepares a copy of the current content, including unsaved changes. Balise captures the content when the panel opens; exporting does not save the Markdown file.
Choose Standalone HTML, HTML without theme, PDF or Word document (DOCX). The Standard, Editorial and Compact publishing styles are independent of the editor theme. PDF export offers A4 or Letter paper, orientation, margins, a header, a footer and page numbers. Headings become bookmarks and internal links let you navigate the PDF.
Standalone HTML includes accessible local images and the rendering resources it needs. Diagrams become fixed SVG images. HTML without a theme keeps formulas in MathML, without a Balise theme stylesheet. Exports expand collapsible sections.
A missing, inaccessible or oversized local image prevents export; the message identifies the resource. Remote images remain online references in HTML and Balise does not download them for PDF. The panel explains this limitation when it encounters them. Correct incomplete technical rendering before publishing.
To export a new version of the document, open File > Export… and choose the format and destination. The export uses the current content.
DOCX preserves editable headings, paragraphs, lists, tables and notes. Formulas and diagrams become images from the rendering shown in the panel. They keep their appearance and numbers, but do not become editable LaTeX or Mermaid objects in Word. Remote images appear as alternative text and a link. DOCX uses a restrained Word layout independent of the HTML/PDF styles.
Send to Slack
The Slack destination is available in File > Export…. Connect your workspace to send a copy of the document to a channel.
- Open File > Export… and choose Slack.
- Click Connect Slack, then authorize Balise in the Slack workspace you want to use through your browser.
- Choose a public or private Channel you belong to.
- Click Send to Slack to post under your Slack identity.
The message contains a copy of the content captured when the panel opened, including unsaved changes. Sending does not change or save your Markdown file. After confirmation, Open message in Slack lets you view the result. Slack applies its own Markdown formatting; Balise’s Mermaid diagrams and formulas do not retain their rendering there.
Replace links and images that point to files on your Mac with web addresses your recipients can access. If Balise reports that the content is too long, prepare a shorter excerpt; text is not truncated automatically. If the sending result is uncertain, check the channel in Slack before trying again to avoid a duplicate.
Disconnect on this Mac removes the connection saved on this Mac. To post from another account, reconnect and choose the channel again.
Write a long document
View > Concentration mode dims neighboring paragraphs while keeping the active passage readable. View > Typewriter mode recenters the cursor as you type. The two modes are independent, available in Source and Visual, and remembered for Markdown windows. Scrolling manually suspends recentering until you type again. These modes change neither the file nor its export.
The counter at the bottom displays the word count for the document or selection. Click it to see characters, characters excluding spaces, source lines and an estimated reading time at 200 words per minute. The counter measures prose: headings, lists, cells, captions and notes counted once. It excludes code, metadata and link destinations. Characters are Unicode graphemes; internal apostrophes and hyphens keep a word together. The estimate is less accurate for languages that do not separate words with spaces. Balise displays limitations for large documents.
Format content
The Format menu and inspector apply the usual structures: paragraphs, level 1–6 headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, links, bulleted lists, numbered lists, tasks, quotations, code blocks, tables and images.
You can increase or decrease a list’s nesting level. Empty tasks and nested lists remain after saving and reopening. Pasted checkboxes can be checked directly in Visual. When the cursor is in a table, the inspector shows its row and column counts and lets you add or remove them without rebuilding the rest of the document.
See Keyboard shortcuts.
Highlight, underline, superscript and subscript
Format > Highlight, Underline, Superscript and Subscript affect the selection in both Visual and Source. You can also find them under More text styles, below the inspector’s Text actions. They add no keyboard shortcuts.
Click again to remove the style from the selection. Superscript and subscript replace one another within the selected portion. Without a selection, the command inserts text and selects it for you to replace. Subsequent typing keeps its usual history; inserting the style remains a separate undo step.
The file keeps the <mark>, <u>, <sup> and <sub> tags. Imported HTML and CSS attributes are not part of these styles. The commands are unavailable in code, equations and read-only documents.
Insert a link, table or code block
The Insert menu also provides Add Link…, Table and Code block, in Visual and Source. These entries use the same commands as Format and the inspector. The link uses the current selection; Code block keeps its toggle behavior.
The menu groups links and footnotes, then tables, code blocks and horizontal rules, then images, equations and Mermaid diagrams. These commands are disabled outside an editable Markdown document.
Format > Add Link… keeps its ⌘K shortcut. The additional Insert entries add no shortcuts.
Insert a table of contents
Insert > Table of contents… creates a Markdown list of links to headings. Choose levels H1–H6 and, if necessary, exclude the first H1. The preview shows the list before you apply it. Without eligible headings, Apply stays disabled.
Without a selection, Balise inserts the list at the cursor. With a selection, the panel shows the text it will replace. To refresh a table of contents, explicitly select its list and use Insert > Table of contents… again. Balise does not automatically recognize or rewrite an existing list.
The links distinguish repeated headings. Headings in code, metadata and quotations are excluded; Setext headings are included. Generated anchors use lowercase heading text without accents, with suffixes for duplicates; headings without eligible characters use section. After renaming a heading, explicitly update the table of contents. External Markdown readers may use a different anchor convention.
The table of contents remains an editable list in the file and needs no local index. Applying it takes one undo step.
To find the table of contents without selecting its list, select Allow this table of contents to be updated later when inserting it. Two comments in the file then mark its boundaries. Insert > Update table of contents… shows the previous list, entries added, removed or changed, and the proposed result. Choose the levels, check both versions, then apply.
Balise never updates the table of contents when opening or saving. Only one complete region is allowed: missing, multiple or unclosed markers block the update. The text remains accessible in Source. Balise never automatically treats a manual list as a managed region. You can still replace ordinary lists after explicitly selecting them.
Collapsible sections
Insert > Collapsible section… asks for a plain title and Markdown content. Without a selection, Balise creates the section at the cursor; with a selection, the panel uses the selected text as its content. The file keeps the HTML details and summary tags.
The arrow opens and closes the section without changing the file. To edit it, open the section and choose Edit…. Open by default changes the saved open attribute. The title, content and option apply together in one undoable action. Remove folding keeps the title as a paragraph and preserves the content; Delete section removes the entire block.
Ordinary lists and code blocks display in the body; edit them through the panel. Internal diagrams and equations receive no specialized rendering. Nested or unclosed sections and sections with complex HTML titles remain protected text to edit in Source. Unknown attributes stay in the file without being executed in the rendering.
Search temporarily opens the section containing a result. Printing and HTML export expand sections to include their content. Quick Look also expands them, without an interactive arrow; use Balise to collapse them.
Callouts
Insert > Callout offers Note, Tip, Important, Warning and Caution. The file markers remain NOTE, TIP, IMPORTANT, WARNING and CAUTION, inside a Markdown quotation. A reader that does not recognize this convention may display an ordinary quotation with the marker.
In Visual mode, each callout’s automatic title follows the language selected in Balise, even when macOS uses another language. For example, the TIP marker displays “Tip” in English, “Astuce” in French and “Consejo” in Spanish. Changing this language does not translate your text or change the file’s markers.
With a selection, Balise wraps the affected paragraphs in the callout. Without a selection, it creates the callout at the cursor; in Visual, the content panel opens for you to enter text. Creation and content application are separate history actions.
In Document > Callouts, Callout type changes only the marker. Edit callout… edits the Markdown content, including paragraphs, lists, links and code blocks. Convert to quote removes the marker and keeps the quoted body. The same inspector can assign a type to an ordinary quotation. The content panel also offers Convert to plain text. You can undo these actions individually.
The block is protected during a neighboring visual edit. Imported unknown markers, custom titles and nested callouts are not normalized; edit them in Source. An icon and label accompany the type’s color.
Footnotes
Insert > Footnote… offers a free identifier and content editor in Source and Visual. It adds the reference after the selected text and preserves that text. Canceling closes the editor without changing the document.
In Visual, a reference opens its note’s editor. You can change the content, rename the identifier with a preview of affected occurrences, or delete the note and its references after checking them. Deleting a single reference keeps the definition. Each action takes one undo step.
Go to definition selects its source. Return to reference, in the Document inspector, finds the reference you consulted. Press Return to open a focused reference; the note’s return link restores focus to its reference.
The Document inspector shows identifiers, reference counts and missing, unreferenced or duplicate states. Correct missing or duplicate definitions in Source; Balise does not choose one for you.
Copying a reference includes its definition, even outside the selection. If pasting encounters an identifier already used for different content, Balise offers to create an unused identifier, use the destination note or cancel. It never overwrites the destination note; a duplicate destination cannot be selected.
Multiline definitions and references are protected during neighboring visual edits. References inside code and escaped markers are not interpreted. References inside a definition remain literal; Balise neither interprets them recursively nor renumbers notes automatically.
Use shortcuts while typing
In Visual, Balise recognizes certain markers when they stand alone at the start of a new paragraph. Type an ordinary space after them to create the structure: # through ###### for headings, - , * , + or • for bullets, 1. for a numbered list, and - [ ] or - [x] for a task.
The transformation keeps the cursor where you are writing. The marker, formatting and text typed without a pause undo together. In the source, bullet variants use the canonical -, and numbered lists begin with 1..
The syntax must be explicit: ## creates a level 2 heading, whereas ##Title remains a literal paragraph. A marker preceded by \ never transforms. The shortcuts do not apply to pasted text, selections, tables, quotations, code blocks or other technical blocks.
Settings > Markdown > Formatting shortcuts while typing immediately disables or enables this assistance in every window. When disabled, literal paragraphs remain literal at the next load; Balise adds Markdown escaping to the source when needed.
Indent with Tab
In Visual mode, place the caret in a list item and use Format > Increase List Level (Tab) to nest it under the previous item. The first item at the top level cannot move deeper because it has no previous item. Use Format > Decrease List Level (Shift-Tab) to move a nested item up one level. Select several list items to change their level together.
To change the spaces at the start of an ordinary paragraph, switch to Source mode. Place the caret before a line’s text and press Tab to add two spaces at the start of that line. Select several lines to indent them together. Shift-Tab removes one level: a tab or up to two spaces. Each indentation change in Source mode can be undone in one action.
Insert an image
Inserting an image opens a macOS picker. If the document has not been saved yet, Balise first asks where to place it.
It copies the chosen image into a resource folder associated with the document and inserts a relative link into the Markdown. Your document can therefore move together with its images.
Paste and organize screenshots
Paste accepts a single bitmap image from the clipboard in Source and Visual. Balise stores the screenshot in Name.assets beside the document; a draft keeps its images until its first save. Text or rich-content pastes still count as text. An image over 20 MiB or 40 million pixels is refused with a diagnostic.
Tools > Document images… lists references, shows local images and distinguishes missing, remote and inaccessible resources. Choose a folder and check the proposed copies before grouping the images. Files with the same name receive distinct names. Originals are preserved; undo restores the Markdown references. The chosen folder can become a preference for this document or its workspace. If the preference becomes inaccessible, pasting announces a fallback to Name.assets.
Moving originals to the Trash is an explicit option reserved for resources whose exclusive use has been verified. Shared or uncertain resources remain copies. After a move, Undo can restore originals while the document remains open in the current session. The grouped copies persist; closing the document ends that undo history.
Save As copies accessible local images into the new document’s resource folder and adjusts its links. The old file and its images stay intact. Resolve a missing or inaccessible local image before making this portable copy.
Reorganize a Markdown table
In a cell, the context menu and inspector offer to move the data row up or down, or the column left or right. The header stays in place and alignment follows its column. Handles also support dragging. Each move takes one undo action.
Table dimensions… shows nonempty cells that will be removed before shrinking the table. Left, center or right alignment changes only the column’s Markdown separator. Content and line endings outside the table are preserved. Edit an ambiguous structure in Source.
Fill in document information
The Document inspector offers four fields: title, date, status and tags. You can fill them without knowing YAML; Balise creates front matter if the document has none.
Other metadata stays intact. If a field uses a complex structure or occurs more than once, Balise directs you to Source rather than simplifying it.
Technical content
Balise locally renders code blocks with syntax highlighting, inline and block equations, Mermaid diagrams and fenced math, latex or tex blocks. It recognizes $…$, $$…$$, \(…\), \[…\] and AMS display environments such as align, equation, gather or multline. The KaTeX mhchem extension also renders chemical formulas with \ce{…} and \pu{…}.
Configure code blocks and mathematics
Code blocks have a technical editor with a language picker, two-space, four-space or tab indentation, line numbers, wrapping and copying. The default language can follow the last selection. These settings are global and do not rewrite existing blocks. Changing a block’s language preserves its fence, attributes and body, in one undoable operation. An ambiguous info string remains editable in Source.
Local mathematical rendering resolves \label, \ref and \eqref in document order. Numbering can be disabled, limited to AMS environments or applied to all block equations. A manual \tag takes precedence; starred environments, \notag and \nonumber receive no automatic number. A multiline environment represents one equation and receives at most one number or tag. Separate numbering and references for individual lines of the same align are unsupported; separate equations into blocks for distinct navigable identities. Balise reports missing or duplicate labels and labels attached to unnumbered equations.
Balise locally understands this physics subset: \qty, \abs, \norm, \dv, \pdv, \bra, \ket and \braket. It does not load the complete LaTeX package. Document-defined macros take precedence, and KaTeX’s expansion and size limits still apply. The numbering preference freezes when an export begins, so HTML and PDF keep the same meaning as the announced preview.
Quick Look runs in a sandboxed process that does not share Balise’s preferences, so it always applies the AMS convention. The “all equations” selection is not transmitted to Finder.
Global macros defined with \gdef remain available to subsequent formulas in the same document. When Balise encounters a command from an unsupported LaTeX package, it keeps annotated partial rendering instead of hiding the entire formula.
You can edit a selected technical block in a dedicated editor, copy it as source or delete it.
Preview in Finder
Select a .md or .markdown file in Finder and press the space bar. Balise’s extension follows the application’s light or dark rendering, including tables, KaTeX equations and Mermaid diagrams, without a network connection.
Finder sends only the selected file to the extension protected by the macOS sandbox. An image encoded within the document can render, but a neighboring image linked by a relative path may remain inaccessible in Quick Look; open the document in Balise to see all local resources. Files over 2 MB and those with an exceptional number of technical blocks also display a message asking you to open them in Balise to keep Quick Look responsive.
Navigate a workspace
Opening a folder activates a workspace. Left navigation then offers two views.
- Files, with folders you can expand or collapse by clicking their row. Their context menu reveals them in Finder or copies their path. The filter recursively searches files and folders; the active document’s path expands automatically. A file can open in the current tab, a new tab or a new window;
- Outline, built from headings and their levels.
Board files .balisekanban, .balisekanban and, when Whiteboard is available, .balisewhiteboard also appear in Files. Clicking opens their visual view in their folder’s workspace; Balise never presents them as editable Markdown or JSON.
For an existing local text file, the Files view, tabs, window title and Kanban card menus offer Copy Path, Copy File Contents, then Reveal in Finder. Copying content reads the version saved on disk: it neither saves the document nor includes pending changes. The action is hidden for folders, missing files and nontext resources. Content over 8 MiB is refused without replacing the clipboard.
Links are active in Visual: an external address opens in its appropriate application, an anchor scrolls the document, a link to another Markdown opens it in the current space, and a link to another file type goes to macOS.
Empty folders remain visible in Files, including after closing and reopening the workspace. This also applies to Kanban, Data and Mermaid.
Sort and organize files
View Options, at the bottom right of Files, groups sorting by name or modification date and ascending or descending order. Sorting applies immediately. New Folder… appears in the folder menu at the bottom left, after opening commands. These menus are also available in the Data and Mermaid Files panels.
Hidden Files… opens exclusion patterns limited to this workspace. A preview shows affected items before Apply. Cancel discards only pattern changes. The palette searches subfolder files and shows their path to distinguish identical names.
Outline automatically follows the cursor and document scrolling in Visual. Following pauses during an Outline search to preserve selection among the results.
File and folder menus offer creation, duplication, moving and moving to Trash. Before an operation affecting links, check source and destination paths, references to update and unsaved documents. Balise asks you to save affected documents or lets you cancel. Files changed since the preview require recalculation. Restoring from Trash refuses to overwrite a recreated item.
Moving a folder containing Kanban or whiteboard boards is refused to preserve their references. Moving a file referenced in a whiteboard is also refused. Other workspace files remain usable normally.
Local summaries
In a workspace, Balise generates a concise two-sentence summary for each indexed .md or .markdown file and displays it under its name in Files. The summary keeps the document’s language and disappears while regenerating rather than appearing current after a change.
The summaries use the Apple Intelligence model installed on the Mac. Content stays on the computer and no remote service provides a fallback. Balise keeps the cache in the hidden .baliseindex folder at the workspace root; it never replaces Markdown and is not treated as content. An old .balise-index is automatically renamed when the new index does not yet exist.
For a file opened on its own, Balise asks once for explicit access to its parent folder before creating .baliseindex there. Canceling leaves the document editable but without a durable summary; Allow Access remains available to grant access later. Deleting .baliseindex removes only rebuildable summaries and metadata; Markdown files remain unchanged.
An empty document or one without semantic content is never sent to the model. Files displays No content to summarize.
Review diffs with your usual Git tools. Balise never writes to Git.
The Whiteboard view also lets you drop workspace files and capture a Markdown selection as an excerpt card.
Find and replace
Search covers the active file and, with an open folder, the whole workspace.
Search and replacement fields align on two lines. To the search field’s right, Aa enables case matching, underlined ab searches a whole word and .* enables regular expressions. A tooltip describes each option. Without a regular expression, Whole word treats Unicode letters, accent marks, numbers and _ as parts of a word. Apostrophes and hyphens separate it: cat-cat contains two words cat, while cats and my_cat do not match the whole word cat. Accents remain significant.
In Text mode, pattern and replacement are literal. In regex mode, use $1, $2… for captured groups, $0 for the whole match and \$ for a literal dollar sign. (?m) enables line anchors and (?s) lets the dot cover line breaks. A zero-length match inserts text; an empty query performs no operation. An invalid expression displays a diagnostic and leaves the document intact.
The arrows move through results and reveal collapsed sections. The count adds + when the search is incomplete. Expensive searches are interrupted; Cancel remains available during computation. A new query abandons the previous one.
In an open folder, results group by file with an excerpt and line number. Open files use their current content, including unsaved changes; other files use the indexed version. A result whose content has changed triggers a new search.
Replace and Replace All change only the active file. Replace All takes one undo action. If the document changes during preparation, replacement is refused. Limited searches never silently produce partial replacement.
Document diagnostics
The Document inspector counts headings, links and technical blocks and reports unclosed blocks, undefined footnotes, oversized technical blocks, excessive block counts, links to missing files, missing images and missing anchors.
Click a diagnostic to return to its location in Source.
Rename a file
Renaming a document from the file list first opens a full preview: old and new names, possible moving of the resource folder, files with links to update, each link’s before and after target and each change’s line number.
Renaming and updating links then apply together. If files changed since the preview, the operation is refused and must be recalculated.
Split Markdown into several files
Choose Tools > Split Markdown…, or use a file’s sidebar context menu. The sheet counts H1, H2 and H3 headings, disables levels with fewer than two headings and shows every planned filename. Expand Naming options to use optional Prefix and Suffix fields. Both values appear before the extension and the preview updates before any writing. Choose a level with at least two headings, then confirm with Split into N files.
Each chosen heading starts a file and becomes its H1. Headings below it move up with it, while apparent headings inside code blocks are ignored. Text before the first heading, including front matter, stays in an “Introduction” file. New files are created beside the original without overwriting an existing file.
Move the original to Trash after creation starts unchecked. If you enable it, Balise moves the original to recoverable Trash only after creating every fragment and rewriting Markdown links, wiki links and folder backlinks. This rewriting is automatic and adds no link list to the sheet. An external change or error cancels the whole operation.
Ask AI to work with documents
Enable Experimental options in Settings > General, then choose Tools > Ask AI… from Markdown or Kanban. In OpenAI settings…, enter your API key and choose Save API key. Balise stores the key in macOS Keychain; turning off experimental options keeps it saved. This feature uses an Internet connection and your OpenAI API access. It does not replace the local Apple Intelligence summaries.
From Markdown, the list starts with the active document, including an unsaved draft. From Kanban, it uses the selected Markdown cards. Add documents… lets you choose other .md or .markdown files. Remove any document you do not want to send. When you launch the request, Balise reads the current text of open documents, including unsaved changes; it reads other files from disk. If the same file has different unsaved versions in several windows, keep one version open before trying again.
Choose and keep a prompt
Write your request in Prompt, or load one of the six Prompt templates: Summarize, Compare, Decisions and actions, Clarification questions, Thematic synthesis and Agent brief. You can edit the loaded text before launching the request. Loading a template, recent prompt or favorite does not send anything.
Recent prompts keeps the last ten launched prompts, newest first, without identical duplicates. Each entry’s menu lets you load or remove it; Clear recent prompts empties the list.
In Favorite prompts, choose Save current prompt as favorite… and give it a name. Manage favorite prompts… lets you rename a favorite, edit its text or delete it. Use current prompt copies your request into the favorite editor; then choose Save changes to keep it. Your prompt library stays on your Mac after relaunching Balise. It stores your prompts without copying source documents or the API key.
Generate and save the response
Before choosing Generate, review the document list and prompt. Balise sends their names and text to OpenAI with your prompt, using GPT-6.1 Sol. Balise does not add full local file paths to the request or attach images or linked files. The 512 KiB limit covers the names, texts and prompt combined; remove a document or shorten the request if Balise exceeds it.
The response arrives progressively in a new Markdown draft in Source mode. During generation, you can read and copy the text; editing and saving wait until it finishes. Choose Stop to interrupt the response and keep the text already received. An interruption, error or incomplete response leaves a result marked as partial.
At the end, Provenance lists the provider, model, date, response status, prompt and documents used. Local links in this section stay in your draft. Review the response and check citations against your documents before using it. Source files do not change. Choose File > Save to keep the new draft, including a partial response.
Generate a Mermaid diagram with OpenAI
In Markdown, in Source or Visual mode, choose Tools > Generate a diagram with OpenAI… after enabling experimental options. The same command appears in the toolbar’s Tools menu and in the command palette. It uses your OpenAI API key and GPT-6.1 Sol.
Select text before opening the command to turn it into a diagram. After generation and validation, Balise inserts a new Mermaid block after the last complete block touched by the selection. The selected text stays in place, even if you selected only part of a paragraph or list. Insertion forms one undoable change and does not save the file.
Without a selection, Balise uses the entire Markdown document and opens the result in a separate new Mermaid draft. The original Markdown does not change. You then choose where to save the .mmd draft. For a read-only document, clear the selection and reopen the command to use this separate-draft workflow.
Review the context shown in the window before sending it. In Diagram type, leave Automatic selected or choose a specific family. Add an Instruction (optional) to guide the result; leave this field empty to use the general request for a diagram faithful to the text. Choose Generate to send this context and instruction to OpenAI. Balise does not load images or linked files.
Balise waits for the complete response, then checks the code with its local Mermaid engine before inserting or opening the result. This check verifies rendering; review the diagram’s meaning against your text. If the source document has changed in the meantime, Balise refuses insertion. The code stays available for a separate draft.
Stop interrupts generation or validation while keeping the code received. After a stop, error or incomplete response, expand Generated code, then choose Copy code or Open as Mermaid draft before closing the window to keep the result. Unvalidated code opens in Source, where you can correct it. Balise does not repair the response or retry any request automatically. To make another request, choose Generate yourself; if the source text has changed, close and reopen the tool to capture the new context.
Copy and paste
Copying from Markdown puts several forms on the clipboard: Markdown, plain text, HTML and RTF. Visual copying converts the selection back; it does not guarantee exact reproduction of the source. Exchanges with a browser, conversational assistant or rich-text editor therefore work without configuration.
Share context with an assistant
Choose Copy context in the toolbar, then use ordinary paste (⌘V) in Codex, Claude or your usual assistant. Balise copies the latest prepared summary followed by a file reference containing its full path. In Codex, the reference appears under the filename and remains clickable. In Code mode in Claude for macOS, filenames appear as native references. Keep Balise open while switching to Claude and pasting. The same copy adapts automatically when you return to Codex. In a plain-text destination, the full path stays visible without Markdown link syntax. How other applications display it depends on their support for local links.
Balise adds no “Summary” heading, copies no full source and does not attach the file. The button requires a saved file so it can provide a path. Without an available summary, the copy contains only the reference. If you have unsaved changes, the saved version’s summary remains available with a notice identifying that state. Copying generates no new summary and does not save the document.
If another application shows only a name without its path, switch to a text editor to recover the full path. The reference points to a file on your Mac; the assistant must have access to that location to read its contents.
Paste into Markdown
When pasting, Balise favors explicit Markdown. If it receives HTML or RTF, it converts to a conservative Markdown subset and strips scripts, styles, frames and event handlers.
After copying a range in Data, choose Edit > Paste as Markdown Table…. The preview confirms rows and columns, lets you choose the header, each column’s alignment and handling of internal line breaks, then highlights cells that will be escaped. The first row is the default header. Vertical bars are protected, line breaks can become <br>, and a range over 1,000 cells is refused without changing the document. Irregular or ambiguous TSV remains available through ordinary raw pasting.
Edit > Paste and Match Style (⌥⇧⌘V) forces plain-text pasting.
Balise prints the rendered view, including equations and diagrams.
What this space does not do
- Balise never writes to Git: no commits and no sending to a remote repository.
- Opening and saving without editing preserves the source. A visual edit can nevertheless transform extended syntax, even in a neighboring paragraph.
- Visual mode adds no style that cannot be expressed in Markdown.
Kanban has its own page: The Kanban view.
Limits of extended syntax
The Markdown corpus audit found that a neighboring visual edit can transform front matter. Recognized definition lists are protected. For these documents, use Source and check the result before saving. Preservation without editing does not guarantee preservation after a visual edit or paste. In tested mixed cases, pasting between Balise documents can also degrade neighboring Mermaid diagrams and equations.
Definition lists
Lists with a term followed by lines beginning with : display terms and definitions separately. Multiple definitions and indented paragraphs stay in their protected source block. Pasting an HTML list preserves term-definition associations.
Existing lists remain visible in Visual and Quick Look. Use Source to create or edit a list. There is no dedicated command or editing inspector.
Follow this walkthrough from start to finish: Maintain a repository’s documentation.