JotBird Help

JotBird is a fast, privacy-first way to write and publish Markdown to the web. You can use it instantly without an account, or create a free account to sync published documents across devices and extend link lifetimes. With a Pro subscription, your published links never expire.

This guide explains how JotBird works, what it supports, and how the lifetime of published content is managed.

JotBird runs primarily in your browser. Until you publish, your content stays on your device.

When you publish, JotBird renders your Markdown to a static HTML page and hosts it at a shareable URL.

Each published document has:

• One document
• One URL
• One clear owner

There are no projects, folders, or sites to manage. That simplicity is intentional.

If you create an account, your published documents are associated with your account and synced across devices. Drafts remain local to the device where you're editing.

JotBird is not a CMS, blogging platform, or collaborative editor. It's infrastructure for Markdown — optimized for speed, clarity, and low friction.

The editor is split into two panes:

• The editor pane, where you write Markdown
• The preview pane, which renders your content in real time

The preview reflects exactly what will be published. There's no separate build step and no formatting surprises after the fact.

On smaller screens, the preview may be hidden or toggled by default to prioritize writing space. This behavior is intentional and may evolve as mobile usage patterns become clearer.

Drafts are saved locally in your browser. This allows fast, offline-friendly editing and avoids storing unfinished writing on our servers.

Draft changes are not synced across devices until you publish.

Publishing is a one-click operation. Once published, your document is available at a shareable URL.

Published URLs in JotBird are temporary by default.

Expiration depends on your account type:

• Without an account: URLs expire after 30 days
• With a free account: URLs expire after 90 days
• With Pro: URLs never expire — your published links are permanent

For anonymous and free account publishes, expiration is fixed and does not automatically extend when content is updated.

When a URL expires:

• The link stops working
• The HTML page and hosted images are deleted
• The content is removed from JotBird's servers

This design keeps JotBird lightweight, private, and predictable.

JotBird supports importing local Markdown files.

Using File → Import…, you can load a .md file from your device into the editor. The file is read locally and is not uploaded unless you choose to publish.

Using File → New, you can start a fresh document. If you have unsaved changes, JotBird will prompt before clearing the editor.

You don’t need to publish in order to export your work. JotBird supports the following export options:

• Export Markdown — exports a .md file with image assets (if any)
• Export as HTML — downloads a standalone HTML file with image assets (if any)
• Print or save as PDF — uses your browser’s print dialog

All exports happen locally in your browser.

JotBird supports a practical, publishing-focused subset of Markdown.

This includes:

• Headings
• Bold, italic, and strikethrough
• Highlighted text
• Inline code and code blocks
• Blockquotes
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Task lists
• Links and images
• Emoji shortcodes
• Tables
• Footnotes
• Subscript and superscript
• Math expressions (KaTeX)
• GitHub-flavored Markdown conventions

YAML frontmatter (a ----delimited block at the top of a file) is recognized and ignored. It will not appear in the preview or on the published page.

You can paste, drag, or upload images directly into the editor.

When you publish:

• Images are hosted automatically with the page
• Image URLs remain valid for the lifetime of the page
• Images are deleted when the page expires or is unpublished

JotBird is designed for document-level imagery, not large media libraries.

JotBird does not track visitors to published pages and does not include third-party analytics scripts on shared content.

Visitor behavior on shared pages is intentionally private.

JotBird is designed for real documents — not bulk file hosting or automated publishing.

With an account, you can publish unlimited documents, subject to reasonable use.

Typical documents — including long articles, lesson plans, technical notes, and reference material — are well within supported limits.

If usage significantly exceeds normal document publishing (for example, automated mass publishing or file storage abuse), we may apply limits or restrictions.

If something doesn’t work the way you expect, that’s useful information. Bug reports, questions, and feedback can be sent to:

support@jotbird.com

Clear reports help keep JotBird small, reliable, and predictable.

JotBird is intentionally simple. If it feels boring in the best possible way, it’s working.