The Parse SDK is the low-level layer of datamark. It turns Markdown strings into fully typed syntax trees and gives you the tools to query, transform, and extract data from them.

Use it directly when you need fine-grained control over parsing, or as the foundation for higher-level formats built with the Format SDK.

parse()

Turn Markdown into a typed Document with a section tree

Frontmatter

Extract and split YAML frontmatter from Markdown strings

YAML

Parse and stringify YAML with thin built-in helpers

Tree Utilities

Find, filter, split, and extract data from the AST

What the AST SDK provides

Capability	Functions
Parsing	`parse()`, `parseBlocks()`
Frontmatter	`extractFrontmatter()`, `splitFrontmatter()`
YAML	`parseYaml()`, `stringifyYaml()`
Querying	`find()`, `findAll()`, `filter()`, `sectionsAtDepth()`, `sectionsByHeading()`
Splitting	`splitBy()`, `between()`, `after()`, `before()`
Extraction	`codeBlocks()`, `inlineText()`, `textContent()`, `extractTodoItems()`
Type guards	`isHeading()`, `isCodeBlock()`, `isTodoItem()`, `isSection()`, `isBlockNode()`, `isInlineNode()`, `isParentNode()`

What the Format SDK adds on top

The Format SDK builds on the Parse SDK and adds:

datamark() — a factory that wraps parse, stringify, schema, and examples into a single typed format
Typed frontmatter — frontmatterSchema validates and types doc.frontmatter before your parse function runs
Builder primitives — heading(), list(), codeBlock(), frontmatter() from datamark/stringify replace fragile string concatenation
Self-testing — examples are validated by .test() automatically

When to use the Parse SDK directly

You need to parse Markdown without defining a full format
You want to inspect or transform an AST interactively
You're building custom tooling on top of datamark's parser
You need to extract data from an AST without serialization

For most use cases — especially when you want typed data, validation, and round-trip serialization — the Format SDK is the better starting point.

Parse SDK