Markdown Runbook Extractor

What this tool does

A runbook is a how-to document whose steps are fenced code blocks: install this, migrate that, restart the service. Paste one and this tool tangles it — it pulls out every executable block, names it, numbers it, and joins the whole thing into one script you can actually run, with an ordered task list in the header. It runs entirely in your browser with WebAssembly: nothing is uploaded, it works offline, and there's no sign-up.

The extractor:

• gives every block a name from its fence info string — ```bash "Install deps", ```bash name=install-deps, ```bash title="Install deps", ```bash id=…, or a Pandoc/Entangled attribute block ```{.bash #install-deps},
• falls back to a bold label on the line above, then the nearest heading, then step-N, so untagged runbooks still produce a readable task list,
• strips shell prompts ($ , % , ❯ , PS C:\>, >>> ) and drops the un-prompted lines — the command output people paste along with the command,
• keeps backslash continuations attached to their command,
• comments out blocks tagged skip, no-run, noexec, ignore, example or output instead of running them, so a "don't do this" snippet can't be executed by accident,
• filters by tag (```bash#deploy, ```bash deploy slow, ```{.bash .deploy}) with -tag to exclude, and
• records the source line of every step, so a failure points back into the document.

Options

Worked example

Given this runbook:

# Deploy the API

## Install dependencies

```console
$ npm ci
added 42 packages
```

## Run migrations

```bash name=migrate
./manage.py migrate
```

## Rollback (do not run)

```bash skip
./manage.py migrate --rollback
```

the default script output is:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Runbook: 2 runnable task(s) of 3 extracted from Markdown.
# Tasks:
#   1. Install dependencies
#   2. migrate
#   3. Rollback (do not run)  [skipped: tagged skip]

set -euo pipefail

# --- 1/3 · Install dependencies (console, line 5) ---
echo "==> [1/3] Install dependencies"
npm ci

# --- 2/3 · migrate (bash, line 12) ---
echo "==> [2/3] migrate"
./manage.py migrate

# --- 3/3 · Rollback (do not run) (bash, line 18) — SKIPPED, tagged skip ---
# ./manage.py migrate --rollback

Note what happened: the $ prompt is gone, added 42 packages (command output, not a command) was dropped, step 1 took its name from the heading and step 2 from name=migrate, and the rollback block is commented out because it carries the skip tag.

Switch Output to tasks for the same runbook and you get a checklist:

# Runbook tasks (2 runnable of 3)

- [ ] 1. Install dependencies — `console`, 1 line, line 5
- [ ] 2. migrate — `bash`, 1 line, line 12
- [ ] 3. ~~Rollback (do not run)~~ — `bash`, 1 line, line 18, tags: skip — skipped, tagged skip

Limits & edge cases

• Input cap: 1,000,000 characters and 500 matching code blocks per run. Past either you get a clear error — split the document or narrow it with a tag filter.
• Untagged fences are never steps. A bare ``` block is almost always sample output or a config snippet, so it's ignored. Tag it (```bash) to include it.
• Empty fences are skipped and don't take a step number.
• It never executes anything. The output is text you review and run yourself — read it before you do, especially anything tagged skip.
• Prompt stripping is all-or-nothing per block. If any line in a block carries a prompt, only the prompted lines survive; if none does, the block is copied verbatim. That's what makes a pasted console session runnable without mangling ordinary scripts.
• Nested fences work as long as the outer fence is longer — use ````bash around a block that itself contains ``` (e.g. a heredoc writing Markdown).
• Steps run top to bottom in document order; there's no dependency graph and no <<macro>> expansion between named blocks.
• The output has no trailing newline — copy or download it as-is.

FAQ