# Footnotes now supported by GitHub's web interface

**URL:** <https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-now-supported-by-githubs-web-interface/3983>\
**Category:** Extensions\
**Created:** [September 30, 2021, 11:24pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-now-supported-by-githubs-web-interface/3983 "2021-09-30T23:24:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vas](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/vas/32/1267_2.png) [@vas](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/vas)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2021, 11:24pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-now-supported-by-githubs-web-interface/3983/1 "2021-09-30T23:24:11Z")

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See the GitHub blog post _[Footnotes now supported in Markdown fields](https://github.blog/changelog/2021-09-30-footnotes-now-supported-in-markdown-fields/)_. Here is [the HN discussion](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28706720).

I verified that GitHub’s web interface renders and links footnotes in `README.md` files or any other `.md` file in a repo.

As of this writing the published [GFM spec](https://github.github.com/gfm) hasn’t been updated to reflect this. But the [support added to `cmark.gfm` has been published](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/releases/tag/0.29.0.gfm.2):

> Changes since last release ([`0.29.0.gfm.1...0.29.0.gfm.2`](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/compare/0.29.0.gfm.1...0.29.0.gfm.2)):
> 
> - Fixed issues with footnote rendering when used with the autolinker ([#121](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/issues/121)),  
> and when footnotes are adjacent ([#139](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/issues/139)).
> - We now allow footnotes to be referenced from inside a footnote definition,  
> we use the footnote label for the fnref href text when rendering html, and  
> we insert multiple backrefs when a footnote has been referenced multiple  
> times ([#229](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/pull/229), [#230](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/pull/230))
> - We added new data- attributes to footnote html rendering to make them  
> easier to style ([#234](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/pull/234))

But from the change description it’s obvious that footnotes were implemented even earlier. Found it: [Footnotes (pull request #64)](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/pull/64), from Nov 2017. But it was only deployed/enabled for GitHub Pages:

> > What is the timeline for this footnote extension to be enabled in GitHub or for gists?
> 
> There are no plans to enable the extension on [GitHub.com](http://GitHub.com) or in gists. This is for Pages only.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![samwilson](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/samwilson/32/2331_2.png) [@samwilson](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/samwilson)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2021, 12:28am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-now-supported-by-githubs-web-interface/3983/2 "2021-10-01T00:28:50Z")

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It looks like it still doesn’t work in Gists (I [tried](https://gist.github.com/samwilson/7b019be180875e10a45b86eb9a2a88da) with the Markdown Extra test file for footnotes).

---

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**Author:** ![samwilson](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/samwilson/32/2331_2.png) [@samwilson](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/samwilson)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2021, 12:35am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-now-supported-by-githubs-web-interface/3983/3 "2021-10-01T00:35:48Z")

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And the following doesn’t render (but replace the list item’s `*` with a `>` and it’s fine):

```auto
Test.[^1]

[^1]:
    Test
    
    * List item

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rokejulianlockhart](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/rokejulianlockhart/32/3399_2.png) [@rokejulianlockhart](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/rokejulianlockhart)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-now-supported-by-githubs-web-interface/3983/4 "2025-09-24T14:45:57Z")

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@samwilson, see:

> [@Footnotes and indentation](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/footnotes-and-indentation/2030):
>
> While trying to implement footnotes, what would be the best indentation rules for continuation? Should it be done a bit similar to the way CommonMark is already working for list? PHP Markdown Extra and Pandoc for example require a fixed indentation of a tab, but in the philosophy of CommonMark shouldn’t we indent on the first non-whitespace char following the [^xxx]: This is a text[^1] [^1]: This is footnote \> This is quote block Tis is not a continuation