Marklane – Fast Publishing from Markdown.
Marklane is built for fast publishing from Markdown. It helps editors turn local Markdown drafts into WordPress posts without copying content into the post editor by hand.
Write locally in Markdown, add YAML frontmatter for post settings, then import the file from Tools > Marklane. Marklane can create a new post or update an existing one by slug, apply categories, tags, dates, featured images, post status, and Polylang language links in one import. When frontmatter is omitted, it can derive a draft title and slug from the first H1 and filename.
If you enable Ignore invalid frontmatter, the plugin ignores only the invalid frontmatter keys and keeps the valid ones. If the YAML block itself is broken, it falls back to the filename and first H1 while keeping the selected post status and date options.
If you enable Mermaid rendering, Marklane can also turn ```mermaid code blocks into front-end diagrams while keeping the stored post content as ordinary Markdown code blocks.
Plugin page: https://happas.jp/marklane/
Features:
- Fast Markdown publishing: import prepared Markdown files from the WordPress admin
- YAML-controlled post settings: set title, slug, status, date, categories, tags, featured image, and language links
- Safe re-imports: update existing posts by slug instead of creating duplicates
- Dry Run preview: review the planned create/update action, category and tag assignment, image resolution, warnings, and errors before saving
- Media Library image resolution: resolve relative Markdown image paths and
featuredImageagainst existing attachments - Polylang support: connect translated posts from
langandtranslationsfrontmatter - Optional Mermaid rendering: render
```mermaidcode blocks as diagrams on pages that contain them when enabled - Optional Extended Markdown: render common callout syntax such as GitHub alerts and Zenn messages when enabled
- Optional Math rendering: render
$$...$$display formulas on pages that contain them when enabled - Light front-end loading: Mermaid and math assets load only on pages that contain matching content
- CommonMark + GFM conversion: parse Markdown with
league/commonmark
For the most predictable image resolution behavior, it is recommended to disable WordPress’s year/month based upload folders and to use fully unique filenames for Markdown files and image assets.
This plugin is best suited to workflows where:
- articles are written locally in Markdown
- WordPress is used as the publishing destination
- editors want to keep the import source file manageable inside WordPress
- repeated imports and post updates are part of the workflow
Frontmatter quick reference:
Marklane reads YAML frontmatter at the top of the Markdown file. Common keys include:
titleslugpostTypeexcerptstatusdatecategorytagsfeaturedImagelang-
translationstitle falls back to the first H1 and then the filename.
slugfalls back to the filename.postTypedefaults topost, andstatusdefaults todraft.
For more frontmatter examples: https://happas.jp/en/marklane/#yaml-frontmatter-example
Known limitations:
- Does not create custom post types or taxonomy definitions
- Does not import ZIP archives
- Does not import through REST API or WP-CLI
- Does not download external image URLs automatically
