How to comment out stuff in Markdown on GitHub?

markdown-comments.md

Comments in GitHub flavour of Markdown

As answers to this Stack Overflow question reveal, using <!--- and ---> or <!-- and --> works (view source by clicking "Raw"):

Inline comments

How about commenting out <!--- just ---> a part of one line?

If you know of a way, please show me how by cloning this Gist, or commenting below!

Update 2019

As several commenters pointed out, for inline commenting <!-- a normal html comment --> now works.

You can't see this:

Btw, wow, I created this gist in 2014 and only now became aware of the discussion and that it's the top Google hit for markdown comments github. 👍

Idea for triple dash came from https://stackoverflow.com/a/4829998. Back when this gist was originally written, the normal html comment didn't work at least for inline comments.

Anyway, gist updated now, thanks for all the comments! 😏

Note that GitHub's search won't index what's in these comments.

I thought for a moment that comments are now shown, but I just checked and they aren't.

There's two comments above, in double and triple hyphens and you shouldn't be able to see them.

Try this:

[//]: # (This is a comment.)
[//]: # (This is a comment on a new line.)

Make sure add a double space after each comment line.

Thanks for putting this up!

Try this:

[//]: # (This is a comment.)
[//]: # (This is a comment on a new line.)

Make sure add a double space after each comment line.

@rowe-morehouse Genius!

@hilbix Ik right?

Thank you so much @Simonkyverde88 and @rowe-morehouse ❕ :
I've tried both of your tricks , Both worked properly!
Thank you again ! 😌

More visual example for n00bz.

Is it possible to comment out lines that have code embedded? I have some lines like:

You will then need to: library(statnet)

And when commented like this:

[//]: # (You will then need to: library(statnet))

I am getting this:

Thanks!

Now you see me ​​

Neat, huh? Only the URL has to be properly formatted. so we get https://now-you-don't

Here's another

This might be really useful, for something like comment footnotes:

Thanks for this! Also, regarding your surprise about being the top Google hit:
Google is weird. Surely, no one is linking to this gist, but Google still considers it authoritative. Google is weird.

I do not understand why, but it seems like <? and ?> can be used for comments, both multiline and single line. Anyone knows why?

@kasperosterbye Nice find! I'm guessing it has something to do with PHP or XML?

@kasperosterbye nice thanks what i was actually looking for

@kasperosterbye and I have no clue why I don't rly care hahahahha thks! cheers

<!---
your comment goes here
and here
-->

Cutting and pasting the SO answer, for easy reference.

For whole line and multiline comments, this tweak of Rowe's suggestion appears to work for mdcat, VS Code, Gist preview, and online markdown editors I've tried:

[this is a one line comment]: #
   [  it's ok to have 1, 2, or 3 leading spaces  ]: #
but anything else before [ or ]: # after would unhide the comment
as would indenting it 4 or more spaces.

[
this is a
    multiline
comment
]: #

[   as is this compact version
    with no space between `:` and `#`
]:#

  [
    it too can have the `[`
    indented up to 3 spaces
        other line can be indented more
  ]: #

Indenting the [ bracket of the comment 4 or more spaces will make the line be rendered as a pre-formatted block and make the comment visible. Personally, I like the compact version better than the <!-- ... --> for multiline comments, but this trick isn't supported by most syntax highlighters.

Thank you so much @jonikarppinen 🤗 !! Here's hoping Github (along w/ Slack & Zenhub, plz) make their markdown more standard/vanilla/usable so we can all be productive at work.

<!--cc/ @jonikarppinen, in case your two Github handles are not the same. :upside_down_face: -->

Works simple

Need help - dotnet/docfx#9285

Is there a keyboard shortcut to do it?

I just used this trick in a comment where I thought some details I've wrote might be unnecessary but at the same time I didn't want lose those details, and, I might actually need those in a follow up comment. So I commented them out, now I have access to those by pressing Edit mwahahaha :))

Let's see...

Normal text

Markdown comment
Markdown comment text

Normal text

---

MOre text

Github comments aka common markdown most portable solution according to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4823468/comments-in-markdown

(empty line)
[This is a comment]::

Syntax <!--- just ---> is for regular html comments.

Hopefully we get eventually a better standard including strict conforming implementations instead of the markdown mess.

It is still the #1 result on Google in June 2025, turns out simple and accurate information is what people want. huh, who knew!

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