All I know about Markdown

I was confused why prettier formats my todo lists “wrongly” constantly. Then I read this issue and found it is my problem. The canonical description of markdown syntax does not specify the syntax unambiguously, so we need a standard. The most referenced standard is spec.commonmark.

Section 5.2 covers all details about lists. Quoted below.

The most important thing to notice is that the position of the text after the list marker determines how much indentation is needed in subsequent blocks in the list item. If the list marker takes up two spaces of indentation, and there are three spaces between the list marker and the next character other than a space or tab, then blocks must be indented five spaces in order to fall under the list item.

Most time, the continuation blocks are indented at least to the column of the first character other than a space or tab after the list marker. If the list mark is a dash with a following space, then the sublist should have 2 space indentation. If the list mark is 1. with a following space, then the sublist should have 3 space indentation. If the list mart is 10. with a following space, then the sublist should have 4 space indentation.

After understanding this rule, now I can understand how prettier reformats my todo lists.