TemplaitGuide
Markdown, JSON or XML: which export should you paste?
All three carry the same document. They differ in how they read, how long they are, and what you plan to do with the paste afterwards - which is usually the whole answer.
The short answer
- Pasting into a chat: Markdown. It is the shortest, the easiest to read back, and it renders as headings and lists rather than as one wall of braces.
- Keeping the document as an artifact: JSON. It is the form the app stores, so it is the one a script or a second tool can consume without guessing.
- When the structure has to be explicit: XML. Every element carries its type and its roles on the opening tag, which is what makes it legible to something that has a schema and no patience.
There is no wrong choice, and there is no format an assistant refuses. If you are not sure, export Markdown and read it - if the document makes sense to you in prose, it will make sense to the assistant.
What is actually different
| Format | Shape | How it reads | Length | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markdown | Prose with headings | Easiest. It is the format you can skim in the chat window before sending it. | Shortest of the three | Headings and bullets are conventions, not structure - a badly-behaved paste can lose a level. |
| JSON | One object | Readable if you know the field names, opaque if you do not. | Middle | A single missing comma makes the whole document invalid to a parser. |
| XML | Elements with attributes | Verbose, but self-describing - the role is on the tag rather than implied by position. | Longest | It is the most tokens for the same facts, which matters only if you are near a context limit. |
What is the same
More than most pages about formats will admit. Whichever you export, the document carries the canvas and its size, every zone in order with its geometry, its appearance, its type, its design role, its semantic role, your instruction for it, any limits you set, the document's variables and attachments, and the block of reading instructions addressed to the assistant.
That is not a promise made by a marketing page. The contracts package holds a test that walks every kind of zone, changes one field at a time, and fails the build if the export does not change with it - so a field cannot exist in one format and be missing from another without somebody being told.
Where the format does not matter
- Content quality. The format describes the design. What comes back depends on the assistant and on what you wrote in the zones.
- Layout fidelity. All three state the same geometry. A design that arrives wrong arrived wrong in every format.
- Which assistant will accept it. All three are plain text and can be pasted anywhere. How closely any assistant follows them is a question about that assistant.
One thing worth doing whichever you pick
Do not edit the reading instructions out. Every export opens with a block addressed to the assistant that says what the document is, that it describes one composition, and that the elements belong together. It is the difference between “here are four boxes, fill them” and “here is a design, fill it” - and it is the first thing people delete when they trim a paste.
If a paste is too long, take zones out and export again rather than cutting the document up by hand. A template with four zones is a smaller document; a document with four zones deleted from the middle is a document that contradicts itself.
Read the reference
The export reference lists what each of the five formats is for, with a trimmed sample of each: what Templait exports.