HTML.md

[AGENTS.md](https://agents.md/), [ACCESSIBILITY.md](https://mgifford.github.io/ACCESSIBILITY.md/) but also [A11Y.md](https://github.com/fecarrico/A11Y.md), [DESIGN.md](https://github.com/google-labs-code/design.md)—as well as [taste.md](https://archive.ph/CqGLV). Following this trend of specialized specification files, here is a draft for HTML.md ([gist](https://gist.github.com/j9t/89a08983f5e6ce843a2dffb0eb566f15))—foundational instructions you need for writing HTML, geared towards both humans _and_ machines (if only to improve parsing and save tokens). ```markdown * Use the elements most appropriate semantically. * Use as little HTML as possible. * Validate all HTML output against an HTML validator (preferably the W3C one), and fix any errors. ``` That’s it. Is this a joke? No: While these instructions are opinionated insofar as they reflect a school of [minimal web development](https://meiert.com/blog/minimal-web-development/) honoring [the first rule of ARIA](https://webglossary.info/terms/first-rule-of-aria/) and suggesting [no use of optional markup](https://meiert.com/blog/optional-html/), they acknowledge the reality that the HTML code on most websites often isn’t using the right elements for the job (e.g., [divitis](https://webglossary.info/terms/divitis/)) and that it’s [essentially never error-free (i.e., commonly invalid)](https://meiert.com/blog/html-conformance-2025/). Note, then, that this guidance intentionally doesn’t handle “everything,” like accessibility, performance, and search optimization, but the foundation. Although we can memorize the three instructions, it _is_ useful to document them in writing. Whether that’s actually in form of an “HTML.md,” however, that’s everyone’s individual call. So this is not a serious request for this particular file convention—but one for us to _pay more attention to HTML quality_.