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The Markdown renderer is a built-in FastEdge application that turns Markdown files into HTML pages — no custom code, no binary build, no rendering backend required. A common use case: documentation stored on GitHub or any static file server, served as a fully rendered site directly from the edge. The application maps incoming request paths to a configurable root URL. Set BASE to the root of the Markdown source — such as a GitHub raw content URL — and requests to the application automatically fetch and render the corresponding files.

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Create the application

  1. In the Gcore Customer Portal, navigate to FastEdge > HTTP Applications > Applications and click Create new application.
  2. Scroll to Create from a template and click Markdown renderer.
    Create an application page showing Upload binary and Create from a template sections with Geolocation-based redirect and Markdown renderer cards
  3. Enter a Name for the application. The name becomes part of the deployment URL.
  4. Fill in the Template environment variables:
    • BASE (required): The root URL of the Markdown source. The application appends the incoming request’s path to this value. Set it to the directory URL where the Markdown files live, with a trailing slash. Example: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/G-Core/FastEdge-sdk-js/main/
    • HEAD (optional): Raw HTML inserted verbatim into the <head> tag of every rendered page. Use it to apply a stylesheet or add other head-level markup. Example: <style>body{font-family:sans-serif;max-width:800px;margin:2rem auto;padding:0 1rem}</style>
    Markdown renderer form with BASE required field and optional HEAD field
  5. (Optional) Configure response headers, environment variables, secrets, or Edge Storage — see app management for details on each option.
  6. Click Save and deploy.
The application details page opens with the deployment URL in the format https://<app-name>-<id>.fastedge.app.

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Test the application

Request any Markdown file path from the app URL and inspect the response: 
curl -i https://<app-name>-<id>.fastedge.app/README.md
The response is an HTML document with Content-Type: text/html: 
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8

<!DOCTYPE html><html><head>...</head><body><h1>README</h1>...</body></html>
Opening the URL directly in a browser shows the rendered page. If the source file does not exist at the constructed URL, the application returns the upstream HTTP error code. To verify the source URL the application constructs, confirm that BASE + path returns HTTP 200 directly before deploying.
BASE, HEAD, and all other environment variables can be updated from the application management page without rebuilding or redeploying the application.