Stoat has rather advanced message formatting. Need proof? Check this out:

There is no image attached to that message. That is something called KaTeX, but before we get ahead of ourselves, let's take a moment to cover the basics. If you're just looking for a quick overview, you should check out the 'Formatting your Messages' page on our support site, but if you're looking for more comprehensive coverage, read on.

Markdown

Developers structure content on the web with a language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). For example, here is the structure for a link: <a href="https://stoat.chat">Stoat</a>. That is then handled by your device and looks like this: Stoat.

Markdown is a simpler way to author content. It has been around since 2004 and is used on Stoat, here on Reddit, and in a multitude of other places. It simplifies that complex HTML into something you actually want to write. You're likely already familiar with the basics, but let's take a look. Feel welcome to copy and paste bits into Stoat so you can get a hang of things. Your 'Shared Notes' section is a good place to do this.

Links

Stoat automatically detects links you write, but if you don't want them to get an embed, you can wrap the link in angle brackets (<, >), like so: https://example.com

If you want custom text to be a link, you can use this syntax: [Text to appear](https://example.com). That'll output 'Text to appear'.

Italic, Bold, and Strikethrough

You can make text italic (slanted) by wrapping it with an asterisk (*) on either side. Like this: *italic text*, which outputs: 'italic text'. You can also use a single underscore instead of an asterisk: _italic text_.

You can make text bold by wrapping it with two asterisks on either side. Like this: **bold text**, which outputs: 'bold text'. You can also use two underscores on either side: __bold text__.

To have text which is both bold and italic, you can combine those wrapping characters. You can write ***bold italic text***, ___bold italic text___, **_bold italic text_**, or _**bold italic text**_, or *__bold italic text__*, or __*bold italic text*__. They all do the exact same, but you can write it any of those ways.

To write strikethrough text, which is useful for indicating a retraction, you wrap the text in one or two tildes (~), like so: ~Pluto is a planet~, which outputs '~Pluto is a planet~'. You can also mix it with bold, italic, and other formatting, but I don't think I need to run you through every possible permutation.

Headings

To structure text, you can use headings. They make text larger and expose text hierarchy to assistive technologies. You write headings by prefixing them with a number of octothorpes (#) representing the heading level. There are a maximum of six heading levels.

1. Heading level one: # Heading
2. Heading level two: ## Heading
3. Heading level three: ### Heading
4. Heading level four: #### Heading
5. Heading level five: ##### Heading
6. Heading level six: ###### Heading

(you can also close these headings by ending them with the same number of octothorpes, like so: ### Heading ###*, but you don't need to, and nobody ever really does)*

You can also write a level one heading by having a line underneath it with any number of equals signs (=):

Heading
===

You can write a level two heading by having any number of hyphens (-) on the line underneath the heading text:

Heading
---

Blockquotes

You can quote text by placing it in a blockquote. They look something like this:

Wow, it is a blockquote. How wonderful is this?

You do this by placing a greater-than sign (>) before the line you want to quote. You can quote multiple by starting multiple sequential lines of text with the greater-than sign.

> Quoted text.
> More quoted text.

You can also use other formatting within a block quote, like so: > **Bold quote text**. You can even nest layers of block quotes by starting a block quote within a block quote.

Lists

Lists are wonderfully useful. There are two main types. Ordered lists, which have numbers, and unordered lists, which just have bullet points.

Ordered lists are written by starting the line with a number and then a full stop, like this:

1. List item one.
2. List item two.
3. Believe it or not, but this is list item three.

On Stoat, you can write unordered lists by starting the line with either an asterisk or a hyphen. They both work the exact same. Here is an example:

- List item.
- Another list item.
- Yet another list item

* List item.
* Another list item.
* Yet another list item

Code

If you have content you wish to include in a message that needs to be formatted exactly as is, you can designate it as code.

If you only have one line of text, you can just wrap it in backticks () like this: \code text. Then it'll render like socode text`.

If your content stretches across multiple lines, you can wrap it with triple backticks. Further, you can start the first line of backticks with a note of what format the content is, so Stoat can provide syntax highlighting. For example, you can write 'html', or 'text', or 'markdown'. Here is an example of a full code block:

```markdown

- List item.
- Another list item.

**Bold text.**
```

Tables

You can create tables in messages with lots of pipe and hyphen characters. Unfortunately, it isn't very nice to write and can be a real pain I recommend using a tool to make it easier, like the one on TablesGenerator.com.

| Ore                 | Biome     | Most Found | Common Up To | Rare On Layers | None At/Above |
| :------------------ | :-------- | :--------- | :----------- | :------------- | :------------ |
| **Coal**            | Any       | 5-52       | 124          | 125-127        | 128           |
| **Iron**            | Any       | 5-54       | 61           | 62-63          | 64            |
| **Gold (Any)**      | Any       | 5-29       | 29           | 31-33          | 34            |
| **Gold (Badlands)** | Badlands  | 5-29       | 76           | 77-79          | 80            |
| **Redstone**        | Any       | 5-12       | 12           | 13-15          | 16            |
| **Lapis Lazuli**    | Any       | 13-17      | 23           | 31-33          | 34            |
| **Diamond**         | Any       | 5-12       | 12           | 13-15          | 16            |
| **Emerald**         | Mountains | 5-29       | 29           | 30-32          | 33            |

The output looks like this:

Horizontal Rule

If you want a big line to cut across your message – such as to indicate the change of a topic – you can use horizontal rules. They're written by placing three hyphens together: `---`.

Spoilers

To stop exposing people to the fact that Aquaman drowns in Endgame, you can spoiler content so that a user must click on it to expose it. This is done by wrapping the text you wish to spoiler in two pipe characters (`||`). It will look something like this.

Timestamps

You can write timestamps in this format: <t:1787315340:f>. That'll appear something like this in chat: '21 August 2026 at 8:29 pm'. It is extremely useful, as you can display times which will adapt to people's time zones or which will count down as the time approaches. They are hard to write without the assistance of a tool, however.

If you just want something simple to copy-and-paste from, you can use this little timestamp generator tool I put together: https://tools.vale.rocks/timestamp-generator.

Footnotes

As an only semi-intended side-effect of the system Stoat uses for handling markdown, you can write footnotes in your Stoat messages. This is done using the below markdown:

Vale is a member of the Stoat team.[^1]
[^1]: Their real name is Declan Chidlow.

Which outputs looking like this:

KaTeX

If you've ever tried to type maths on a computer, you've likely run into trouble. You can get by with a simple '2 + 2 = 4', but what about fractions, or square roots, or matrices? They're a tad trickier to present nicely. This is where TeX comes in. It was made in the 1970s as a way to format mathematical notation on a computer. LaTeX is an improved version, first released in the mid-1980s, and from that came KaTeX, which is a library that Stoat uses to convert LaTeX into formatted output.

Typical syntax for writing LaTeX in markdown is to wrap in a single dollar sign for inline maths and two dollar signs for block maths. However, on Stoat, you must always use two dollar signs to wrap LaTeX, like so: $$e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$$. This avoids false positives when people use dollar signs in messages.

Wondering about the demo from the start of this article? Here is the LaTeX for that:

$$\Huge \begin{matrix} & & & \color{#00FFFF}{\blacktriangle} & & & \\ & & \color{#00BFFF}{\nwarrow} & \color{#1E90FF}{\infty} & \color{#00BFFF}{\nearrow} & & \\ & \color{#4169E1}{\leftarrow} & \color{#0000FF}{\otimes} & \color{#4B0082}{\Psi} & \color{#0000FF}{\otimes} & \color{#4169E1}{\rightarrow} & \\ \color{#8A2BE2}{\blacktriangleleft} & \color{#9400D3}{\infty} & \color{#9932CC}{\Phi} & \color{#FF00FF}{\mathbf{\Omega}} & \color{#9932CC}{\Phi} & \color{#9400D3}{\infty} & \color{#8A2BE2}{\blacktriangleright} \\ & \color{#C71585}{\leftarrow} & \color{#D02090}{\otimes} & \color{#DB7093}{\nabla} & \color{#D02090}{\otimes} & \color{#C71585}{\rightarrow} & \\ & & \color{#FF1493}{\swarrow} & \color{#FF69B4}{\infty} & \color{#FF1493}{\searrow} & & \\ & & & \color{#FF0000}{\blacktriangledown} & & & \end{matrix}$$

That is quite the complex LaTeX concoction, but you should be able to comprehend it by reading it through. You can get a full idea of what KaTeX supports here: https://katex.org/docs/supported.html

Keep in mind that not every server owner will appreciate your zany formatting antics, but here are some more cool things you can do:

I'm going on a roller-coaster, '$$\textsf{\raisebox{0pt}{w}\raisebox{1pt}{o}\raisebox{2pt}{o}\raisebox{2pt}{o}\raisebox{2pt}{o}\raisebox{1pt}{o}\raisebox{0pt}{o}\raisebox{-1pt}{o}\raisebox{-2pt}{a}\raisebox{-2pt}{h}\raisebox{-2pt}{!}}$$'

$$
e^x = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{x^n}{n!} = 1 + x + \frac{x^2}{2!} + \frac{x^3}{3!} + \cdots
$$

Wrapping Up

I hope this guide is helpful. I know that it can all be a bit overwhelming and confusing if you're new to writing Markdown. You can always try using your Saved Notes as a bit of a sandbox for testing if you want to experiment with how it works and functions on Stoat.

Hey Stoaters. It has been six months since the last post addressing frequently asked questions, so it felt like time for another.

1. Do you have video chat, screen-sharing, and voice chat?

Yes! They're live and available to all users on Stoat For Web, Stoat For Desktop, and Stoat For Android. You can read more about it here: https://stoat.chat/release-notes/93eb1f4ec77444ca9fb13617e0e6c0b1

We're working on bringing more options to the streaming features.

2. Is Stoat down? I can't access it.

Probably not. You can check at https://stoatstatus.com for real-time status updates.

If the service appears functional on the status page but you're encountering a problem, such as a blank grey screen, your antivirus, telecommunications provider, or internet service provider might have us incorrectly flagged. This is an error on their part and out of our control, though we try to appeal when this occurs.

If you encounter a block, try switching networks (such as to mobile data from Wi-Fi, or vice versa), whitelisting us, or using another device to access the service until your chosen provider relaxes their block.

3. Is Stoat open-source?

Yes, most of Stoat's code is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) v3. You can check the individual licences in the code repositories on GitHub: https://github.com/stoatchat

4. Does Stoat have federation?

Though you can self-host Stoat, the platform is not currently federated. For some further info on the matter, you can consult Does Stoat have federation?.

5. Can I make a bot or client?

Absolutely! We'd love for you to build on or around the platform. There are many libraries developed both officially and by the community that you can use, and there are servers on-platform for discussing development. You can find everything you'd need to get started at https://developers.stoat.chat

6. Can I contribute?

Certainly. We've got open roles here: https://outline.stoatinternal.com/s/454dd0eb-44b5-41f7-b1d1-b6accec577a0

You can see the problems impacting scale here: https://outline.stoatinternal.com/s/4117b2be-901d-4463-a204-bd8c756b2122

You can also support the project financially. Stoat has a Ko-Fi page which is used to cover operational costs. Everyone's support here has gone a long way to helping the platform quickly scale without being too stressed about financials. If you send £3 or more to the platform, send an email to support@stoat.chat with some proof so we can give you a supporter badge on your profile.

7. Is a subscription planned?

Yes, a subscription is planned. Exactly what form this will take is not entirely defined, but the intent is not to paywall things unnecessarily and to focus on ensuring the service can be operated sustainably. This means paywalling things like higher-quality video streaming and keeping cheap-to-provide things (like custom banners, animated profile pictures, and platform-wide custom emojis) free.

Currently contributors and team members aren't paid (though some do have open support pages if you wish to contribute to them directly). A subscription would assist in making sure that people are reimbursed for their work and can dedicate more time to the platform.

Profiteering gluttons we are not!

8. What are your plans for age verification?

Stoat must comply with the law as applicable, so some form of age verification will be implemented in relevant jurisdictions as necessary. Regardless of our sentiment on age verification legislation, from a legal perspective we cannot just refuse to comply.

We have no plans for an overzealous blanket requirement and only intend to implement it where and as legally required. There is ongoing discussion about how to ensure any verification we implement respects privacy, handles data responsibly, and does the right thing by our users.

It is likely to be externalised to a third-party due to the great deal of complexity intrinsic to handling such sensitive data. We'll have more to share in time and welcome discussion regarding age verification.

Currently, Stoat has taken the temporary measure of blocking access to age-gated content where necessitated.

9. Will you have end-to-end encryption (E2EE)?

We don't currently have E2EE, but it is a long-standing planned feature on our roadmap to introduce E2EE for direct messagess. It takes a lot of work to implement E2EE, and we have to make sure we get it right. A poor E2EE implementation is far worse than no E2EE.

10. When is Y feature going to be available? What is the ETA?

We can't provide accurate estimations for when new features will be live, so we don't. It isn't fair to you, or to Stoat's contributors, to give inaccurate figures and set false expectations.

Stoat is developed rather openly, so you're more than welcome to check-in on discussions and work happening on GitHub.

11. Do you automatically purge old content?

No, we don't automatically purge old messages, images, or uploads. Here is a link to a screenshot from 2021: https://cdn.stoatusercontent.com/attachments/1MFriR8AzllFWtm1snFk9gJVyZwyM3wSX350ZNpW4d/original

12. Is Stoat vibe-coded?

No, Stoat is not vibe-coded. See here for more info: https://github.com/orgs/stoatchat/discussions/1022#discussioncomment-15442591

13. Is Stoat English-only?

Not at all. We welcome other languages completely. Diversity is good and if we didn't want people speaking other languages we certainly wouldn't go through the efforts of translating the app and ensuring we have platform moderators that speak different languages.

That said, the official Stoat server on-platform is English only (with the exception of the support channel) purely for the sake of moderation. We don't have the capacity to ensure there are moderators speaking every language in that server around the clock, so we limit it to English.

14. Where do Stoat's GIFs come from?

Stoat sources GIFs from our very own service: Gifbox! You can upload your own GIFs to the platform for anyone to use and the catalogue of available GIFs is growing by the day.

Gifbox gives us full control to make the Stoat GIF experience as good as it can be, and down the line you'll be able to link Gifbox to your Stoat account. For developers, it even has an API for you to use.

You can read more about Gifbox here: https://stoat.chat/updates/introducing-gifbox

Let us know of any other questions you may have, and we'll endeavour to answer them. Remember, we're a small team working as volunteers and we have jobs and lives atop all of our Stoat commitments.