Smart Markdown: Dynamic Variable Substitution for Living Documents

@techreport{hamilton2025smart, author = {Hamilton, Michael P., Ph.D.}, title = {Smart Markdown: Dynamic Variable Substitution for Living Documents}, institution = {Canemah Nature Laboratory}, year = {2025}, number = {CNL-TN-2025-006}, month = {december}, url = {https://canemah.org/archive/document.php?id=CNL-TN-2025-006}, abstract = {This technical note describes Smart Markdown, a lightweight implementation of dynamic variable substitution for markdown-based content management systems. The system allows authors to embed tokens (e.g., `{{essay\_count}}`) within document content that resolve to current database values at render time, creating "living documents" that remain accurate without manual updates. The approach draws inspiration from Ted Nelson's concept of transclusion—the inclusion of content by reference rather than by copy—and represents a practical implementation of ideas first articulated in the early hypertext literature. This document provides theoretical grounding, implementation specifications, and integration patterns for the Coffee with Claude (CWC) blog infrastructure.} }