How do you include an asset download link in markdown?

Question

I have a small JavaScript file in assets that I'd like to link to as a direct download.

The following link simply opens the file in the current tab:

[myFile.js]({{file name='myFile.js'}})

I'd like the file to actually download on clicking the link. Is that at all possible in markdown?

Markdown just generates HTML, so this is you answer: [Force to open “Save As…” popup open at text link click for pdf in HTML](http://stackoverflow.com/q/3802510/866026) or [href image link download on click](http://stackoverflow.com/q/2408146/866026). Just include the raw HTML in your Markdown. — Waylan, Jan 19 '17 at 14:19
Some wiki hosts (e.g. GitHub wiki) strip out the 'download' attribute from your tag. Sometimes you can work around that by zipping the file and providing a markdown link to the zipped file. See [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/46938081/456550) for more info. — Christian Long, Oct 25 '17 at 17:06

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 06 '18 at 17:01

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It's the same as a link. [File Name](url). It works for me on Github pages' Jekyll implementation of markdown.

answered Dec 06 '18 at 17:01

Johnson Zhou

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score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 16 '18 at 08:44

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Try using inline HTML <a href="myFile.js" download>Click to Download</a>

answered Mar 16 '18 at 08:44

Âishik Pyne

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James John McGuire 'Jahmic' · Answer 3 · 2020-04-28T15:15:24.403

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On GitHub.com

The GitHub wiki site strips out the download attribute, so conventional approaches as mentioned before aren't going to work properly. However, I found the following will work:

<a id="raw-url" href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github-username/project/master/filename">Download FILE</a>

Replace 'github-username' with your git hub user name, obviously. Replace 'project' with project name, 'filename' with the actual file name. This also assumes the file is not in a sub folder. Also, notice, it is actually hosted on raw.githubusercontent.com.

However, due the difficulty, I'm almost wondering if the site was intentionally deterring such behavior.

edited Apr 28 '20 at 15:15

answered Nov 29 '19 at 17:12

James John McGuire 'Jahmic'

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You can also use relative links too, if you're in a README or something. – KTibow Apr 28 '20 at 14:25
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It does not seem to work, neither with absolute nor with relative links. It just open a new tab with raw file contents. – Kuba Nov 27 '20 at 09:01
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@Kuba I haven't checked recently, but I wouldn't be surprised if GitHub changed the functionality on the server. – James John McGuire 'Jahmic' Jan 09 '21 at 13:10

Sami Ahmed Siddiqui · Answer 4 · 2022-06-01T06:45:05.453

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Incase of using remarkable markdown parser, you can use remarkable-seo package to define download attribute in markdown.

Sample Markdown:

[Download Minion](https://octodex.github.com/images/minion.png "download")

Output:

<a href="https://octodex.github.com/images/minion.png" title="Download" download>Download</a>

Leaving this as an answer over here so might help someone else.

edited Jun 01 '22 at 06:45

answered Jun 01 '22 at 06:28

Sami Ahmed Siddiqui

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How do you include an asset download link in markdown?

4 Answers4