Susam Pal’s January 19, 2026 post dives into a quirky Markdown pitfall that trips many developers: nested code fences can break rendering. Using a playful character named Corey, Pal shows how a second set of triple backticks prematurely closes a fenced block, stripping content and confusing output for readers today.

Pal explains that the issue surfaces in the CommonMark spec, which GitHub Flavored Markdown extends. He demonstrates two fixes: switch to tildes as fences or increase the backtick count. Both methods preserve nested content, keeping Corey's “hair” intact and preventing accidental HTML breaks for developers working with documentation today.

Beyond fences, the article tackles inline code spans that contain backticks. Pal shows that using longer backtick delimiters and surrounding spaces lets nested backticks survive. The post cites CommonMark Spec 0.30, underscoring that these rules apply across major Markdown engines, making the guide broadly useful for developers in 2026 and and.