MD050 - Keep bold text formatting consistent

December 17, 2025 · View on GitHub

Aliases: strong-style

What this rule does

Ensures all bold text uses the same style throughout your document - either double asterisks (**) or double underscores (__).

Why this matters

  • Professional appearance: Mixed bold styles make documents look unpolished and carelessly edited
  • Reading flow: Consistent formatting reduces visual distractions for readers
  • Team collaboration: Standard formatting makes it easier for teams to work together
  • Parser compatibility: Some Markdown parsers may handle different styles differently

Examples

✅ Correct (consistent asterisks)

This text has **bold** formatting.

Another paragraph with **important** text.

Even more **emphasized** content here.

✅ Correct (consistent underscores)

This text has __bold__ formatting.

Another paragraph with __important__ text.

Even more __emphasized__ content here.

❌ Incorrect (mixed styles)

This text has **bold** formatting.

Another paragraph with __important__ text.

Even more **emphasized** content here.

🔧 Fixed

This text has **bold** formatting.

Another paragraph with **important** text.

Even more **emphasized** content here.

Configuration

[MD050]
style = "consistent"  # Options: "consistent", "asterisk", "underscore"

Style options

  • consistent (default): Use whatever style is most prevalent in your document (in case of a tie, prefers asterisks)
  • asterisk: Always use **text** for bold
  • underscore: Always use __text__ for bold

Automatic fixes

This rule can automatically fix issues by:

  • Converting all bold markers to match your configured style
  • When using "consistent", converting all markers to match the most prevalent style

Differences from markdownlint

Warning count: markdownlint reports two warnings per emphasis (one for the opening marker **/__ and one for the closing marker). rumdl reports one warning per emphasis block because:

  1. The opening and closing markers are semantically one unit - you cannot fix one without fixing the other
  2. Cleaner output - "10 issues" vs "20 issues" for 10 bold words
  3. The fix is atomic - the entire emphasis is replaced at once

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