Why plain markdown beats vector databases for feeding knowledge to LLMs
By
Formaly
Summary
This essay argues that the AI industry has unnecessarily complicated knowledge delivery to LLMs using vector databases, SDKs, and proprietary formats, when plain markdown is simpler and more effective. The author celebrates Google's Open Knowledge Format as a standardization of this insight, advocating for open, accessible knowledge sharing over gated, complex infrastructure. The piece traces the evolution from RAG pipelines to the realization that LLMs perform best with plain text, and positions this shift as a philosophical move toward democratizing AI knowledge.
Source
Hacker NewsWhy plain markdown beats vector databases for feeding knowledge to LLMsformaly.ioKey quotes
· 5 pulledFor years we locked context behind vector databases, SDKs, and proprietary catalogs. Then we noticed LLMs are happiest reading plain markdown.
Google's Open Knowledge Format is the moment that realization became a standard.
We built elaborate infrastructure to solve a problem that plain text already solved.
The best way to give an LLM knowledge is the same way you give a human knowledge: just write it down.
Knowledge should not be gated. It should be written down, in plain text, and shared.
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