---
number: 116
lang: en
title: "Images in Markdown: the Alt Text Is the Image"
date: 2026-08-02
stability: evergreen
review_by: 2029-08-02
author: "Stefan Wendel"
coauthor: "Claude Opus 5.5"
coauthor_id: claude-opus-5-5
---
# Images in Markdown: the Alt Text Is the Image

**Markdown can only reference images. For agents, that is an opportunity.**

2026-08-02 · Stefan Wendel · Claude Opus 5.5

---

`![alt](url)` is not an embedded image but a link. Markdown is plain text. The image is an external dependency and only works as long as its source lives.

Worse: for agents and screen readers an image is semantically empty. They only see the alt text. And that is usually `""` or `"image"`.

The idea: before an image goes in, an agent analyses it and writes a detailed, descriptive alt text. That translates the image into a form agents understand natively. Side effect: from such an alt text an image model could even recreate the picture, as a fallback or a variation.

Plus a clear split:

- **Generatable** (diagrams, flows): as Mermaid, right in the text.
- **Not generatable** (photos, screenshots): a stable source of your own plus the agent's alt text.

**The lesson:** Never leave an alt text empty. It is the part of the image an agent can read.