Claude Code, the Surprising Utility of HTML

Asking Claude Code for HTML output can produce documentation far richer than Markdown. Elements like SVG diagrams, interactive widgets, and in-page navigation can all be packed into a single screen, making complex concepts easier to read.

In the past, Markdown's token efficiency was more practical because of the 8,192 token limit from the GPT-4 era. But now, the readability and expressiveness of output matter more, and there's a solid case for HTML to be considered the default choice again.

As an example, a prompt for generating a PR review as an HTML artifact is introduced.

• It explains the actual diff with inline comments
• It highlights key points by color-coding severity levels
• It reinforces context with additional visual elements where needed

In the latter part, there's also an experiment where a Linux security exploit published on copy.fail was explained in HTML by GPT-5.5. The result was quite good, but the assessment notes it would have been better if it had focused more on the exploit's underlying mechanics rather than the Python harness. This approach shows a trend of going a step beyond interactive HTML tools, expanding into explanatory HTML that answers questions on the fly.