When MDX Is Worth It
A practical rule for mixing components into long-form writing.
MDX is useful when a post needs more than static prose: live examples, reusable callouts, embedded diagrams, or small interactive controls that would be awkward to express in plain Markdown.
The tradeoff is that every component in a document becomes part of the site surface area. It needs naming, styling, maintenance, and a graceful failure mode.
A Simple Rule
Use Markdown until the reader benefits from interaction. Use MDX when the component makes the idea clearer, not just more decorated.
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Keep Components Small
The components that work best in MDX are focused and boring. A status badge, a comparison table, a demo container, a chart with a clear fallback. Large application widgets inside essays tend to make the writing harder to maintain.
MDX is at its best when it supports the argument and then gets out of the way.