Most people who search for a way to move Markdown into Google Docs are not looking for a converter. They are looking for a converter for the second time. They pasted the Markdown last week, someone edited the Doc, they changed the Markdown, and now the two have drifted apart. A one-time conversion is a snapshot, and a snapshot is out of date the moment either side changes. This post is about the thing you actually want when the same document keeps moving back and forth: two-way sync between a Markdown file and a genuine Google Doc.
Why a one-time conversion never stays in sync
Converting is a copy. Whether you paste Markdown into a Doc or export a Doc back to Markdown, you produce a new artifact that has no connection to the original. From that instant there are two documents, and every edit on either side widens the gap between them.
The workarounds all have the same shape and the same failure:
- Re-paste every time. Fast for one edit, miserable as a habit, and it silently discards any changes made on the other side.
- Pick a winner and re-export. Declaring one side authoritative and regenerating the other throws away real edits made on the loser.
- Reconcile by hand. Diffing two documents by eye is exactly the manual work you were trying to avoid.
If you only need the content in the other format once, a converter is the right tool. Our free tools cover both directions: Markdown to Google Docs and Google Doc to Markdown. The point of this post is what to do when "once" turns into "again," and then "again."
What two-way sync actually means
Two-way sync makes the Google Doc a live view of the Markdown file rather than a copy of it. You link a local .md file to a specific Doc once. After that:
- Edit the Markdown in your editor and the Doc updates.
- Edit the Doc in the browser and the Markdown file updates.
- Neither side is a lossy import artifact. The Doc stays a real, native Google Doc with comments, suggestions, and the mobile app, and the Markdown stays a plain file with full history in git.
Nobody copies content back and forth, and there is no second version quietly going stale. That is the difference between converting and syncing: a conversion ends, a sync keeps running.
How the sync stays sane: block by block
The naive version of sync, replacing the whole Doc whenever the file changes, would stomp on anyone editing the Doc at the same time. Real two-way sync works at the level of blocks (a paragraph, a heading, a list item, a table) rather than the whole document. Non-overlapping edits on the two sides simply both land: you rewrite the intro in your editor while a reviewer fixes a typo in section three, and both changes survive.
The only genuinely hard case is when both sides change the same block between syncs. That needs a defined rule instead of a guess. In md2gd the Doc wins and your local version is set aside as a diff you can inspect, so nothing is silently lost. You run a resolve step to keep either side or hand-merge. The important property is that a conflict is surfaced and preserved, never overwritten in the dark.
One-time convert versus two-way sync
| Concern | One-time convert | Two-way sync |
|---|---|---|
| What it produces | A fresh copy | A live link between two documents |
| Stays current | No, stale on the next edit | Yes, both sides track each other |
| Edits on the other side | Lost on re-convert | Merged block by block |
| Source of truth | Ambiguous, two versions | The Markdown file |
| Google Doc | An import artifact | A genuine native Doc |
| Right when | You need the content once | The same doc keeps moving |
When you need sync, and when you do not
Reach for a converter when the job is genuinely one-off: a colleague sends you a Doc and you want it as Markdown, or you have a finished README you want to drop into a Doc once and never touch again. There is no reason to link files you will not edit again.
Reach for sync when the same document lives in two places at once and both keep changing. Common cases:
- A spec or PRD written in Markdown that non-engineers need to review and comment on in a Doc. This is the docs-as-code review loop, covered in depth in Docs-as-Code With Google Docs in the Review Loop.
- Notes or documentation you draft in a Markdown editor but share with a team that lives in Google Docs.
- Content generated as Markdown by an assistant that a human then reviews in a Doc, covered in Let AI Agents Write to Google Docs Your Team Reviews.
If you are unsure whether the formatting even survives the trip, Google Docs Markdown: what works, what breaks walks through which elements convert cleanly in each direction.
Getting started
The mental model is one command to link, then nothing. You point the client at a local Markdown file and pair it with a new or existing Doc:
md2gd add spec.md --create
From there both sides are live. Agents and editors keep working on the .md file, people edit and comment in the Doc, and edits flow both ways in the background. You can list what is linked at any time:
md2gd ls
That is the whole workflow. There is no dashboard to babysit and no export step to remember, because the sync is the feature, not a button you press.
FAQ
Can Google Docs stay in sync with a Markdown file automatically?
Not on its own. Google Docs can import and export Markdown as a one-time conversion, but it does not keep an external .md file and a Doc matched over time. Ongoing two-way sync is what md2gd adds.
Is a synced Google Doc still a normal Doc?
Yes. Sync keeps it a genuine native Google Doc with full comments, suggestions, sharing, and the mobile app, rather than a lossy import.
What happens if both the Markdown and the Doc change the same paragraph?
That is the one case that needs a rule. The Doc wins and your local version is preserved as a diff to resolve, so no edit is lost silently. Non-overlapping edits on the two sides both land automatically.
Do I have to move my whole workflow into a new app?
No. You keep your Markdown editor and your Google Docs. Sync runs from a small local client and gets out of the way.
The takeaway
If you have converted the same document more than once, you do not have a conversion problem, you have a sync problem. A converter produces a snapshot that is stale on the next edit. Two-way sync keeps a Markdown file and a real Google Doc matched, block by block, so you stop re-pasting and nothing drifts. Start with the free tools when you need a one-off, and link the file with md2gd when "once" turns into "again."
