ArXiv URL Drop in for Markdown (markxiv.org)

Markxiv.org is a new free, open-source service that serves Markdown renditions of arXiv papers — just replace "arxiv" with "markxiv" in a paper URL to get a Markdown version. The tool converts available arXiv source files into readable, markup-friendly text, but it can’t convert PDF-only submissions: such requests return an HTTP 422 with the body "PDF only." The project is authored by Tony Davis and accepts donations via GitHub Sponsors. For the AI/ML community this is immediately useful: Markdown outputs are easier to skim, copy, annotate, and ingest into pipelines (note-taking apps, dataset curation, LLM prompts, or automated analysis) compared with PDFs. Because it’s open source, teams can inspect or adapt the conversion logic, run local instances, and contribute improvements. Practical caveats include missing conversions for PDF-only papers and possible fidelity loss for complex LaTeX elements (equations, figures, macros), so users should verify critical math or formatting. Overall, markxiv lowers friction for accessing arXiv content in text-first workflows and could speed literature review, dataset creation, and tool integration across the ML stack.