Live Scripts

Plain-text .m files that render as rich documents in the MATLAB Live Editor. Version-control friendly — never use binary .mlx.

When to Use

• Tutorials, reports, analysis notebooks, or documentation
• Interactive exploration with inline figures and equations
• Version-controlled content (plain-text .m, not binary .mlx)

When NOT to Use

• Regular scripts without rich formatting
• Function files
• MATLAB older than R2025a

Converting from .mlx

Binary .mlx files can be converted to plain-text .m by running the following at the MATLAB command window. The recipe is not part of the resulting .m file:

editor = matlab.desktop.editor.openDocument(mlxPath, Visible=0);
editor.saveAs(newMPath);  % use .m extension
editor.closeNoPrompt;

Rules

• Text lines use %[text] — NOT bare %
• One paragraph = one %[text] line — do not hard-wrap; let the Live Editor handle line width
• No empty %[text] lines — they render as unwanted blank space
• Section headers: %% on its own line, then %[text] ## Title on next line
• No blank lines in the file, except a single blank line directly before %[appendix]
• No figure command — implicit figure creation only
• No more than one plot per section (unless using tiled layouts)
• No close all or clear
• No mfilename — does not work as intended in Live Scripts. Hardcode filenames or use pwd.
• Escape these characters when used as literal text (not as markdown syntax): *, _, [, ], ` `, \, including within LaTeX equations. Also escape . after a digit and #` at line start.
• Double LaTeX command backslashes: \\sin, \\frac, \\sum
• Last list item (bulleted or numbered) ends with \
• Every file ends with the required appendix
• Avoid fprintf — drop the semicolon or use disp() for output. There is no way to send output to the command window when running as a Live Script.
• Outputs should serve the reader's understanding, not verify execution — run the script via MCP to confirm correctness

Required Appendix

Every Live Script must end with:

%[appendix]{"version":"1.0"}
%---
%[metadata:view]
%   data: {"layout":"inline"}
%---

Reading Live Scripts (Token Optimization)

When reading a Live Script file, ignore everything below the %[appendix] marker. The appendix contains embedded images and metadata that consume tokens without adding useful information. All code and text content appears before it.

Format Reference

IDs (anchors, and any other id-bearing element): letters, digits, and underscores only. No hyphens — my-section won't bind; use my_section. For anchors, place the marker immediately after %[text] at the start of the line.

Tables

%[text:table]
%[text] | Method | Result |
%[text] | --- | --- |
%[text] | Trapezoidal | 1.9998 |
%[text:table]

Example

%[text] # Sinusoidal Signals
%[text] Examples of sinusoidal signals in MATLAB.
%[text:tableOfContents]{"heading":"Contents"}
%[text] - sine waves
%[text] - cosine waves \
x = linspace(0,8*pi);
%%
%[text] ## Sine Wave
plot(x,sin(x))
title('Sine Wave')
xlabel('x (radians)')
ylabel('sin(x)')
grid on
%%
%[text] ## Cosine Wave
plot(x,cos(x))
title('Cosine Wave')
xlabel('x (radians)')
ylabel('cos(x)')
grid on
%%
%[text] ## Summary
%[text] The sine and cosine functions are $ \\pi/2 $ radians out of phase.

%[appendix]{"version":"1.0"}
%---
%[metadata:view]
%   data: {"layout":"inline"}
%---

Common Patterns

Mathematical Explanations with Equations

%[text] ## Theory
%[text] The discrete Fourier transform is defined as:
%[text] $ X(k) = \\sum\_{n=0}^{N-1} x(n)e^{-j2\\pi kn/N} $

Code with Inline Comments

%%
%[text] ## Data Processing
%[text] Load and filter the data, then visualize the results.
data = load('measurements.mat');
filtered = lowpass(data, 0.5);  % Apply lowpass filter
plot(filtered)
title('Filtered Data')

Tiled Layouts for Comparison

Use only when side-by-side comparison is important to the illustration:

%%
%[text] ## Comparison of Methods
tiledlayout(1,2)
nexttile
plot(method1)
title('Method 1')
nexttile
plot(method2)
title('Method 2')

Workflow

1. Plan — Title, setup, analysis sections, summary
2. Write — %[text] for text, %% for sections, appendix at end
3. Verify — Run via MCP to confirm code executes

Checklist

Before finishing a Live Script, verify:

• [ ] File has .m extension
• [ ] Sections use %% alone on its own line, followed by %[text] ##
• [ ] No blank lines or empty %[text] lines (except one blank line directly before %[appendix])
• [ ] Each paragraph is a single %[text] line (no hard-wrapping)
• [ ] One plot per section (unless tiled layout)
• [ ] Bulleted and numbered lists end with backslash on last item
• [ ] LaTeX command backslashes are doubled in the saved file: \\sin, \\frac, \\pi
• [ ] No figure commands
• [ ] No close all or clear at start
• [ ] No mfilename
• [ ] Appendix is present and correctly formatted
• [ ] Outputs serve the reader, not the developer

Not Yet Supported

Minor features planned for a future revision:

• Interactive controls (sliders, dropdowns, numeric inputs)
• Hide Code View (output view that hides the source code)

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