Embedding external media

An embed block shows a video, a design file, or a social post from another service inside a document, using that service's own player. Paste the link and the block does the rest. Five providers have native players in this release: YouTube, Vimeo, Loom, Figma (design and board files), and X posts. A link to any other site renders as a plain link card.

Adding an embed

In the editor, paste the link on an empty line, or insert an Embed block and paste the URL into it. Through the API, write the block as markdoc:

url is the only required attribute. title is optional and becomes the frame's accessible name. provider is an optional hint; the block resolves the provider from the URL when it is missing. Oddlynew never fetches the pasted URL on its own servers, so pasting a link stores exactly the link.

What readers see

Every reader, signed in or not, first sees a placeholder that names the provider. Clicking it loads the player and starts playback. Until that click, the reader's browser makes no request to the provider, so nothing is shared with YouTube, Vimeo, or X by merely opening the page. The choice is per placement: loading one video does not load the others.

Keep a post you cite as a source

When a document records what someone said in a post or a video, such as a research note or a source for a decision, embed it next to your quote. Readers then see the original beside your words and can compare them, even when your agent could not fetch the page itself.

The embed keeps no copy: Oddlynew stores only the link, and a deleted post turns into a plain link. So also write the words you rely on as text, with the author and the date you read them, and keep a screenshot as an image when the exact wording matters.

Examples

YouTube

Vimeo

X

An X post renders in X's own frame and sizes itself to the post. If the post has been deleted or X does not answer within eight seconds, the block turns into a plain link to the post.

A link outside the provider list

Any other URL stays a link card and never contacts the site:

Where the data goes

Once a player loads, the reader's browser talks to that provider's player origin and nothing else: youtube-nocookie.com for YouTube (the privacy-enhanced player, which sets no cookies until playback), player.vimeo.com, loom.com, embed.figma.com, and platform.twitter.com or platform.x.com for X. Players run in a sandboxed frame with no access to the page around them, and no provider script ever runs inside Oddlynew itself. The provider sees what any embedded player sees: the reader's IP address and the fact that its content was loaded from an Oddlynew page.

Related

To show a self-contained HTML file you uploaded yourself, such as a live dashboard, use the html block described under Embedding an HTML file in Files.