# Authoring messages

Authoring covers the work of writing the message itself: composing the contents, formatting them, and inserting placeholders that get replaced per recipient at send time.

## In this section

* [Create New Message](/help/messages/authoring-messages/create-new-message.md)
* [Markdown Reference](/help/messages/authoring-messages/markdown-reference.md)
* [Message Placeholders](/help/messages/authoring-messages/message-placeholders.md)
* [Editing and Formatting Message Contents](/help/messages/authoring-messages/edit-contents.md)


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.shiftiq.com/help/messages/authoring-messages.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.