Standalone Attribute Not Supported

Standalone attributes (e.g., in table cells or headings) are not representable in this output format.

Q-3-32 — Standalone Attribute Not Supported

Standalone attributes (e.g., in table cells or headings) are not representable in this output format.

What this means

In qmd, an attribute block ({#id .class key=value}) usually attaches to the construct that immediately precedes it: a header, a span, a code fence. The parser also accepts attributes in positions where there is no obvious carrier — a bare {#cell} inside a table cell, for instance — and represents them as a standalone attribute AST node.

The writer for this output format has no way to attach that attribute to anything, so it cannot serialize it. The error fires and the attribute is dropped from the rendered output.

Why this happens

Most often: an attribute was written in a position where the writer’s target format has no notion of attaching attributes (table cells, certain block boundaries). The qmd syntax accepts it; the format cannot represent it.

How to fix

If you need the attribute to take effect, move it to a position where the writer can attach it — for example, attach the class to the heading or paragraph immediately before the cell rather than to the cell itself.

If you do not need the attribute in this format, render to JSON (q2 render --to json) to inspect what the writer was told to emit, and remove the attribute from the source if it was unintentional.