Assuming the major output format HTML had made its start attribute from <ol> elements available to structural element types like <section> and also the value attribute from <li> in headings <h1>…<h6>, this topic would probably have been solved more often in MD dialects.
Since there are no explicit section in MD/CM, supplying a start value for automatic heading numbering won’t be easy or straightforward.
For author-specified, manual values within headings themselves, I see at least two viable approaches, a special attribute syntax within the info string or a special inline anchor (perhaps derived from link syntax) wrapping the number:
## Heading Text ## #section12 [§12]
## [§12](^section12) Heading Text
Others would likely suggest their preferred variant of generic block attribute syntax, e.g.:
## Heading Text {value=§12}
## {value: §12} Heading Text
| # | Наименование новости | Тональность | Информативность | Дата публикации |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Using link reference definitions as invisible structural markers — sound, or a bad idea? | 0 | 10 | 27-09-2026 |
| 2 | Transclusion or including sub-documents for reuse | 0 | 11.72 | 26-09-2026 |
| 3 | Making Markdown a first-class citizen of the Web | 0 | 7.3 | 14-09-2026 |
| 4 | MD Studio - a personal HTML-to-Markdown project | 0 | 14.96 | 05-09-2026 |
| 5 | A list of common mistakes that people make while writing Markdown | 0 | 10.4 | 20-08-2026 |
| 6 | Three things I decided not to parse, building a live-preview editor | 0 | 12.69 | 27-08-2026 |
| 7 | Let table rows wrap over several lines | 0 | 7.98 | 03-10-2026 |
| 8 | Code fences in list items | 0 | 5.33 | 18-09-2026 |
| 9 | Markdific - A better tool to open, read, edit and export Markdown files | 0 | 7.23 | 05-10-2026 |