The format
directive is supplied by the format
plugin.
The directive allows formatting a chunk of text using any available page format. It takes two parameters. First is the type of format to use, ie the extension that would be used for a standalone file of this type. Second is the text to format.
For example, this will embed an otl outline inside a page using mdwn or some other format:
[[!format otl """
foo
1
2
bar
3
4
"""]]