MD

A fast, lightweight Markdown ecosystem: desktop app + browser extension.

Overview

MD is a markdown viewing ecosystem with two components:

Component	Purpose
MD App	Desktop application for local markdown files with full editing, print/PDF export
MD Extension	Browser extension that renders raw .md URLs beautifully

Both share the same rendering engine, styles, and keyboard shortcuts.

Screenshots

  

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MD App (Desktop)

Features

• Live Preview - Real-time markdown rendering with GitHub-flavored markdown support
• Mermaid Diagrams - Native support for flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and more with theme-aware colors
• ASCII Diagrams - Box-drawing character diagrams via WASM, same syntax as Mermaid but copy-pasteable
• Syntax Highlighting - Code blocks with beautiful syntax highlighting powered by Shiki
• Edit Mode - WASM-powered editor with language-aware syntax highlighting for 16+ languages
• Table of Contents - Quick navigation panel with Ctrl+G, highlights current section
• Scroll Sync - Position preserved when switching between edit and preview modes
• In-Document Search - Find text with Ctrl+F, visual minimap for match locations
• Draft Tabs - Create untitled drafts with Ctrl+N, auto-numbered for easy access
• Themes - Dark and light themes with fully customizable colors
• File Watching - Automatic reload when the file changes externally
• Recent Files - Quick access to recently opened files with Ctrl+1-9
• Customizable Fonts - Choose font family and size for both UI and markdown content
• Resizable Sidebar - Drag to resize or double-click to auto-fit content
• Print/PDF Export - Export documents with Ctrl+P using optimized print styles

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+N	New untitled draft
Ctrl+W	Close file
Ctrl+S	Save changes (in edit mode)
Ctrl+Z	Undo (in edit mode)
Ctrl+Y	Redo (in edit mode)
Ctrl+F	Find in document
Ctrl+G	Table of contents
Ctrl+P	Print / Export PDF
Ctrl+L	Toggle line numbers (in edit mode)
Ctrl+T	Toggle theme (dark/light)
Ctrl+B	Toggle sidebar
Ctrl+H	Help
Ctrl+,	Open settings
Ctrl++	Increase font size
Ctrl+-	Decrease font size
Ctrl+0	Reset font size
Ctrl+1-9	Open Nth file/draft from sidebar
Ctrl+[/]	Previous/next file
Ctrl+Space	Toggle edit mode
Tab	Indent line(s) (in edit mode)
Shift+Tab	Dedent line(s) (in edit mode)
Esc	Cancel edit / close search / discard changes

Installation

Pre-built Binaries

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

• Linux: .deb, .rpm, or .AppImage
• macOS: .dmg
• Windows: .msi or .exe

Build from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dnl-fm/md.git
cd md

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Development mode
make dev

# Build for production
make build

Configuration

Configuration is stored in:

• Linux: ~/.config/com.fightbulc.md-preview/config.json
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/com.fightbulc.md-preview/config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\com.fightbulc.md-preview\config.json

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MD Extension (Browser)

Features

• Auto-Detection - Renders raw .md URLs from GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, and any plain text markdown
• Reader Mode - Convert any webpage to clean markdown for distraction-free reading (press M)
• Syntax Highlighting - Code blocks with Prism.js (bundled)
• Mermaid Diagrams - Flowcharts, sequence diagrams, etc. (server-rendered)
• ASCII Diagrams - Box-drawing diagrams, same syntax as Mermaid (server-rendered)
• Table of Contents - Navigate long documents with Ctrl+G
• Theme Support - Dark/light themes, follows system preference
• Print/PDF - Export with Ctrl+P
• Font Size - Adjustable with Ctrl++/-
• Full Width - Toggle between constrained and full-width layout (default: on)
• Persistent Settings - Theme, font size, width saved across all sites

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
M	Reader mode (convert page to markdown)
Ctrl+G	Table of contents
Ctrl+T	Toggle theme
Ctrl+P	Print / PDF
Ctrl++	Increase font size
Ctrl+-	Decrease font size
Ctrl+0	Reset font size
Ctrl+H	Help

Installation

Chrome Web Store

Install MD Extension

Load Unpacked (Development)

cd packages/extension
bun install
bun run build

1. Open chrome://extensions (Chrome) or about:debugging (Firefox)
2. Enable Developer mode
3. Click "Load unpacked" and select packages/extension/dist

Supported URLs

• *.md files served as text/plain
• raw.githubusercontent.com/*
• gist.githubusercontent.com/*
• GitLab/Gitea raw file URLs
• Any URL ending in .md or .markdown

Note: Local file:// URLs are not supported due to browser security restrictions. Use the MD desktop app for local markdown files.

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Tech Stack

• Tauri 2 - Native app framework
• SolidJS - Reactive UI framework
• Shiki - Syntax highlighting (app)
• Prism.js - Syntax highlighting (extension)
• markdown-it - Markdown parser
• Mermaid - Diagram rendering
• Vite - Build tool
• Bun - JavaScript runtime & package manager

Project Structure

md/
├── packages/
│   ├── shared/       # Shared styles (CSS variables, markdown, print)
│   ├── app/          # Tauri desktop app (SolidJS + Rust)
│   └── extension/    # Chrome/Firefox extension
├── docs/             # Screenshots, plans, LLM docs
└── Makefile          # Development commands

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request