md-reader

The viewer for AI-generated Markdown — re-renders as Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor write. No vault. No setup. Double-click a .md file and read it.

Landing page · Releases · MIT

Lightweight cross-platform Markdown viewer/editor built with Tauri 2 + Rust + Svelte 5. Targets the gap that existing tools don't fill: a fast, focused reader for the long Markdown your AI just wrote, on Windows / macOS / Linux, without the setup overhead of a PKM tool.

Features

• Live-reload — open a file, run Claude in another terminal, watch content appear. Smart-scroll follows the edit only if you're nearby (no yanking) using data-sourcepos from comrak to map line changes to DOM nodes. Brief flash highlights what just changed.
• Multi-tab — drop multiple files to open as tabs, drag tab outside the window to spawn a new window (Chrome-style tear-out).
• Side panel — Lightroom-style stack: Files browser + Outline. Each toggles independently. Drag the right edge to resize.
• GFM-perfect — alerts (NOTE/TIP/IMPORTANT/WARNING/CAUTION with proper GitHub-style icons), tables with alignment, task lists, footnotes, KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, syntect-highlighted code blocks.
• Continuous content width — slider 40–160ch + full-window toggle. No more locked narrow band like MarkText.
• Apple-leaning UI — system fonts, hairline borders, glassy toolbar with backdrop-blur, iOS-style segmented controls, generous typography.
• Keyboard-first — every action has a shortcut.
• Local-only — no network, no telemetry, no accounts.
• ~10 MB installer — Tauri 2 + WebView2, not a Chromium bundle.

Keyboard shortcuts

Build from source

Requirements:

• Node.js 20+
• Rust 1.78+ (via rustup)
• Platform C++ toolchain:
  • Windows: Microsoft C++ Build Tools + WebView2 (preinstalled on Win10/11)
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
  • Linux: webkit2gtk-4.1, libgtk-3-dev, libayatana-appindicator3-dev, librsvg2-dev

git clone https://github.com/kumaradarsh1993/md-reader
cd md-reader
npm install
npm run tauri dev      # dev mode with HMR
npm run tauri build    # produces installer in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

Frontend-only (no Rust required):

npm run dev    # Vite dev server on :1420
npm run check  # svelte-check

Architecture

src-tauri/                      Rust backend (Tauri 2)
  src/markdown.rs               comrak + syntect → HTML, with data-sourcepos
  src/watcher.rs                notify-debouncer-full, watches parent dir
  src/commands.rs               IPC commands (file ops, list_dir, spawn_window)
  src/lib.rs                    plugins, CLI args, single-instance
  examples/inspect.rs           diagnostic harness — dump rendered HTML

src/                            SvelteKit frontend (Svelte 5 runes)
  routes/+page.svelte           app shell
  lib/Viewer.svelte             rendered output + live-follow
  lib/Editor.svelte             CodeMirror 6 (lazy)
  lib/TabBar.svelte             tabs with drag-tear-out
  lib/LeftPanel.svelte          Lightroom-style resizable panel
  lib/FileBrowser.svelte        single-level dir tree
  lib/Toc.svelte                document outline
  lib/Find.svelte               Ctrl+F search
  lib/Settings.svelte           settings panel
  lib/post-render.ts            heading id assignment + lazy KaTeX/Mermaid
  lib/tabs-store.svelte.ts      tabs state (open/close/reorder/persist)
  lib/settings-store.svelte.ts  persisted settings via tauri-plugin-store

docs/                           GitHub Pages landing site (static)

Why exists

Research surfaced three convergent gaps:

1. No good "double-click .md → instant render" app on Windows. VS Code's preview hides behind folder-trust + multiple clicks. Notepad shows raw text. Obsidian forces a vault concept. Typora went paid. MarkText is abandoned. Boost Note shut down.
2. The "AI-output viewer" niche is brand new and Mac-dominated. Marky, MarkViewer, MacMD Viewer all launched 2025–2026 explicitly pitched at reviewing Claude/ChatGPT/Cursor output. None ship for Windows.
3. Tauri 2 makes ~10 MB bundles realistic for a true cross-platform reader without the Chromium tax.

License

MIT