I'm a web developer too, and I would like this to be true, but it really isn't. Words have meaning. "Native" implies that you are *directly* using OS-specific API's. You are not.
You built a Cross-Platform Desktop Application using Web APIs. That's okay. You shouldn't lie about that.
I find connecting understanding between humans and agents is one of the most important parts of the agentic development cycle, and markdown is a great way to handle that.
Not only can you point it at an entire directory, you can point it at multiple projects, quick load a project with a keyboard shortcut, and also easily see recent file that changed to help you find the 75th file your agent just wrote for you.
Recently, I've started to add a review interface where you can track changes, and add comments for your agent, and then instead of trying to do some complicated integration with an agent, it just has a copy button, and it copies all the comments, which context, and instructions for the agent how to reply.
I also find that I generate TONS of markdown junk during development, and I needed a way to handle it and keep it out of the main repository so I built this tool:
Vantage looks great! I’ll try it out this weekend.
To do the job that swarf does, I found that the bwrap sandbox I’d been using is the perfect place to mount a folder to catch markdown junk and keep it out of the project’s actual git repo. Works great.
I like the folder opening and the idea to integrate Claude is very interesting. I’m also curious to know how you did the document rendering. It looks very good.
My approach is a little different. I think Markdown might end up being a core document type in the future of work, so I tried to blend Markdown with “Office”-like functionality, such as complex styling and in-browser editing.
Despite being in the browser, the content of SDocs rendered Markdown files remain local to you. SDoc urls contain your markdown document's content in compressed base64 in the url fragment (the bit after the `#`):
What does this do that Obsidian doesn't already do? I've found that's my typical go to for pairing with Agentic work, and supports Markdown well, alongside tons of other functionality.
I was using obsidian before this. There were two main frustrations for me with obsidian. First, opening a markdown file that did not live in a vault wasn’t possible. Second there was not a CLI that made it easy to quickly open files
Somewhat related. I've also been generating lots of markdown files, which I've occasionally wanted to print out (so I can rest my eyes, or just read them somewhere other than my desk.) First class (free) printing support for rendered markdown seems like a lacuna in the overall ecosystem. I'm currently using the "print" plugin for VS Code, which opens rendered markdown in a browser window, which I print from there. Curious if anyone knows of better options?
Been also building this slowly, mostly assisting my kids.
What they built is Apple-only, since it's a native iOS/macOS app in Swift.
It's been a very interesting experience for me, as even capable frontier LLMs still can't write Apple SwiftUI/AppKit properly. They constantly get the bridges wrong, and any feature prompt puts your previous architectural efforts at risk :)
First thing that blocks me from adopting it is lack of ability to adjust text size. I increase default text size on web pages and in my terminal. I'm old enough to need that. I can see the text at the default size but it strains my vision and is uncomfortable. Also, needs to be able to resize the columns / sidebars. I like the initial design. Hope you keep adding to it.
Definitely appreciate this. I already have Typora which is commercial but fantastic product so I don't really need another viewer but others for sure will.
Glad you used Tauri to make this. I will check it out.
that's really cool! I don't think having this in a separate window adds value. I feel like it's pretty conventional to open something for an agent in the browser. even for the agent itself. for example, ultraplan.
Thanks! I actually prefer a separate window personally since I find myself always wanting to quickly be able to reference this app. With it being its own application I can quickly use spotlight search to focus the window instead of needing to dig through my browser tabs to find it
I guess my key issue is, with files getting continuously modified by coding agents, I want really good integration with git and live update features. If the file just got edited, make it easy to see the new parts etc.
I’m a neovim user so I’ve never used the vscode markdown viewer. One of the things I want to add is the git and live update features though. I think those would be a game changer
> A fast, native markdown viewer for macOS built with Tauri v2, React, and markdown-it.
Since when is JavaScript native? Tauri may be using the system's web view but it's still a web view. False advertising.
Agreed. And since when is forking a web view “light weight” too?
It might be lighter than Electron, but that’s such a low bar that it’s not a brag worth making.
This isn’t the 90s anymore. Using the systems web view is, in fact, native by definition.
I'm a web developer too, and I would like this to be true, but it really isn't. Words have meaning. "Native" implies that you are *directly* using OS-specific API's. You are not.
You built a Cross-Platform Desktop Application using Web APIs. That's okay. You shouldn't lie about that.
Seems like I'm just part of the club here, but I've also been working on something similar recently.
https://vantageapp.dev/
I find connecting understanding between humans and agents is one of the most important parts of the agentic development cycle, and markdown is a great way to handle that.
Not only can you point it at an entire directory, you can point it at multiple projects, quick load a project with a keyboard shortcut, and also easily see recent file that changed to help you find the 75th file your agent just wrote for you.
Recently, I've started to add a review interface where you can track changes, and add comments for your agent, and then instead of trying to do some complicated integration with an agent, it just has a copy button, and it copies all the comments, which context, and instructions for the agent how to reply.
I also find that I generate TONS of markdown junk during development, and I needed a way to handle it and keep it out of the main repository so I built this tool:
https://github.com/mschulkind-oss/swarf/
Vantage looks great! I’ll try it out this weekend.
To do the job that swarf does, I found that the bwrap sandbox I’d been using is the perfect place to mount a folder to catch markdown junk and keep it out of the project’s actual git repo. Works great.
I said just keep it in the repo like scaffolding.
Is software ever done?
Why remove the dev notes for the future agents?
https://github.com/RCSnyder/lights-out-swe
I like the folder opening and the idea to integrate Claude is very interesting. I’m also curious to know how you did the document rendering. It looks very good.
This problem has risen to the top of many people’s minds at this moment (including mine!). My Show HN for a similar cli + web based solution (https://sdocs.dev) is on the /show page now (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47777633).
My approach is a little different. I think Markdown might end up being a core document type in the future of work, so I tried to blend Markdown with “Office”-like functionality, such as complex styling and in-browser editing.
Despite being in the browser, the content of SDocs rendered Markdown files remain local to you. SDoc urls contain your markdown document's content in compressed base64 in the url fragment (the bit after the `#`):
https://sdocs.dev/#md=GzcFAMT...(this is the contents of your document)...
The url fragment is never sent to the server (see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/URI/Reference/F...: "The fragment is not sent to the server when the URI is requested; it is processed by the client").
The sdocs.dev webapp is purely a client side decoding and rendering engine for the content stored in the url fragment.
This also means you can share your .md files privately by sharing the (quite long!) url.
Also, I’m sorry I high jacked your post to some degree with this comment. It’s just a little too relevant for me not to leave a comment!
I use mine daily too. A solid Markdown renderer definitely makes agentic coding a lot more pleasurable.
What does this do that Obsidian doesn't already do? I've found that's my typical go to for pairing with Agentic work, and supports Markdown well, alongside tons of other functionality.
I was using obsidian before this. There were two main frustrations for me with obsidian. First, opening a markdown file that did not live in a vault wasn’t possible. Second there was not a CLI that made it easy to quickly open files
Somewhat related. I've also been generating lots of markdown files, which I've occasionally wanted to print out (so I can rest my eyes, or just read them somewhere other than my desk.) First class (free) printing support for rendered markdown seems like a lacuna in the overall ecosystem. I'm currently using the "print" plugin for VS Code, which opens rendered markdown in a browser window, which I print from there. Curious if anyone knows of better options?
Interesting this goes well with https://voiden.md/ - maybe we can integrate this - great work man!
Voiden looks awesome I’ll have to check it out
yep we too are markdown based but are a api tool !
Congrats on shipping!
Been also building this slowly, mostly assisting my kids.
What they built is Apple-only, since it's a native iOS/macOS app in Swift. It's been a very interesting experience for me, as even capable frontier LLMs still can't write Apple SwiftUI/AppKit properly. They constantly get the bridges wrong, and any feature prompt puts your previous architectural efforts at risk :)
You should ask them to make it work on windows or Linux once they’re done on Mac :) would be a good lesson for them
First thing that blocks me from adopting it is lack of ability to adjust text size. I increase default text size on web pages and in my terminal. I'm old enough to need that. I can see the text at the default size but it strains my vision and is uncomfortable. Also, needs to be able to resize the columns / sidebars. I like the initial design. Hope you keep adding to it.
These are great suggestions I’ll get these added tomorrow!
Thanks again for this suggestion. I just went and added these features
I did something very similar recently, just made it open source but haven't posted anywhere.
https://github.com/yakkomajuri/seams
Run `seams .` in any dir and get a rich markdown editor with image uploads, block editing, tables, etc etc
Congrats on launching!
Definitely appreciate this. I already have Typora which is commercial but fantastic product so I don't really need another viewer but others for sure will.
Glad you used Tauri to make this. I will check it out.
I tend to use 'bat' or 'glow' though I've tried 'mdlook' and 'mdcat' as well.
I live in my terminal but for some reason any TUI markdown viewers just don’t do it for me
Yeah - I've tried a bunch of them, and nothing's really perfect but those seem to be good enough for lightweight use.
Oh nice! I’ve never checked out Typora before I’ll take a look as well
Can +1 Typora, it's quite excellent.
that's really cool! I don't think having this in a separate window adds value. I feel like it's pretty conventional to open something for an agent in the browser. even for the agent itself. for example, ultraplan.
Thanks! I actually prefer a separate window personally since I find myself always wanting to quickly be able to reference this app. With it being its own application I can quickly use spotlight search to focus the window instead of needing to dig through my browser tabs to find it
seems like vscode + preview is nearly the same?
I guess my key issue is, with files getting continuously modified by coding agents, I want really good integration with git and live update features. If the file just got edited, make it easy to see the new parts etc.
I’m a neovim user so I’ve never used the vscode markdown viewer. One of the things I want to add is the git and live update features though. I think those would be a game changer
VS codes preview of markdown files scrolls very poorly on my Mac. It jumps around and scrolls slowly through certain sections.
Like many others here, I made this for myself too, but! mine is also named marky!
Haha awesome. Was the lowest hanging fruit for a name
Mine too!
I built a similar thing today for my hyprland desktop!
https://github.com/robinduckett/hyprmark
ha, nice - had the same need, i leveraged fumadocs for the ui part https://github.com/3rd/mdreader
Awesome that’s a super interesting approach
https://zerodevx.github.io/zero-md/ is the real deal. No react bs.
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