The lightest Markdown reader — tiny, local, and good-looking.
A ~5 MB desktop reader for the Markdown your AI agent just wrote.
▶ Watch the full demo and download at sciscale.org/vellum
Vellum Lite is the free, open-source edition: open a local .md, scan the
outline, read it on a calm page. No account, no cloud, no vault.
- Local-first — open
.md/.mdx/.markdownstraight from disk - Rich Markdown — GFM tables, task lists, syntax-highlighted code
- Math — KaTeX for inline and display math
- Diagrams — Mermaid and Vega-Lite
- Frontmatter — YAML frontmatter rendered as a structured Properties panel
- Outline — jump anywhere from a live document outline
- Tabs & recent files — open several files;
Ctrl+Tabto switch - Search —
Ctrl+Fin-page search with match highlighting - Font scaling and light / dark themes
- File association — register as the default
.mdapp on Windows, macOS, Linux - Live reload — on-disk changes are picked up automatically
Pre-built installers are at sciscale.org/vellum
— Windows .exe/.msi and macOS .dmg. The builds aren't code-signed yet, so
SmartScreen / Gatekeeper may ask for confirmation the first time.
Pro is an optional one-time paid upgrade that adds rendered-view editing, selection translation (bring-your-own-key, or SciScale-hosted), and three extra reading styles. Lite stays free and open-source — Pro just unlocks the heavier tools when AI-written Markdown needs revision. Details at sciscale.org/vellum.
Requires Node.js, the Rust toolchain, and the Tauri prerequisites for your OS.
npm install
# build the desktop installers (output under src-tauri/target/release/bundle)
npm run tauri:build:lite
# or just the web frontend
npm run build:liteGPL-3.0 © 2026 Yue Li / SciScale.
Inspired by Obsidian.
A SciScale Studio project.