Developed with Claude Code AI assistance.
A lightweight desktop Markdown previewer built with Tauri. Features live file watching, Mermaid diagrams, syntax highlighting, and Obsidian-style Callouts.
⬇ Download Latest Release · Landing Page
Renders Markdown files with the bottom toolbar showing the current theme and export button.
Live full-text search with highlighter. Supports Whole words, Case sensitive, and Regex.
10 built-in themes: Obsidian, Swiss, Ink, Multi-Column, GitHub, Amblin, Upstanding Citizen, Lopash, Manuscript, Grump — plus Custom CSS. Switch with ⌘1–⌘9.
Click the share icon (↑) at the bottom right to export as HTML (with CDN), PDF (A4 paginated), DOCX, MD, or OPML.
- Drag & Drop — Drag any
.mdfile onto the window to preview - CLI Launch — Open a file from the terminal with
md2u yourfile.md - Live Reload — Auto-detects file changes and updates the preview on save
- Syntax Highlighting — Powered by highlight.js for dozens of languages
- Mermaid Diagrams — Render flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and more inline
- Obsidian Callouts — Supports
[!NOTE],[!WARNING], and other callout blocks - Find Bar — Ctrl+F / Cmd+F full-text search with Whole words, Case sensitive, Regex
- 10 CSS Themes — Built-in Obsidian, GitHub, Grump, and more; Custom CSS supported
- Export — One-click export to HTML, PDF, DOCX, MD, OPML
- File Association — Double-click
.md/.markdownfiles to open after install - Window State — Remembers last window size and position
The fastest way: hand this repo to an AI agent.
- Node.js 18+
- Rust toolchain
- Tauri CLI system dependencies (varies by OS)
npm installnpm run tauri devnpm run tauri buildOutput artifacts are in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.
Drag & Drop: Drag any .md file onto the md2u window.
Command Line:
md2u /path/to/yourfile.mdThe preview updates automatically when the file is saved — no manual refresh needed.
Q: What is md2u?
md2u is a lightweight, open-source, cross-platform Markdown previewer built with Tauri. It uses the same rendering engine as Obsidian, supports syntax highlighting, Mermaid diagrams, 10 CSS themes, find-in-document, and one-click export to HTML, PDF, DOCX, and more.
Q: Which platforms are supported?
Windows (x64, ARM64) and Linux (.deb, .rpm) are available now. macOS support is planned.
Q: Why no macOS (.dmg) yet?
macOS requires all distributed apps to be signed and notarized by an Apple Developer account ($99/year). Unsigned .dmg files are blocked by Gatekeeper on macOS 13+. macOS support is planned once code signing is in place.
Q: My antivirus flagged the installer — is it safe?
This app is not yet code-signed. Some heuristic scanners may flag unsigned open-source binaries as suspicious. We are currently applying for code signing through SignPath Foundation — thank SignPath Foundation for supporting open source projects like ours. Windows Defender and ClamAV both pass. Source code is fully public — verify it yourself or build from source.
Q: Why scan for malware if binaries are built from source?
Scanning at the artifact output stage detects known malicious signatures in the final binary, serving as the last layer of defense-in-depth. It complements dependency auditing, pinned package versions, and isolated build environments.
Q: Why not use VirusTotal?
The free VirusTotal API is limited to 1 request per day — not enough for CI/CD. This project uses platform-native alternatives: ClamAV on Linux and Windows Defender on Windows.
Q: Is md2u free?
Yes. md2u is completely free and open-source under the GNU General Public License v3.0. No account required.
Q: Does md2u collect any data?
No. md2u is a local desktop application. It collects no data, makes no network requests, and never sends anything anywhere. See the Privacy Policy.
All release installers are compiled from source by GitHub Actions and scanned before publishing:
- Linux (
.deb,.rpm) — Built on GitHub Ubuntu runner, scanned with ClamAV - Windows (
.exe,.msi) — Built on GitHub Windows runner, scanned with Windows Defender
If any scan fails, the release is not published. View the full build log on the Actions page.
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Framework | Tauri v2 |
| Frontend | Vite + Vanilla JS |
| Markdown | markdown-it |
| Diagrams | Mermaid |
| Syntax Highlighting | highlight.js |
| Backend | Rust (notify, tauri-plugin-window-state) |
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.