Show HN: Marky – A lightweight Markdown viewer for agentic coding

A fast, native markdown viewer for macOS and Linux built with Tauri v2, React, and markdown-it. Beautiful rendering of tables, code blocks, task lists, math, and diagrams — with live reload.

Marky is a desktop markdown viewer designed for one thing: opening .md files from the terminal and getting beautiful, instant rendering. Launch it with marky FILENAME to view a file or marky FOLDER to open a folder as a persistent workspace (Obsidian-style). Files reload live as they change on disk — perfect for viewing Claude-generated plans, documentation, or notes as they're being written.

• CLI-first —
  marky README.md opens a window.
  marky ./docs/ opens a folder.
• Live reload — edits on disk (from your editor, Claude, etc.) update the view instantly.
• Folders — add folders as persistent workspaces (Obsidian-style). They appear in a sidebar and restore on launch.
• Cmd+K command palette — fuzzy-search files across all open folders, powered by nucleo.
• Syntax highlighting — Shiki with VS Code themes for accurate, beautiful code blocks.
• Math — KaTeX rendering for $inline$ and $$display$$ math.
• Mermaid diagrams — fenced mermaid blocks render as SVG.
• GFM — tables, task lists, strikethrough, autolinks, footnotes.
• Light & dark themes — follows system preference or toggle manually.
• Sanitized rendering — all HTML is run through DOMPurify. Safe to view untrusted markdown.
• Small & fast — native webview, no Electron. Production .dmg is under 15 MB.

NOTE: I am currently waiting for apple developer review so for the time being the app is not signed. This will be fixed soon.

Installation

Brew Tap (macOS/Linux):

brew tap GRVYDEV/tap
brew install --cask GRVYDEV/tap/marky
# This is temporary until I can sign the binary
xattr -cr /Applications/Marky.app

Download .deb (Linux):
For your architecture from the latest release:

# amd64
curl -LO https://github.com/GRVYDEV/marky/releases/latest/download/marky_0.1.2_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i marky_0.1.2_amd64.deb
# arm64
curl -LO https://github.com/GRVYDEV/marky/releases/latest/download/marky_0.1.2_arm64.deb
sudo dpkg -i marky_0.1.2_arm64.deb

Download AppImage (Linux):
From the latest release:

curl -LO https://github.com/GRVYDEV/marky/releases/latest/download/Marky_0.1.2_amd64.AppImage
chmod +x Marky_0.1.2_amd64.AppImage
./Marky_0.1.2_amd64.AppImage

From Source (Requires Rust, Node.js, and pnpm):

git clone https://github.com/GRVYDEV/marky.git
cd marky
pnpm install
pnpm tauri build
./scripts/install-cli.sh

The install script symlinks marky to ~/.local/bin/. Make sure that's on your PATH:

• bash/zsh:
  export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
• fish:
  set -Ux fish_user_paths $HOME/.local/bin $fish_user_paths

Usage Examples

• Open a single file:
  marky README.md
• Open a folder as a workspace:
  marky ./docs/
• Open with no args — restores your last session:
  marky

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+K	Command palette (fuzzy file search)
Cmd+O	Open file
Cmd+Shift+O	Add folder
Cmd+F	Search in page

Development Commands

• pnpm install
• pnpm tauri dev # dev server with HMR

Frontend:

• pnpm test
  Rust:
• cd src-tauri && cargo test

Project Structure and Tech Stack

src-tauri/ Rust backend — CLI, file I/O, file watching, folder registry, fuzzy search
src/ React frontend — markdown pipeline, UI components, theme

• src/components/ App components (Viewer, Sidebar, CommandPalette, etc.)
• src/components/ui/ shadcn/ui primitives
• src/lib/ Core logic (markdown-it config, Shiki, Tauri IPC wrappers)
• src/styles/ Tailwind base + markdown prose styles
• scripts/ Install helpers

Tech Stack:

Layer	Tech
Desktop shell	Tauri v2
Frontend	React + TypeScript + Vite
Markdown	markdown-it
Syntax highlighting	Shiki
Math	KaTeX
Diagrams	Mermaid
Fuzzy search	nucleo
UI primitives	shadcn/ui
Styling	Tailwind CSS
File watching	notify

Advanced Features

• Built-in AI chat — chat with Claude Code or Codex directly inside your markdown documents
• Git diff review — view and review local git diffs without leaving the app

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

Contributing

• Fork the Project
• Create your Feature Branch:

git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature

• Commit your Changes:

git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature'

• Push to the Branch:

git push origin feature/AmazingFeature

• Open a Pull Request

Before submitting a PR:

1. Run pnpm test and cd src-tauri && cargo test.
2. Run pnpm typecheck.
3. Actually open a markdown file with pnpm tauri dev and verify it renders correctly.