kitmd

Render Markdown and Mermaid diagrams directly in your terminal, with zero browser handoff and PNG output when you need a file.

(kitmd only runs on terminals that support Kitty Graphicas Protocol, such as: Kitty, Ghostty, cmux, WezTerm)

Install

cargo install kitmd

Why kitmd Exists

• Stop bouncing between terminal, browser tabs, and screenshot tools just to preview a README or diagram.
• Stop guessing whether docs, diagrams, and embedded images actually look right from inside your terminal workflow.
• Stop paying the Node/browser startup tax for Mermaid diagrams that should render instantly.

Key Capabilities

• Terminal-native previews for Markdown and Mermaid in Kitty-compatible terminals, so docs stay close to your code.
• Extremely fast display View your rendered markdown or mermaid in milliseconds.
• Browser-free Mermaid rendering powered by a Rust rendering pipeline instead of a headless browser.
• One-command PNG export for Markdown documents or Mermaid diagrams when you need to share, archive, or attach the result.

How To Use

kitmd README.md
kitmd diagram.mmd --theme light --zoom 1.25
kitmd docs/architecture.md -o architecture.png

How It Works

Markdown / Mermaid input
        |
        v
Rust parser + layout engine
        |
        v
Raster image pipeline
        |
        +--> Kitty graphics protocol
        |
        +--> PNG file output

kitmd keeps the hot path local: Markdown is parsed with Comrak, Mermaid is parsed and laid out in Rust, SVG is rasterized with resvg, and terminal output streams through the Kitty graphics protocol.

CLI

kitmd [--input-type auto|markdown|mermaid] [--width-cols N] [--theme dark|light] [--zoom RATIO] [--output FILE.png] <FILE|->

--output writes a PNG file and skips terminal rendering. Markdown exports as one tall PNG; Mermaid exports the rendered diagram PNG directly.