markdown-tui-explorer 0.2.0

A terminal-based markdown file browser and viewer with search, syntax highlighting, and live reload
markdown-tui-explorer-0.2.0 is not a library.

markdown-reader

A terminal-based markdown file browser and viewer built with Rust and ratatui.

Layout

+-------------------+----------------------------------------------+
|                   |                                              |
|  Files            |  Preview                                     |
|                   |                                              |
|  ▼ docs/          |  # Document Title                            |
|    README.md      |                                              |
|    guide.md       |  Some rendered **markdown** content with     |
|  ▶ src/           |  syntax highlighting, lists, tables, and     |
|    CHANGELOG.md   |  code blocks displayed inline.               |
|                   |                                              |
|       30%         |                      70%                     |
+-------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Search [Files] (Tab to toggle)  / query█                        |
+-------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| TREE | readme.md (42%)    Tab:panel  /:search  q:quit           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

The interface is split into three sections: a file tree on the left (30% width), a markdown viewer on the right (70% width), and a status bar at the bottom. A search bar appears between the main area and the status bar when activated.

Features

  • File tree browser -- navigate directories with collapsible folder nodes
  • Rendered markdown preview -- headings, lists, code blocks, tables, links, blockquotes, task lists, and more, all rendered with color and style
  • Vim-style keybindings -- j/k navigation, g/G jump to start/end, d/u for half-page scrolling
  • Fuzzy search -- search by file name or file content, with result cycling
  • Live file watching -- the tree and open file automatically reload when files change on disk
  • Respects .gitignore -- uses the ignore crate to skip ignored files
  • Async runtime -- built on Tokio for non-blocking I/O and file watching

Installation

Prerequisites

From crates.io

cargo install markdown-tui-explorer

From GitHub

cargo install --git https://github.com/leboiko/markdown-reader

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/leboiko/markdown-reader.git
cd markdown-reader
cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/markdown-reader.

Usage

# Browse the current directory
markdown-reader

# Browse a specific directory
markdown-reader ~/projects/my-docs

# Show help
markdown-reader --help

Once inside the TUI, use Tab to switch between the file tree and the viewer, / to open the search bar, and q to quit.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Tree Panel

Key Action
j / Down Move cursor down
k / Up Move cursor up
l / Right / Enter Open file or expand directory
h / Left Collapse directory
g Jump to first item
G Jump to last item
Tab Switch focus to viewer
/ Open search
q Quit

Viewer Panel

Key Action
j / Down Scroll down one line
k / Up Scroll up one line
d / PageDown Scroll down half page
u / PageUp Scroll up half page
g Scroll to top
G Scroll to bottom
Tab Switch focus to tree
/ Open search
q Quit

Search Mode

Key Action
Any character Append to search query
Backspace Delete last character
Tab Toggle between file name / content search
Down / Ctrl-n Next result
Up / Ctrl-p Previous result
Enter Open selected result
Esc Close search

Markdown Rendering

Element Rendering
H1 Cyan, bold, underlined, with █ prefix
H2 Blue, bold, with ▌ prefix
H3 Magenta, bold, with ▎ prefix
H4-H6 White, bold
Bold Terminal bold
Italic Terminal italic
Strikethrough Terminal strikethrough
Inline code Green, bold, wrapped in backticks
Code block Box-drawn border, tinted background
Blockquote Gray text with │ left border
Unordered list Colored bullets: •, ◦, ▪ by depth
Ordered list Numbered with yellow markers
Task list Checkbox markers (checked/unchecked)
Table Box-drawn grid with bold cyan header
Link Blue, underlined
Horizontal rule Full-width ─ line

Dependencies

Crate Purpose
ratatui Terminal UI framework
crossterm Terminal backend / input events
pulldown-cmark Markdown parsing
ignore .gitignore-aware file discovery
tokio Async runtime
notify-debouncer-mini Filesystem change watching
clap CLI argument parsing
anyhow Error handling

License

MIT