Markdown Scribe

A fast and extensible Markdown renderer and editor built in Rust, designed for client-side use with CLI and TUI support. No dependencies on servers or networks.

Features

• Markdown Rendering - Convert Markdown files to HTML with syntax highlighting for code blocks
• CLI Interface - Simple command-line tools for rendering and watching files
• TUI Editor - Terminal user interface editor for creating and editing Markdown
• File Watching - Auto-rerender Markdown when files change
• Syntax Highlighting - Code blocks are highlighted using syntect
• Extended Markdown - Support for tables, task lists, strikethrough, and footnotes
• PDF Export - Support for exporting rendered Markdown to PDF (in development)
• No External Dependencies - Fully client-side, works offline

Installation

From Source

Build using Cargo:

git clone https://github.com/DhanushNehru/markdown-scribe.git
cd markdown-scribe
cargo build --release

The binary will be available at target/release/markdown-scribe.

Usage

Render Markdown to HTML

cargo run -- render --input example.md --output output.html

Options:

• --input, -i - Path to input Markdown file (required)
• --output, -o - Path to output HTML file (default: output.html)
• --pdf - Optional path to render as PDF

Watch Mode

Auto-rerender HTML whenever the Markdown file changes:

cargo run -- watch --file example.md

Opens a live preview in your default browser that updates automatically on file changes.

TUI Editor

Launch the interactive terminal editor:

cargo run -- edit

Or open and edit an existing file:

cargo run -- edit --file example.md

Editor Controls:

• Esc - Exit editor
• Enter - New line
• Arrow Keys - Navigate cursor
• Backspace - Delete character

Project Structure

src/
├── main.rs    - CLI interface and core rendering logic
└── tui.rs     - Terminal user interface implementation

Technical Details

Markdown Processing

• Uses pulldown-cmark for robust Markdown parsing
• Supports CommonMark with GitHub Flavored Markdown extensions
• Custom syntax highlighting for code blocks via syntect

Terminal UI

• Built with ratatui for rendering
• Uses crossterm for cross-platform terminal control
• Split-pane editor with live preview

File Watching

• notify crate for file system monitoring
• Instant feedback on file changes

Dependencies

• clap (4.5.53) - Command-line argument parsing
• pulldown-cmark (0.13.0) - Markdown parsing
• syntect (5.3.0) - Syntax highlighting
• ratatui (0.30.0) - TUI framework
• crossterm (0.29.0) - Terminal manipulation
• notify (8.2.0) - File watching
• webbrowser (1.0.6) - Open browser preview
• printpdf (0.8.2) - PDF generation
• anyhow (1.0.82) - Error handling

Building

Requirements

• Rust 1.70+ (Edition 2021)
• Cargo

Build Commands

# Development build
cargo build

# Release build (optimized)
cargo build --release

# Check without building
cargo check

# Run tests
cargo test

Future Enhancements

• Full PDF rendering with proper styling
• Markdown validation and linting
• Export to additional formats (DOCX, LaTeX, EPUB)
• Theme customization for syntax highlighting
• Advanced editor features (find/replace, undo/redo)
• Configuration file support
• Plugin system for extensions

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to:

• Report bugs by opening issues
• Suggest features
• Submit pull requests with improvements

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Author

DhanushNehru