mdedit

A terminal markdown editor with live rendered preview. Edit raw markdown on one side, see it rendered on the other — no browser, no bloated IDE, no vault lock-in.

Demo Video

mdedit-demo.mp4

Install

# Quick install (macOS / Linux)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sho-luv/mdedit/main/install.sh | sh

# From source (requires Rust 1.75+)
cargo install --git https://github.com/sho-luv/mdedit.git

Pre-built binaries are available on the Releases page.

Usage

mdedit file.md          # Edit existing file
mdedit new-file.md      # Creates file if it doesn't exist
mdedit --theme dracula   # Override color theme
mdedit --mode nano       # Use nano-style keybindings

Features

• Side-by-side editor + live rendered preview
• Render profiles: GitHub, Obsidian, and CommonMark preview styles
• Syntax-highlighted code blocks in preview (Rust, Python, Bash, JSON, and more)
• Table rendering with Unicode box-drawing borders and column alignment
• Callout/alert support for GitHub (> [!NOTE]) and Obsidian (> [!tip]) syntax
• Sync indicator: blue highlight line showing your cursor position in the preview
• Vim-style modal editing (Normal/Insert/Visual/Command)
• Syntax highlighting in editor pane
• Configurable color themes (ocean, dracula, solarized-light, gruvbox-dark)
• System clipboard integration (OSC 52 + platform-native)
• Mouse support (click, scroll, drag-select, resize panes)
• Text search with highlighting
• Works over SSH
• 2.8MB binary, <50ms startup

Keybindings

Vim Mode (default)

Normal Mode

Key	Action
h/j/k/l	Move cursor
w/b/e	Word forward/back/end
0/$	Line start/end
gg/G	File start/end
i/a/o/O	Enter insert mode
d{motion}	Delete
c{motion}	Change (delete + insert)
y{motion}	Yank (copy)
p/P	Paste after/before
dd/yy/cc	Line operations
x	Delete character
u	Undo
Ctrl+R	Redo
v/V	Visual mode (char/line)
/	Search
:w	Save
:q	Quit
:wq	Save and quit
:q!	Force quit

Insert Mode

Key	Action
Esc	Return to Normal mode
All keys	Type normally

Nano Mode

Key	Action
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Q	Quit
Ctrl+F	Search
Ctrl+C	Copy selection to clipboard
Ctrl+V	Paste from clipboard
Tab/Shift+Tab	Indent/outdent

Global (both modes)

Key	Action
Ctrl+P	Toggle view: split / editor only / preview only
Mouse wheel	Scroll editor or preview
Click	Position cursor
Drag divider	Resize panes

Configuration

Settings can be changed live with :set in vim mode, which opens an interactive settings panel. Changes can be saved to persist across sessions.

Command	Action
:set	Open settings panel
:set theme dracula	Switch theme directly
:set mode nano	Switch mode (restart to apply)
:set profile obsidian	Switch render profile
:set save	Save current settings to config file

Config file: ~/.config/mdedit/config.toml

# Editing mode: "vim" (default) or "nano"
mode = "vim"

# Color theme
theme = "ocean"

# Render profile: "github" (default), "obsidian", or "commonmark"
render_profile = "github"

# Sync indicator line in preview (default: true)
sync_indicator = true

Render Profiles

Profile	Features
github	GFM tables, task lists, alerts (> [!NOTE]), blue heading accents
obsidian	Callouts, wikilinks ([[page]]), tags (#tag), purple/green headings
commonmark	Strict CommonMark, no extensions, classic colored headings

Built-in Themes

• ocean — Default dark blue theme
• dracula — Purple-tinted dark theme
• solarized-light — Light theme
• gruvbox-dark — Warm dark theme

Clipboard

Clipboard works automatically:

• Local: Uses pbcopy/pbpaste (macOS) or xclip/wl-copy (Linux)
• SSH: Uses OSC 52 escape sequences (works in most modern terminals)
• tmux: Auto-detects and wraps in DCS passthrough

Every yank and delete syncs to system clipboard. Paste reads from system clipboard.

Requirements

• Rust 1.75+ (to build)
• A terminal with ANSI color support
• macOS or Linux