Save Reading Progress

[ixuzhe]

Again, I’ve been really enjoying using MDHero — thank you for creating such a clean and minimalist tool.

I’d like to kindly suggest one feature:
When reading long Markdown files, it would be very helpful if the app could save reading progress. This way, when I reopen the same file, it remembers my scroll position or last viewed section.

I’d greatly appreciate it if you could consider this.

Thank you again for your work on the project.

[vaibhavuk-dev]

Hey @ixuzhe — thanks for this, and the kind words.

This is a good fit for MDHero. Long-document reading is exactly the workflow the app is built for, and not remembering position is friction every single time. Worth doing.

Here is the shape I am planning, in case you want to push back on any of it before it lands:

• Silent save and silent restore — on reopen, the app smooth-scrolls you back to where you left off. The motion itself is the feedback; no toast, no banner, no settings toggle. The minimalist reading flow stays intact.
• Anchored on markdown structure, not raw scroll position — internally we already stamp each block with a source-line marker (used today for cross-mode scroll sync). Restoring to that line means font size changes, window resizing, or text reflow do not break your saved position. You come back to the same paragraph, not the same pixel.
• Persists across app updates — uses local storage, so updates will not wipe your progress.
• No expiry, but a soft cap at ~500 files for safety against pathological cases. At ~50 bytes per entry, realistic users will never hit this.
• Per-file paths kept as-is — Mac and Windows path differences are fine; this is a local-only app, no cross-machine sync to worry about.
• URL-opened files (the Open URL feature) also remember position, keyed by URL.
• Edit mode is untouched — the editor has its own cursor concept; this only affects viewer-mode scroll.

Edge cases handled: file shrunk between sessions falls back to the closest valid line, tiny files that fit in the viewport do not save anything, etc.

Aim is to ship this in a near-future release. Will follow up here once it lands.

[pushkarchoudhari]

Hi! @vaibhavuk-dev I'd love to work on this feature. I can implement reading progress persistence by saving the scroll position (or last viewed section) per file, so users can pick up right where they left off when reopening a long Markdown file.

Could you please assign this to me? Happy to discuss the approach further if needed.

Thank you

[vaibhavuk-dev]

Hey @pushkarchoudhari — yes, please! Great to have you back.

Created tracking Issue #7 with the design specifics and implementation pointers — it is everything you will need to scope the PR. The TL;DR: silent save + silent restore using the existing data-source-line infrastructure (so font size / window resize / reflow do not break saved positions), localStorage with schema versioning, LRU-capped at 500 entries.

I have noted you as the implementer on the issue. Happy to discuss any specifics on either thread before you start, or just open a draft PR when you have something to show.

[vaibhavuk-dev]

Shipped via #10 — implementation by @pushkarchoudhari, original request by @ixuzhe. Built per the design we converged on in this thread: silent save + smooth-scroll restore anchored on data-source-line (survives font / width / reflow changes between sessions), 500ms scroll-stop debounce, LRU eviction at 500 entries, schema-versioned localStorage, paste:// tabs skipped entirely, url:// keyed by the URL. Ships in the next release; will follow up here once it's out.

[ixuzhe]

thank you two so much for making it happen. The new AI lookup right-click feature is also incredibly convenient.
One small issue I wanted to bring to your attention: when I toggle between View Markdown and Edit Markdown, the progress state doesn’t seem to match the Reader View. It looks like there might be a bug (or inconsistency) related to this.
I’m currently using version 0.2.5 on Windows 11. This was also present in previous version of mdhero.
Thanks again!