MarkView

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MarkView is a zero-config Markdown preview server powered by Go and Bun.

It focuses on local documentation reading: fast startup, live updates, clear sidebar navigation, and solid support for Mermaid diagrams and code highlighting.

Features

• 🚀 Zero Config: run it in any directory and open README.md by default
• ⚡ Single-binary delivery: the Go binary embeds frontend/dist and the HTML template, so no separate static deployment is required
• 🔄 Live Reload: watches Markdown changes and updates the page through SSE
• 🧭 Dual sidebar navigation:
  • Files tree with expandable directories and current-file highlighting
  • On This Page table of contents with scroll spy
• 🔁 Inline navigation:
  • file tree clicks do not trigger full page reloads
  • in-document internal Markdown links are handled inline
  • browser back/forward navigation is supported
• 📖 Split preview: hover over internal Markdown links to reveal a preview button, click to open the target document in a side-by-side panel
• 🎨 Rich rendering:
  • GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown)
  • Image fullscreen viewer
  • highlight.js syntax highlighting
  • mermaid.js rendering with source toggle and fullscreen viewer
• ⚙️ Reading preferences:
  • page width presets
  • font size increase, decrease, and reset
  • settings persisted in localStorage
• 📱 Responsive layout: sidebar-first reading on desktop, single-column layout on mobile

Install

go install github.com/inhere/markview@latest

Usage

Run the executable

Download and run markview:

# Preview the current directory
markview [-p PORT]

# Preview a specific directory
markview "path/to/docs"

# Preview a specific directory and set the default entry file
markview "path/to/docs" "intro.md"

By default, the server starts at http://localhost:6100.

Example documents are available in example/.

Configuration

You can override the port and default entry with environment variables:

$env:MKVIEW_PORT = "8080"; .\markview
$env:MKVIEW_ENTRY = "guide.md"; .\markview

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.22+
• Bun 1.0+

Project structure

markview/
├── frontend/           # Frontend source, template, and build output
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── app.ts              # Page lifecycle, navigation, orchestration
│   │   ├── sidebar.ts          # File tree and TOC logic
│   │   ├── mermaid.ts          # Mermaid enhancement and fullscreen behavior
│   │   ├── link-preview.ts     # Split preview for internal Markdown links
│   │   ├── preferences.ts      # Persisted reading preferences
│   │   └── live-status.ts      # SSE connection status handling
│   ├── template.html           # Main page template and CSS
│   ├── dist/                   # Bun build output embedded by Go
│   └── package.json
├── main.go                     # Go server entrypoint
├── handlers.go                 # Cache header and handler helpers
├── example/                    # Example Markdown documents
└── README.md

Build from source

1. Install frontend dependencies and build:

cd frontend
bun install
bun run build

This generates frontend/dist/ and also copies:

• highlight.css
• logo.svg
• favicon.svg

2. Build the backend:

cd ..
go build --ldflags "-w -s" -o markview

# Or install to GOPATH/bin
go install -ldflags "-s -w" .

You can also use the provided Makefile:

make frontend
make build
make run

Verification

Useful verification commands:

go test ./...
cd frontend && bun test ./src/*.test.ts
cd frontend && bun run build

go:embed packages both frontend/template.html and frontend/dist/ into the final binary.

License

MIT