A calm, capable Markdown desk for your desktop.
Write in Markdown · shape the rendered document directly · keep every file local.
简体中文 · Quick Start · Why MarkDesk? · Contributing
Markdown is wonderfully portable, but source-only editors can interrupt the flow of writing. MarkDesk gives you both worlds in one focused desktop app: clean source text when you want precision, and a visual document when you want to think on the page.
| ✍️ Write your way | 🔒 Keep it yours | 🪟 Feel at home on desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Switch between source, split, and visual editing whenever the task changes. | No account, cloud sync, or server-side document processing. | Native file picker, themes, focus mode, and Markdown file associations. |
↔️ Two-way editing — edit Markdown source or the rendered document; changes stay synchronized.- 🧭 Navigate long documents — a live outline jumps precisely to the matching heading.
- 🧩 Rich Markdown, without the clutter — CommonMark, GFM tables and task lists, syntax highlighting, KaTeX, Mermaid, callouts, footnotes, highlights, underline, and
[TOC]. - 🖼️ Local image workflow — choose an image with the native picker; relative image paths render directly in Markdown documents.
- 🌗 Comfortable writing — light and dark themes, focus mode, keyboard shortcuts, search and replace, word statistics, and synchronized scrolling.
- 📁 Open files naturally — associate
.md,.markdown, and.mdxfiles with MarkDesk after installation.
Download and run the latest Windows installer from the project releases. Once installed, you can open Markdown files from File Explorer with MarkDesk.
Node.js 18 or later is required.
git clone https://github.com/kalen2482/MarkDesk.git
cd MarkDesk
npm install
npm run devnpm run build
npm run dist:winMarkDesk uses Electron and can be built on macOS and Linux from the same source tree. Install Node.js 18+, then run:
npm install
npm run buildTo produce distributables, run electron-builder on the target operating system (macOS for .dmg, Linux for AppImage/deb/rpm). Cross-platform signing and notarization require the appropriate platform credentials.
| Purpose | Technology |
|---|---|
| Desktop runtime | Electron |
| Interface | React + TypeScript |
| Build tooling | Vite |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS |
| Markdown rendering | marked + highlight.js |
| Math and diagrams | KaTeX + Mermaid |
| HTML sanitization | DOMPurify |
| Windows packaging | electron-builder + NSIS |
MarkDesk does not upload document content to a cloud service. Documents are read and written locally. External links or externally hosted images in a document may still make network requests when opened; use local resources for a fully offline workflow.
Ideas, bug reports, and pull requests are welcome. For code changes, please explain the problem being solved and run npm run build before opening a pull request.
MarkDesk is developed with AI-assisted engineering workflows. Human maintainers define the product direction, review changes, test builds, and make the final release decisions.
MarkDesk is released under the Apache License 2.0.