A WYSIWYG Markdown editor for the terminal. AI-assisted, 100% Swift, zero dependencies. macOS & Linux.

It renders Markdown live as you type: headings, lists, tables, and code are styled in place, not in a split preview. You can hand a whole section to an LLM and review its change as an inline diff before it lands. It's a native Swift binary with no dependencies, so it opens instantly and stays fast on large files.

test.md — My document

# Title

This is a **test** with *markdown*.

▪ Item 1
▪ Item 2

Demo

Renders as you type. Markdown is styled in place; the line you're on stays raw.

AI section editing. Describe a change and review it as an inline diff.

Themes. Light or dark, from the command palette.

Rendered or raw. Flip the view with Ctrl+R.

Incremental find. Ctrl+F to search, Ctrl+G to step through matches.

Opens instantly. Even on large files.

Features

• Live Markdown rendering. Headings, emphasis, lists, task lists, tables, blockquotes, code blocks, and YAML frontmatter are styled in place, while the line you're editing stays plain text.
• AI section editing. Rewrite the selection or current block with an LLM and review it as a red/green inline diff: y to accept, n to reject. Prompt history recalls with ↑/↓.
• Bring your own model. LM Studio (local), OpenAI, OpenRouter, or an offline mock that needs no backend.
• 12 themes, light or dark. Clay, One Dark Pro, Dracula, GitHub, Monokai, Solarized, Nord, Gruvbox, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, Mono, and System, chosen from a rounded command palette (Auto follows your terminal background).
• Incremental find. Ctrl+F searches as you type; Ctrl+G steps through matches and wraps.
• HTML export. Render the document to a styled .html and open it (Ctrl+E).
• Syntax highlighting. Code files (JSON, Swift, JS/TS, C-family, …) open token-coloured instead of as Markdown.
• Quiet by design. Command palette (Ctrl+P), word wrap, line numbers, undo/redo, and per-file cursor memory, all out of the way until you want them.

Philosophy

In editxr you see the rendered result directly, without a separate preview pane. The line under your cursor stays raw text you can edit, and everything else is rendered, so you're always editing the real file. For a full render, press Ctrl+E to open the document as HTML in your browser.

The AI works the same way: it suggests a change and you approve it. You pick a section, describe what you want, and get a diff to accept or reject. There's no chat to manage, and nothing is applied behind your back.

It stays local-first: plain Swift, a JSON config you can hand-edit, and an offline mode, so it runs with no account and no network.

Install

One-liner (builds from source; needs Xcode or the Command Line Tools):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pixdeo/editxr/main/install.sh | bash

Homebrew (via the tap):

brew install pixdeo/tap/editxr

A signed, notarised universal binary is also attached to each release.

Build & run

editxr is a Swift Package. On most machines:

swift build -c release
swift run editxr path/to/file.md

A build.sh wrapper is included for environments where the default Xcode SDK fails to compile (it uses the Command Line Tools toolchain):

./build.sh                 # debug build
./build.sh run file.md     # run
./build.sh install         # release build + copy to /usr/local/bin/editxr

Requires macOS 12+ and a Swift 5.9+ toolchain. It also builds and runs on Linux (Swift 6+); there, only the OpenAI OAuth sign-in is unavailable, and the other LLM providers work as usual.

Keybindings

Key	Action
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Q / Ctrl+D	Quit
Ctrl+R	Toggle rendered / raw view
Ctrl+W	Toggle word wrap
Ctrl+L	Toggle line numbers
Ctrl+P	Command palette / settings
Ctrl+Space	AI assist (edit the section)
Ctrl+E	Export to HTML (and open it)
Ctrl+F	Find (incremental)
Ctrl+G	Find next match
Ctrl+U / Ctrl+Y	Undo / Redo
Ctrl+H	Delete word backward
Ctrl+/	Toggle help bar
Arrows / Shift+Arrows	Move / select
Ctrl+←/→	Move by word
Home / End / PgUp / PgDn	Navigate

In an AI edit: type an instruction and press Enter; ↑/↓ recall previous prompts; Esc cancels. While reviewing the diff: y / Tab accept, n / Esc reject.

While finding: Ctrl+F opens the find bar and matches update as you type (case-insensitive), jumping to the first match. Ctrl+G (or ↓/→) steps to the next match and wraps; ↑/← steps back. Enter keeps the matches so Ctrl+G keeps working after the bar closes; Esc cancels.

LLM configuration

Open the command palette (Ctrl+P) → LLM settings to pick a provider:

• LM Studio. Talks to an OpenAI-compatible endpoint, by default http://localhost:1234.
• OpenAI. Sign in via OAuth (set OPENAI_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID in your environment first).
• OpenRouter. Set your API key and a model (e.g. anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet).
• Mock (offline). A deterministic local transform for trying the edit/review UI with no network.

Settings (theme, appearance, provider, keys) persist to ~/.config/editxr/config.json. Per-file cursor positions are stored in ~/.config/editxr/positions.json.

Roadmap

• Homebrew tap. Publish pixdeo/homebrew-tap with the formula so brew install pixdeo/tap/editxr works.
• Inline image rendering. Draw Markdown images (![alt](pic.png)) directly in the editor using terminal graphics protocols (iTerm2 inline images / Kitty graphics / Sixel), with a block-character fallback for terminals without support. Needs terminal-capability detection, image decoding (via the OS image APIs, no extra deps), and reserving / clearing the image's cell rectangle as the view scrolls. (Video isn't a terminal protocol; it would be frame-by-frame image playback, and animated GIFs already animate in iTerm2.)

License

MIT © 2026 Pixdeo LTD. See LICENSE.