Project Description

I’ve been using markdown editors for quite some time. I tried several alternatives. Each one has something good, but none had everything I needed: a powerful editor, with support for mermaid and code highlighting, real-time preview with customizable styles, direct integration with my GitHub repos, or my Gdrive, the ability to work offline, and work sync to continue on any of my devices exactly as I had left it.

MarkView was born from that need. I wanted an editor that feels like a professional tool, not like a glorified text field. An editor where I can write documentation, take notes, and sync everything with my projects without jumping between applications/devices.

The Problem

Existing markdown editors fall into two categories:

The simple ones offer a textarea with preview. It works, but without decent syntax highlighting, without keyboard shortcuts, without integration with anything.

The complex ones are desktop/mobile applications that require installation, configuration, and sometimes monthly subscription. They work well but generally aren’t where I want them: in the browser, accessible from any device.

MarkView solves this by offering:

• Professional editor with CodeMirror 6, the same engine used by VS Code Web and many IDEs
• Live preview with themes that replicate the style of GitHub, Notion, Obsidian and more
• Cloud native with direct synchronization to GitHub and Google Drive
• Offline-first as an installable PWA that works without connection

Main Features

Powerful Editor

The heart of MarkView is CodeMirror 6 with custom extensions:

• Syntax highlighting for GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown)
• Contextual autocomplete for links, images and emojis
• Keyboard shortcuts for formatting (bold, italic, lists, code)
• Search and replace with regex support
• Line numbers and minimap for long documents
• Real-time linting with remark-lint

Real-Time Preview

The preview panel updates as you type, with synchronized scroll that keeps both panels aligned. You can choose between 8 themes:

• GitHub Light/Dark
• GitLab
• Notion
• Obsidian
• Stack Overflow
• Dev.to

Advanced Markdown Support

MarkView isn’t limited to basic markdown:

• Mermaid for flowcharts, sequences, Gantt
• KaTeX for LaTeX math equations
• Callouts GitHub and Obsidian style (note, warning, tip)
• YAML Frontmatter with highlighting and validation
• Task lists with interactive checkboxes

Cloud Integration

GitHub:

• Browse repositories and branches
• Open markdown files directly
• Save with custom commits
• Create new files in any location
• Delete files from the repository

Google Drive:

• Browse folders and files
• Auto-sync every 30 seconds after editing
• Manual save with Ctrl+S
• Sync status indicator
• Create folders on-the-fly

Document Management

• Multiple simultaneous tabs
• Version history with diff viewer
• Drag & drop of .md, .txt, .mdx files
• Configurable auto-save in localStorage
• File explorer with folders

Export

• Markdown (.md) with clean formatting
• HTML standalone with embedded styles
• PDF optimized for printing
• PNG/JPEG for sharing on social media

Offline-First PWA

MarkView works completely offline. It installs as a native app on any device, automatically caches resources, and syncs when connection returns.

Technical Architecture

Frontend

Backend

Store Structure

State management uses Zustand with stores separated by responsibility:

• documentStore - Documents, tabs, content
• settingsStore - User preferences
• uiStore - UI state (modals, sidebar)
• githubStore - GitHub connection state
• gdriveStore - Google Drive connection state
• syncStore - Sync queue

Markdown Processing

Processing uses unified with chained plugins:

1
Markdown → remark-parse → remark-gfm → remark-math → remark-frontmatter
2
         → rehype → rehype-katex → rehype-shiki → rehype-sanitize → HTML

Current Status

MarkView is in production with all core features working. The test suite has 2920+ unit tests with 77%+ coverage. Development will continue actively, with improvements that I need myself or are requested.

Why I Built This

I wanted a markdown editor that I could use on any device, that syncs with my GitHub projects without issues, and that works offline when I’m in some boring place without connection wanting to tinker.

Existing alternatives are either too simple, or require subscriptions, or don’t have the integrations I need. MarkView is exactly what I personally needed, and that I hope will be useful to more people.

The goal is not to compete with any other tool, but to have a web-first alternative that works well for my specific work.