mdserve

Markdown preview server for AI coding agents.

Follow along as your AI agent writes markdown, rendered live in the browser instead of raw text in the terminal.

Features

Zero config. mdserve file.md just works. No config files, no flags required, no setup steps.

Single binary. One statically-compiled executable. Install it and forget about it. No runtime dependencies to manage.

Instant live reload. File changes appear in the browser immediately via WebSocket. This is the core interaction: an agent writes, a human reads.

Ephemeral sessions. Start it during a coding session, kill it when you're done. mdserve is not a long-running server and doesn't need to be.

Agent-friendly content. Full GFM support (tables, task lists, code blocks), Mermaid diagrams, and directory mode with sidebar navigation - the kinds of content AI coding agents actually produce.

What mdserve is not

• Not a documentation site generator. Use mdBook, Docusaurus, or MkDocs for that.
• Not a static site server or something you deploy to production.
• Not a general-purpose markdown authoring tool with heavy customization for manual writing workflows.

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install mdserve

Linux

curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jfernandez/mdserve/main/install.sh | bash

This will automatically detect your platform and install the latest binary to your system.

Alternative Methods

Using Cargo

cargo install mdserve

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S mdserve

Nix Package Manager

nix profile install github:jfernandez/mdserve

From Source

git clone https://github.com/jfernandez/mdserve.git
cd mdserve
cargo build --release
cp target/release/mdserve <folder in your PATH>

Manual Download

Download the appropriate binary for your platform from the latest release.

Usage

Basic Usage

# Serve a single markdown file on default port (3000)
mdserve README.md

# Serve all markdown files in a directory
mdserve docs/

# Serve on custom port
mdserve README.md --port 8080
mdserve docs/ -p 8080

# Serve on custom hostname and port
mdserve README.md --hostname 0.0.0.0 --port 8080

# Open in browser automatically
mdserve README.md --open

Single-File vs Directory Mode

Single-File Mode: When you pass a file path, mdserve serves that specific markdown file with a clean, focused view.

Directory Mode: When you pass a directory path, mdserve automatically:

• Scans and serves all .md and .markdown files in that directory
• Displays a navigation sidebar for easy switching between files
• Watches for new markdown files added to the directory
• Only monitors the immediate directory (non-recursive)

Themes

Five built-in themes (light, dark, and Catppuccin variants) accessible from the theme picker in the top-right corner. Your choice persists across sessions.

Documentation

For detailed information about mdserve's internal architecture, design decisions, and how it works under the hood, see Architecture Documentation.

Development

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.85+ (2024 edition)

Building

cargo build --release

Running Tests

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run integration tests only
cargo test --test integration_test

Contributing

Contributions should enhance the agent-companion workflow. The best PRs improve rendering of content that agents produce (code blocks, diagrams, tables, math), make live reload more robust, or refine the zero-config experience. Features that push mdserve toward being a documentation platform or a configurable server are out of scope.

We use conventional commits (feat:, fix:, chore:, etc.). PRs that don't follow this style will not be merged.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Built with Axum web framework
• Markdown parsing by markdown-rs
• Catppuccin color themes
• Inspired by various markdown preview tools