CmdMD

A review‑first Markdown editor & Obsidian vault router for macOS.

Open a note, read it beautifully, then send it to the right vault folder — one keystroke each. Native Swift / SwiftUI · macOS 14+ · CMDS‑branded, light & dark.

cmdmd.cmdspace.work · Download · Website source

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Why CmdMD

Most Markdown apps open into an editor. CmdMD opens into a rendered preview — reading comes first, editing is one keystroke away (like reviewing a pull request, not writing one). It speaks Obsidian‑flavored Markdown and acts as a router: capture or open a note, then file it into the correct vault folder with templates and rules.

Screenshots

Preview — Light	Preview — Dark

Split (source + preview) — Light	Split — Dark

The accent follows your appearance — CMDS Green in light, CMDS Pink in dark.

Features

• Review‑first — launches into a rendered preview; ⌘1/⌘2/⌘3 flips Source / Split / Preview.
• Full Markdown — GitHub‑Flavored (tables, task lists, strikethrough) plus Obsidian extensions: [[wiki‑links]], #tags, > [!callouts], ==highlights==.
• Mermaid 11 + KaTeX — diagrams and math ($…$, $$…$$, \[…\], \(…\)) with \ce{} chemistry.
• 7 preview themes — CMDS, GitHub, Obsidian, Minimal, Sepia, Newsprint, Dark Pro — plus syntax‑highlighted source themes that follow light / dark.
• Obsidian vault router — auto‑detects your installed vaults, sends notes to any folder, with templates, routing rules (auto‑route by tag / filename / content), and a per‑vault Inbox.
• Omnisearch (⇧⌘O) — fuzzy file‑name + debounced content search.
• Command palette (⌘P) and fully remappable shortcuts (Settings → Shortcuts).
• Tabs, split scroll‑sync, drafts, Quick Capture (menu bar + global hotkey), a frontmatter inspector, slug‑accurate TOC, and HTML / PDF export.

Install

Download (recommended)

Grab the latest build from the Releases page:

• CmdMD-<version>.dmg — open it and drag CmdMD.app onto the Applications shortcut.
• CmdMD-macos.zip — unzip and move CmdMD.app to /Applications (same thing, no mount).

The app is ad‑hoc signed, so on first launch Gatekeeper may warn. Either right‑click → Open, or clear the quarantine flag:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/CmdMD.app

Build from source

Requires Xcode 15+ (Swift 5.9+) on macOS 14+.

git clone https://github.com/johnfkoo951/CmdMD.git
cd CmdMD

swift build                         # debug build
swift run                           # run it
swift test                          # 57 tests

swift build -c release              # release binary
bash scripts/package_app.sh         # → dist/CmdMD.app + dist/CmdMD-macos.zip

Keyboard shortcuts

Defaults mirror common Obsidian bindings; every action is remappable in Settings → Shortcuts.

Action	Shortcut		Action	Shortcut
Command palette	⌘P		Send to vault	⇧⌘T
Omnisearch	⇧⌘O		Auto‑route send	⌃⌘T
Source / Split / Preview	⌘1 ⌘2 ⌘3		Quick capture	⇧⌘M
Toggle left sidebar	⌃⌘←		New draft	⌘N
Toggle right sidebar	⌃⌘→		Save / Save As	⌘S ⇧⌘S
Copy file path	⌥⌘C		Find in document	⌘F

Sending to a vault

CmdMD connects to your Obsidian vaults (it reads Obsidian's own registry to offer one‑click connect). When you Send (⇧⌘T), a note is copied or moved into a destination folder:

• A global default send folder (Settings → Vaults) applies everywhere…
• …unless a vault sets its own Inbox, which takes priority.
• Routing rules auto‑route by tag, filename, frontmatter, or content (⌃⌘T).
• Templates rewrite the filename and wrap the body ({{title}}, {{date}}, {{content}}, …).

Tech

Swift / SwiftUI · swift‑markdown · Highlightr · Yams · Mermaid & KaTeX via CDN. App data lives in ~/Library/Application Support/CmdMD/. The cmdmd://open?note=<name> URL scheme resolves a note against the open folder and vaults.

License

MIT © 2026 CMDSPACE · 구요한