MDLite

A lightweight desktop Markdown editor built with Tauri v2, SvelteKit, and Svelte 5.

Features

• CodeMirror 6 editor with markdown syntax highlighting, line numbers, search, and history
• Live preview with marked, syntax highlighting via highlight.js, and Mermaid diagram support
• Split view — editor-only, preview-only, or resizable side-by-side (Cmd+1/2/3)
• Smart lists — auto-continues ordered, unordered, and task lists on Enter
• Formatting shortcuts — bold, italic, code, headings, links, list toggling
• Auto-formatting on save using remark (GFM support)
• Heading outline sidebar for document navigation
• File watching — detects external changes and prompts to reload
• HTML export — standalone HTML files with embedded styles
• Dark/light theme following system preference
• Status bar with cursor position, word count, line count, and character count

Prerequisites

• Node.js
• pnpm
• Rust
• Tauri v2 prerequisites

Getting Started

# Install frontend dependencies
pnpm install

# Run the full desktop app (compiles Rust + launches app)
pnpm tauri dev

# Or run just the frontend dev server (Vite on port 1420)
pnpm dev

Building

pnpm tauri build

Produces platform-specific installers in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Project Structure

src/                        # Frontend (SvelteKit SPA)
├── lib/
│   ├── state/              # Svelte 5 rune-based document state
│   ├── codemirror/         # Editor setup, smart lists, formatting keybindings
│   ├── components/         # Editor, Preview, SplitView, OutlineSidebar, StatusBar
│   ├── markdown-formatter.ts
│   ├── menu-handler.ts
│   └── theme.ts
└── routes/+page.svelte     # Main page

src-tauri/src/              # Backend (Rust)
├── lib.rs                  # App setup, plugins, menu, command registration
└── commands/
    ├── file_ops.rs         # read_file, write_file, get_file_name
    ├── file_watcher.rs     # File change detection via notify crate
    └── export.rs           # HTML export with embedded CSS

Type Checking

pnpm check