Loomings

A markdown writing app for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The shapes loom before they take form.

Built with Tauri 2 + CodeMirror 6. ~12 MB binary, native system WebView, Rust backend.

Site: loomings.tiagojct.eu Try it in your browser: loomings.tiagojct.eu/app Downloads: Latest release Changelog: CHANGELOG.md

Install

Web (no install)

loomings.tiagojct.eu/app — runs entirely in the browser, nothing sent to a server. Chrome/Edge get real open/save via the File System Access API; other browsers fall back to a file picker for opening and a download for saving/exporting. See Web build below for hosting it yourself.

macOS (Homebrew, Apple Silicon)

brew install --cask --no-quarantine tiagojct/loomings/loomings

The --no-quarantine flag is required because the build is unsigned. Without it, macOS Sequoia / Tahoe Gatekeeper will reject the app on first launch with "Loomings.app is damaged". If you already installed without the flag, fix it with:

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

Direct download

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	Loomings_<ver>_aarch64.dmg
Windows	Loomings_<ver>_x64-setup.exe or _x64_en-US.msi
Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)	Loomings_<ver>_amd64.deb
Linux (other)	Loomings_<ver>_amd64.AppImage
Linux (Fedora/RHEL)	Loomings-<ver>-1.x86_64.rpm

Intel Macs: no pre-built Intel .dmg is published — the free-tier macos-13 runner queue was consistently too long/unreliable for it to land with the rest of the release. Intel Mac users should build from source.

macOS Gatekeeper

App is unsigned (no Apple Developer ID, $99/yr). macOS Sequoia/Tahoe blocks "right-click → Open" for unsigned apps. After moving Loomings.app to /Applications, strip the quarantine attribute:

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

App opens normally after that. Alternative: open System Settings → Privacy & Security, attempt to launch, then click "Open Anyway".

Features

Editor

• Real markdown syntax in the editor — bold reads bold, headings read as headings (H1/H2/H3/H4 sized), code reads code, links underline.
• Markdown shortcuts: ⌘B / ⌘I wrap, ⌘` code, ⌘K link.
• Smart list auto-continue: - , * , + , 1. , > extend on Enter; double-Enter exits.
• Smart typography: straight quotes → curly, -- → em-dash, ... → ellipsis. Toggle in View menu.
• YAML frontmatter detection (---\n…\n--- at top is dimmed).
• Native undo, IME, paste-as-plaintext, scroll, selection (CodeMirror 6).

Navigation

• Outline palette (⌘P) — fuzzy-jump to any heading.
• Find/Replace (⌘F) — CodeMirror panel with regex, case, replace.
• Recent files menu (File → Open Recent).
• Cursor position (Ln 5, Col 12) in statusbar.

Writing flow

• Focus mode (⌘⇧D) — dims everything outside the current sentence.
• Typewriter scrolling (View menu) — keeps the cursor line vertically centered.
• Preview (⌘⇧P) — full markdown-it rendering with sanitized URLs.
• Word goal (⌘⇧G) — set target, progress shows in statusbar.
• Reading time + selection word count in the stats bar (⌘⇧L).
• Column-width cycle (⌘⇧W) — wide / normal / narrow.

Themes

Three families, each with dark + light + system-follow (View → Theme):

• Pequod — navy below-deck dark / parchment light. The original.
• Glauca — Profundum dark / Pruina light, from the Glauca design system.
• Try-Works — Try-Fire dark / True Lamp light, from the Try-Works design system.

Cycle dark/light/system within the family with ⌘⇧T.

Files

• Auto-save 2s after last edit, for named files. Atomic writes (temp + rename).
• Crash-recovery scratch buffer — last buffer restored on next launch.
• External file watcher — prompts reload if file changes on disk.
• Drag-and-drop a markdown file onto the window to open it.
• Export HTML (File menu) — standalone HTML styled with the current theme.

App

• About modal + populated macOS About panel (Help menu).
• Open Example (Help menu) — chapter 1 of Moby-Dick, the namesake of the app.
• Update check — banner appears if a newer release is published; links to GitHub. No auto-install (unsigned builds can't survive macOS quarantine).

Build from source

Prerequisites: Xcode Command Line Tools (macOS) or build-essential (Linux) or Visual Studio Build Tools (Windows), Rust, Node 20+.

git clone https://github.com/tiagojct/loomings
cd loomings
npm install
npm run dev          # dev with hot reload
npm run build        # produces installer in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

Linux additionally needs:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf

First Rust compile: 3-5 min. Subsequent builds: seconds.

Web build

The web build (no Rust, no Tauri) is a static site: docs/ (landing page) at the root, the app at /app. Build and preview locally:

npm install
npm run vite:build -- --base /app/   # matches the /app mount point
npm run vite:preview

Or via Docker (matches what docker-publish.yml publishes to ghcr.io/tiagojct/loomings):

docker build -t loomings .
docker run --rm -p 8081:80 loomings

docker-compose.yml is the VPS deploy shape: a loopback-bound port for a reverse proxy in front, plus a watchtower sidecar that redeploys on new :latest image pushes (which only happen on version-tagged releases, not every commit to main).

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
New	⌘N
Open	⌘O
Open Recent	File menu
Open Example (Moby-Dick chapter)	Help menu
Save / Save As	⌘S / ⌘⇧S
Close Window / Quit	⌘W / ⌘Q
Bold / Italic / Code / Link	⌘B / ⌘I / ⌘` / ⌘K
Find	⌘F
Jump to Heading	⌘P
Focus Mode	⌘⇧D
Preview	⌘⇧P
Stats	⌘⇧L
Cycle Column Width	⌘⇧W
Cycle Theme	⌘⇧T
Cycle Word Goal	⌘⇧G
Font Size +/-	⌘= / ⌘-
Fullscreen	F11
DevTools	⌘⌥I

(⌘ = Cmd on macOS, Ctrl on Windows/Linux.)

Project layout

loomings/
  src/                    # frontend (Vite + CodeMirror 6 + markdown-it)
    editor.js             # everything: editor, UI, event listeners
    platform.js            # picks the Tauri or web adapter at runtime
    platform-tauri.js       # native file I/O, menu, window (desktop build)
    platform-web.js         # File System Access API, IndexedDB (web build)
    index.html
    style.css
    icon.png              # served via Vite at runtime (About modal)
  src-tauri/              # Rust backend (Tauri v2, desktop build only)
    src/lib.rs            # IPC commands, menu, file watcher, update check
    capabilities/         # Tauri permission allowlist
    icons/                # ICNS, ICO, sized PNGs
    tauri.conf.json
    Cargo.toml
  examples/loomings.md    # Moby-Dick chapter 1 (bundled as resource)
  icons/                  # Icon Composer .icon bundle + exports
  scripts/                # icon build pipeline (Swift + sips)
  docs/                   # landing page, served at the site root
  Dockerfile              # web build: static site (docs/ + app at /app)
  nginx.conf              # served config for the Docker image
  docker-compose.yml       # VPS deploy (loopback port + watchtower)
  .github/workflows/
    release.yml            # 3-platform desktop release automation
    docker-publish.yml     # web image build + push to ghcr.io

Stack

• Tauri 2 — Rust shell + system WebView (WKWebView / WebView2 / WebKitGTK). No bundled Chromium.
• Vite 5 — frontend bundler.
• CodeMirror 6 — editor with lezer markdown grammar + syntax highlighting + search + history.
• markdown-it 14 — preview renderer with linkify + typographer.
• notify (Rust) — external file watcher (desktop build only).
• ureq (Rust) — sync HTTP client for the update check (desktop build only).
• File System Access API — real open/save in the web build (Chromium; other browsers fall back to a file picker/download).
• nginx — serves the web build's static files + landing page.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Chapter 1 of Moby-Dick (bundled at examples/loomings.md) is public domain.