Markdown CLI viewer with VI keybindings

Source: Hacker News

mdvi

mdvi is a terminal markdown viewer with Vim‑style navigation.

It renders markdown into a polished full‑screen TUI with fast keyboard navigation, clear typography, and predictable behavior for large files.

Features

• Full‑screen terminal viewer (crossterm + ratatui)
• Vim‑style navigation controls
• High‑quality markdown rendering via pulldown-cmark

Supported markdown elements:

• headings
• lists and task lists
• blockquotes
• code blocks and inline code
• links, tables, footnotes, emphasis/strong/strikethrough
• Live reload (r) when the file changes on disk
• Start at specific line (--line)
• Works with standard terminal keys (arrows, page up/down, home/end)

Install

Homebrew (tap)

brew tap taf2/tap
brew install mdvi

From source

cargo install --path .

Run without install

cargo run -- README.md

Usage

mdvi [OPTIONS] 

Examples

mdvi docs/spec.md
mdvi --line 120 CHANGELOG.md

Navigation

• j / Down: scroll down one line
• k / Up: scroll up one line
• Ctrl‑d: half‑page down
• Ctrl‑u: half‑page up
• PageDown: full‑page down
• PageUp: full‑page up
• Ctrl‑f: full‑page down (Vim‑style)
• Ctrl‑b: full‑page up (Vim‑style)
• g / Home: jump to top
• G / End: jump to bottom
• r: reload file from disk
• /: start search
• n: next search match
• N: previous search match
• ?: toggle help line
• q: quit

Why Rust?

Rust is a strong fit for a serious CLI viewer:

• Precise terminal control
• Excellent performance for large files
• Single static binary distribution
• Mature ecosystem for TUI and markdown parsing

Development

cargo test
cargo fmt
cargo clippy -- -D warnings

License

MIT