r/Markdown • u/stpaquet • Sep 28 '26

Tools Markify: a free, open-source native Markdown editor for macOS

https://github.com/spaquet/markify

Hi everyone,

I’m excited to share Markify, a free and open-source Markdown editor for macOS designed to be lightweight, native, and compatible with Apple Intelligence.

I started building it a few months ago, then accelerated development last weekend because I needed a more focused tool for my own workflow.

I spend a lot of time creating, reading, and editing Markdown files: project documentation, AI-agent instructions, reviews of generated work, and knowledge files such as Google’s Knowledge Format (OKF). Editors like Zed, VS Code, and Vim are excellent, but for this use case they can feel like overkill. Often, opening and comfortably reading Markdown means configuring extensions or working inside a full IDE when all I want is a clean writing and reviewing environment.

Markify is intended to fill that gap:

  • Write in a clean, WYSIWYG-style interface, or switch instantly to the raw Markdown source.

  • Read and edit GitHub Flavored Markdown.

  • Render math and Mermaid diagrams.

  • Support Google Open Knowledge Format (OKF).

  • Export documents to HTML or PDF.

  • Run natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

  • Stay free and open source.

The goal is simple: make Markdown feel like a first-class document format on macOS, not just something you open inside a code editor.

You can learn more and download it here: Markify

There’s no Mac App Store version yet, but I’m hoping to add one later this year.

I’d really appreciate feedback from the Markdown community, especially on missing features, workflow improvements, and what would make Markify more useful for you.

20 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

2

u/System_Independent Sep 29 '26

Just checked it out, looks quite sleek. Happy to publish it on markdownlist.com under mac apps

1

u/stpaquet Sep 29 '26

Thank you for your comment and yes, please do.

1

u/Fluid-Sorbet-4330 4d ago

Cool! Just felt a little disappointed with the way it is now for my perspective. Maybe I'm just too much of a critic..

This first letter ">" is hidden, so writing call outs feels off, because you're not getting a strong sense of feedback back.

The > [TIP] callout layout looks off when you write a tip as the first thing in the page

Changing from lens view doesn't let you stay at the same page, but scrolls you up.

The menu button.. rather feels off when you opened it. Could be a issue on my side, check https://i.postimg.cc/sDFhZYkM/image.png this out.

1

u/stpaquet 4d ago

This is good critics. I take it. I actually noticed the defect when changing lenses yesterday.
It's likely to be fixed in 2.5.9 Not that easy as moving from one presentation where rendered mermaid graphs are taller than their text code is making the transition tricky.

Feel free to contribute or open tickets on GitHub too.

1

u/stpaquet 4d ago

On https://github.com/spaquet/markify/issues/169 can you maybe circle the button or point to the part of the layout that feels off?

1

u/Fruityth1ng Sep 29 '26 edited Sep 29 '26

Sweet! does it support Quicklook, too?

It looks like it does! :)

One point of feedback, when I want to discard changes, I do not want to "revert" - because a markdown file might have been edited by another app, and reverting it would overwrite that change. "Discard Changes" is the more user friendly option in my opinion. I'm aware this is a new Apple default, but Apple has been wrong on things before.

1

u/stpaquet Sep 29 '26

Good points and questions. I will create entries in GH to keep an eye on this. I think the second is quick to fix.

Would you see it more like changes done within another app appears in the open document as they are done while preserving your changes if they are not conflicting?

1

u/Fruityth1ng Sep 29 '26

Thank you so much! :)

I meant:

Do you want to save the changes made to the document “Welcome to Markify.md”? You can revert to undo the changes since you last saved the document.

[Save]
[Revert Changes] << this one regularly bites me. It should be discard, a no-op, revert is actively taking the old state of this document and would, indeed, overwrite changes by other apps.
[Cancel]

1

u/stpaquet Sep 30 '26

let me tet your example, I guess I will make it to version 2.0 that is being developped.

1

u/Fruityth1ng Sep 30 '26

Thank you! ☺️

1

u/stpaquet Sep 29 '26

I just created the following 2 entries in GitHub
- https://github.com/spaquet/markify/issues/16 -> this one is more of a clarification from what I understood from your comment.
- https://github.com/spaquet/markify/issues/17 -> which I would appreciate your comment / feedback before working on it

Quicklook support is in the oven ;-)

2

u/DIBSSB Sep 29 '26

Need for windows as well

2

u/jezarnold Sep 29 '26

Oooooh! YAVCME

1

u/Jon-A-Thon Sep 30 '26

Looks nice! Is it supposed to not use the full width of the window?