Product overview

Help people and agents reach agreement in documents.

Design is rarely finished in one pass. It converges through review, revision, and review again. Markon is a Markdown IDE for people and agents to refine Specs together: read the current proposal, leave feedback or edit it directly, then review what changed in the next version—repeat until everyone agrees.

Markon is local-first. It turns a local file, directory, or Git repository into a browser workspace while the content remains on your own computer or server.

Problems it solves

Markdown often needs more than a quick preview:

• a long design document needs highlights, Notes, section progress, and focused printing;
• a repository needs cross-file search, history, and rendered diff review;
• documentation on a headless server needs safe access from a local browser;
• review participants need to follow the presenter's active section;
• a small typo should be editable without leaving the reading context;
• AI answers need workspace evidence and links back to the original source.

Markon brings these tasks into one Workspace instead of making you switch among a previewer, browser search, Git client, chat tool, and editor.

Core model

local file / directory / Git repository
                    │
                    ▼
            Markon Workspace
   browse · render · search · review
      edit · diff · live · chat

Every workspace has independent Search, Viewed, Edit, Live, Chat, and Shared switches. Administrators decide which capabilities are available; collaborators can only use enabled capabilities.

Two entry points, one service

Desktop app

The Tauri 2 desktop app is designed for everyday use:

• manage directory and single-file workspaces;
• configure default features, theme, language, shortcuts, database, and AI providers;
• remain available from the system tray;
• integrate with the macOS Finder toolbar and Windows file associations;
• receive Stable or RC updates.

CLI

markon is the terminal, SSH, and headless-server entry point:

cargo install markon markond
markon README.md
markon docs/

The desktop app and CLI connect to the same markond background service and share one workspace registry. See Architecture for details.

What it is

• A reading workbench: GitHub-style rendering, table of contents, visual zoom, shortcuts, and themes.
• A review workbench: annotations, Notes, Viewed state, folding, export, and section printing.
• A Git-aware workspace: branches, tags, history, and working/commit/compare diffs.
• A local collaboration surface: shared review state and Live following, stored on the Markon host.
• A constrained Workspace AI: file investigation, source links, and user-approved edits.

What it is not

• Not a static site generator: it does not provide the publishing model of MkDocs or Hugo.
• Not a knowledge-base notebook: it has no backlink graph, plugin marketplace, or cloud account system.
• Not a general programming IDE: its Markdown IDE workflow focuses on reading, review, comparison, and revision of Specs.
• Not a complete Git client: it does not fetch, pull, push, merge, or manage remote credentials.
• Not a multi-tenant authorization system: it separates Admin and Collaborator capabilities, but does not implement account-, team-, or role-level RBAC.

The actual local-first boundary

Rendering, search, Git, annotations, Viewed state, and Live all run locally. Only after a user configures and enables Workspace AI are messages, references, and tool-read context sent to the selected provider.

Continue with Getting started, Feature overview, or Data and privacy.