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FluxMarkdown

Beautiful Markdown previews in macOS Finder QuickLook
Mermaid • KaTeX • GFM • TOC • Charts • Export

GitHub stars Latest release Downloads License

English • Español • 中文文档 • Install • Troubleshooting

Privacy and network activity

Markdown rendering uses bundled local assets. The app also checks for updates and, by default, sends pseudonymous usage statistics. You can turn off Share Usage Statistics in Settings (for both the app and Quick Look). Statistics do not include document names, paths or contents. See the privacy notice for the collected fields, IP-based location processing, retention and opt-out behavior.


✨ Demo

FluxMarkdown Demo

Press Space in Finder → Instant preview with diagrams, math, and more.

👋 If FluxMarkdown helps you, consider giving it a ⭐ star on GitHub!


🚀 Quick Install (30 seconds)

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew install --cask xykong/tap/flux-markdown

If Homebrew reports that xykong/tap is not trusted, this is Homebrew's third-party tap trust warning, not a FluxMarkdown install failure. Prefer trusting only this cask:

brew trust --cask xykong/tap/flux-markdown
brew install --cask xykong/tap/flux-markdown

See Tap Trust for Homebrew's security model.

Manual (DMG)

  1. Download the latest FluxMarkdown.dmg from Releases
  2. Open the DMG
  3. Drag FluxMarkdown.app to Applications

💡 Why FluxMarkdown?

Feature Description
📊 Mermaid Diagrams Architecture diagrams, flowcharts, sequence diagrams
🧮 KaTeX Math Inline and block mathematical expressions
📝 GFM Support Tables, task lists, strikethrough, and GitHub Alerts
🎨 Code Highlighting Syntax highlighting for 40+ languages
📊 Charts & Graphs Vega, Vega-Lite, and Graphviz (DOT) support
📑 TOC Panel Interactive table of contents with section tracking
📄 YAML Metadata Auto-parses frontmatter into a clean table
📤 Export PDF (Cmd+Shift+P) / HTML (Cmd+Shift+E) — V2EX 用户求的功能!
🔍 Zoom & Pan Cmd +/-/0, Cmd+scroll, pinch gestures
💾 Position Memory Remembers scroll position and last-viewed file
🌓 Themes Light, Dark, and System-synchronized modes
📂 File Formats Supports .md, .mdx, .rmd, .qmd, .mdoc, .mdc, .mmd, .livemd, .mkd, .mkdn, .mkdown, .mdwn, .mdown, .markdown, and read-only .tsv table previews

⚙️ Settings (Cmd+,)

FluxMarkdown includes a dedicated Settings window to customize your experience:

  • Appearance: Switch between Light, Dark, or System themes.
  • Rendering: Toggle Mermaid, KaTeX, or Emoji support.
  • Editor: Adjust base font size and choose code highlighting themes (GitHub, Monokai, Atom One Dark, etc.).

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Space Open QuickLook preview (Finder)
Cmd + + / - / 0 Zoom in / out / reset
Cmd + Shift + E Export as HTML
Cmd + Shift + P Export as PDF
Cmd + , Open Settings

🛠️ Troubleshooting

"App is damaged" / "Unidentified developer"

Run this in Terminal:

xattr -cr "/Applications/FluxMarkdown.app"
QuickLook not showing updates

Reset QuickLook cache:

qlmanage -r
Preview not working at all
  1. Check if the app is in /Applications/
  2. Try restarting Finder: killall Finder
  3. Check pluginkit -m -v for active QuickLook extensions

📚 More help: See docs/user/TROUBLESHOOTING.md and docs/user/AUTO_UPDATE.md

📖 Documentation index: docs/README.md


Comparison (QuickLook Markdown plugins)

Feature FluxMarkdown QLMarkdown qlmarkdown PreviewMarkdown
Install brew cask / DMG brew cask / DMG manual App Store / DMG
Mermaid Yes Yes (ref) Not mentioned Not mentioned
KaTeX / Math Yes Yes (ref) Not mentioned Not mentioned
GFM / Alerts Yes Yes (cmark-gfm; ref) Partial (Discount; ref) Not mentioned
TOC panel Yes Not mentioned No Not mentioned
Charts (Vega/DOT) Yes Not mentioned No No
Export (PDF/HTML) Yes No No No
YAML Frontmatter Yes Yes No No
Themes Light/Dark/System CSS-based (ref) Not mentioned Basic controls (ref)
Zoom Yes Not mentioned No Not mentioned
Scroll restore Yes Not mentioned No Not mentioned

Notes:

  • Entries are based on public README/release notes at the cited links.
  • If a feature isn't mentioned in sources, we mark it as "Not mentioned".

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/xykong/flux-markdown.git
cd flux-markdown
make install

📄 License

FluxMarkdown is dual-licensed:

Open Source License: GPL-3.0

  • ✅ Free for personal, educational, and open-source use
  • ✅ Any modifications must also be open-sourced under GPL-3.0
  • 📜 See LICENSE for full terms

Commercial License

  • 💼 Required for closed-source or proprietary products
  • 💼 Allows distribution without open-sourcing your modifications
  • 📧 Contact: xy.kong@gmail.com for licensing inquiries
  • 📜 See LICENSE.COMMERCIAL for details

Why dual licensing? This ensures FluxMarkdown remains free and open for the community while allowing commercial use without GPL obligations for those who need it.


Inspired by and partially based on markdown-preview-enhanced

Reporting a failure

Error notices offer a recovery action and Report This Problem. Reporting opens GitHub with the selected error and available system information already filled in; you review and publish the issue there. A GitHub account is required. Use Review Feedback… to add optional details or turn off diagnostics before continuing.

Reports exclude document text, file paths and raw system logs by default. If the browser cannot open, the report remains available to copy or save. Help → Review Last Error… reopens the latest failure, and Help → Clear Error History clears locally retained error records without changing your settings. Errors controlled by macOS itself, or failures where the extension never starts, may require the existing Help → Report an Issue entry.

TSV table previews

Open .tsv in FluxMarkdown or preview it with Finder Quick Look. UTF-8 (including BOM) and LF/CRLF/CR records are supported. Tabs separate columns; quotes, HTML, Markdown and formulas remain literal text. The first record is data, with generated column numbers above it.

Previews show up to 500 KiB, 1,000 rows, 100 columns and 20,000 cells. Truncation is marked in the table, source view and exports. Empty fields and uneven rows are preserved. This is a read-only viewer, not a spreadsheet editor; quoted multiline fields and non-UTF-8 encodings are not supported. On initial host-app opening, macOS supplies a full FileDocument buffer before the app decodes its bounded prefix; very large initial opens can still use significant memory.

About

Markdown Preview Enhanced for macOS QuickLook

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