LiveMD

Live file viewer with syntax highlighting, powered by CLI file watching.

Problem

Reading markdown in the terminal is painful - no formatting, code blocks are plain text, tables are unreadable. When AI agents generate markdown files, you want to see them properly rendered.

Solution

LiveMD runs as a persistent server. Add markdown files to watch from the CLI, see them rendered in your browser with live updates.

Terminal                              Browser (localhost:3000)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
$ livemd start                    →   Server started

$ livemd add README.md            →   Sidebar shows README.md
                                      Content rendered on right

$ livemd add docs/guide.md        →   Two files in sidebar
                                      Click to switch

[edit README.md]                  →   Browser updates live

Install

The installers are idempotent — re-running them updates an existing install in place. Once livemd is on your machine you can also self-update with livemd install.

Linux / macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erkantaylan/livemd/master/install.sh | sudo bash

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erkantaylan/livemd/master/install.ps1 | iex

Installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\livemd\ and adds it to your user PATH. No admin required.

From source

git clone https://github.com/erkantaylan/livemd.git
cd livemd
make install              # build, install, start daemon
make install PORT=3001    # same, but on port 3001

make install works as both first-time install and update — it stops any running daemon, replaces the binary, and starts the new one.

Custom port

• Make: make install PORT=3001
• Curl/iex: LIVEMD_PORT=3001 curl ... | sudo bash or $env:LIVEMD_PORT=3001; irm ... | iex
• Or set persistently any time: livemd port 3001

Usage

The installer above already starts the server in the background. Otherwise:

# Start the server (foreground — Ctrl+C to stop)
livemd start

# Or as a background daemon
livemd start --detach

# Add files to watch
livemd add README.md
livemd add docs/guide.md

# Follow a folder (auto-adds new files as they appear)
livemd add ./docs -r
livemd add ./src -r --filter "md,go,js"
livemd add ./misc -r --depth 5         # cap depth in non-git folders

# List watched files
livemd list

# Remove a file
livemd remove README.md

# Stop the server
livemd stop

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Make Commands

make              Show help
make build        Build the binary in the current directory
make clean        Remove the local build

make install      Build, install, and start daemon (idempotent — also updates)
make install PORT=3001    Same, but on a specific port
make uninstall    Stop daemon and remove binary

make start        Start the daemon (assumes already installed)
make stop         Stop the daemon

make watch f1 f2      Add files to watch
make watch-dir ./dir  Add folder recursively
make unwatch f1       Remove files from watch
make list             List watched files

Features

• Persistent server - Start once, add files anytime; state survives restart
• Followed folders - livemd add ./dir -r keeps watching for new files; gitignored files are skipped automatically when the folder is in a git repo
• Tree view sidebar - Collapsible folder structure with a Live toggle on followed folders
• Lazy watching - Files are registered but only actively watched when selected
• Many viewers - Markdown (GFM + mermaid + KaTeX math), 50+ syntax-highlighted code languages, images, PDFs, audio, video, CSV/TSV as tables
• WebSocket live updates - No page refresh needed
• Self-update - livemd install pulls the latest GitHub release in place
• Cross-platform - Linux, macOS, Windows (background daemon on all three)

Tech Stack

• Go single binary (~15MB)
• goldmark for markdown parsing
• chroma for syntax highlighting
• fsnotify for file watching
• gorilla/websocket for live updates