Vellum

简体中文

Vellum is a pure desktop Markdown WYSIWYG editor built with Rust and gpui. Its direction is a focused Typora-style writing experience: local Markdown files, live editing, and a quiet desktop UI without a plugin system.

Current Features

• WYSIWYG Markdown editing
• Open a Markdown file or folder
• Multi-tab editing in a single window
• Switch between live preview and source mode
• Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, lists, task lists, code fences, tables, horizontal rules, links, images, and math blocks
• Live preview metadata panel for front matter
• Live preview table of contents generated from document headings
• Lightweight live preview summaries for Mermaid flowcharts, sequence diagrams, state diagrams, class diagrams, ER diagrams, and pie charts
• Superscript footnote references and footnote definition previews
• Syntax highlighting for Markdown and common code fence languages
• Outline sidebar and workspace file tree
• Open Quickly for workspace files and headings
• Global Markdown search across the current workspace, including #tag text
• File tree refresh and sorting by name, natural order, or modified time
• Find and replace
• Command palette
• In-app preferences for theme, writing modes, and image assets
• Paste or drop images into a configurable document asset folder
• Export print-friendly HTML with local image assets copied beside the exported file
• Export and open print-ready HTML for browser printing or PDF saving
• Exported HTML can render math and Mermaid diagrams
• Auto save
• Watch for external file changes, deletions, and renames
• Conflict detection and handling
• Restore the last opened file on startup

Tech Stack

• Rust
• gpui
• gpui-components
• tree-sitter
• ropey

Project Structure

• crates/vellum: app entry point, window layout, menus, tabs, and file operations
• crates/editor: editor core, Markdown projection, interactions, auto save, and conflict handling
• crates/workspace: workspace tree and file watching

Run

cargo run

Test

cargo check
cargo test -p editor
cargo test -p workspace
cargo test --workspace

Manual release checks live in docs/acceptance/manual-checklist.md.

Notes

• The sidebar currently shows only .md, .markdown, and .mdown
• Workspace search and Open Quickly scan .md, .markdown, and .mdown
• Enter performs semantic line breaks for paragraphs, lists, blockquotes, and similar blocks
• Code blocks keep normal multi-line editing behavior
• The current app model is single-window with multiple editor tabs
• Vellum is intentionally a pure Markdown editor; plugin and extension support has been removed