markdown-up

MarkdownUp is a Markdown viewer.

Install MarkdownUp

Use Python's pip to install MarkdownUp as follows:

pip install markdown-up

View Markdown Files

To start MarkdownUp, open a terminal and run the markdown-up application:

markdown-up

The markdown-up application opens the web browser to the MarkdownUp file browser, which allows you to view Markdown or HTML files and navigate directories. To view a file, click on its link.

You can view a specific file as follows:

markdown-up README.md

Note: MarkdownUp runs entirely offline. It does not use an external service to render Markdown files.

Running MarkdownUp

When you run the markdown-up application, in addition to opening the web browser, it starts a chisel backend API application using waitress.

Automatic HTML for Markdown Files

When you run MarkdownUp and click on a Markdown file link, the link navigates to an HTML file that renders the Markdown file. Every Markdown file hosted by MarkdownUp has a corresponding .html file of the same name. For example, if you run MarkdownUp in a directory that has the following Markdown files: "README.md" and "CHANGELOG.md". The MarkdownUp service automatically generates "README.html" and "CHANGELOG.html" files.

The generated .html files are HTML stubs for the MarkdownUp frontend application. All Markdown parsing and rendering are done on the client.

Configuration File

The MarkdownUp Application Configuration File, markdown-up.json, allows you to enable release mode, set the number of backend server threads, and more.

Command-Line Arguments

The markdown-up application has the following command-line arguments:

usage: markdown-up [-h] [-p N] [-t N] [-n] [-r] [-q] [-d] [-v VAR EXPR] [-c FILE] [-a FILE] [path]

positional arguments:
  path                the file or directory to view (default is ".")

options:
  -h, --help          show this help message and exit
  -p, --port N        the application port (default is 8080)
  -t, --threads N     the number of web server threads (default is 8)
  -n, --no-browser    don't open a web browser
  -r, --release       release mode (cache statics, remove documentation and index)
  -q, --quiet         hide access logging
  -d, --debug         backend debug mode
  -v, --var VAR EXPR  set a backend global variable
  -c, --config FILE   the application config filename (default is "markdown-up.json")
  -a, --api FILE      the API config filename (default is "markdown-up-api.json")

MarkdownUp Applications

With MarkdownUp, you can write client-rendered frontend applications and backend APIs using BareScript.

MarkdownUp Frontend Applications

MarkdownUp frontend applications are created by adding markdown-script fenced code blocks containing BareScript to a Markdown file and viewing it with the MarkdownUp frontend application. When the Markdown file is rendered, the BareScript is executed and its results are rendered in place. For example:

# Frontend Hello World

```markdown-script
markdownPrint('Hello, **World**!!')
```

MarkdownUp Frontend Reference

The BareScript Language

The BareScript Library

MarkdownUp Frontend Examples

MarkdownUp Backend APIs

MarkdownUp backend applications are created by adding a MarkdownUp Backend API Configuration File, markdown-up-api.json.

The markdown-up-api.json file specifies the following:

The Schema Markdown files containing the API input and output schema definitions
The BareScript files containing the API implementations

MarkdownUp Backend Reference

MarkdownUp Backend API Configuration File

The BareScript Language

The Schema Markdown Language

The MarkdownUp Backend API Library

MarkdownUp Full Stack Application Example

In this simple full-stack application example, we'll create a MarkdownUp frontend application to input two numbers and display their sum. We'll use a MarkdownUp backend API to sum the numbers.

index.md

The frontend application's index file, index.md, includes the application script and executes the main entry point:

```markdown-script
include 'example.bare'

exampleMain()
```

example.bare

The frontend application file, example.bare, uses the args.bare include library to parse the application arguments. It then uses the sumNumbers API to sum the numbers. Finally, it then renders the links to change the input numbers and the result.

include <args.bare>


# The example application main entry point
async function exampleMain():
    args = argsParse(exampleArguments)
    n1 = objectGet(args, 'n1')
    n2 = objectGet(args, 'n2')

    # Call the backend service to add the two numbers
    sumResponseText = systemFetch({'url': 'sumNumbers', 'body': jsonStringify({'n1': n1, 'n2': n2})})
    sumResponseJSON = if(sumResponseText, jsonParse(sumResponseText))
    result = if(sumResponseJSON, objectGet(sumResponseJSON, 'result'))

    # Render the page
    title = 'Sum Two Numbers'
    documentSetTitle(title)
    markdownPrint( \
        '# ' + markdownEscape(title), \
        '', \
        'n1 = ' + n1 + ' (' + \
            argsLink(exampleArguments, 'Down', {'n1': n1 - 1}) + ' | ' + \
            argsLink(exampleArguments, 'Up', {'n1': n1 + 1}) + ')', \
        '', \
        'n2 = ' + n2 + ' (' + \
            argsLink(exampleArguments, 'Down', {'n2': n2 - 1}) + ' | ' + \
            argsLink(exampleArguments, 'Up', {'n2': n2 + 1}) + ')', \
        '', \
        n1 + ' + ' + n2 + ' = ' + result \
    )
endfunction


# The example application's arguments (for use with argsParse, etc.)
exampleArguments = [ \
    {'name': 'n1', 'type': 'float', 'default': 0}, \
    {'name': 'n2', 'type': 'float', 'default': 0} \
]

markdown-up-api.json

The MarkdownUp Backend API Configuration File, markdown-up-api.json, specifies the backend API:

{
    "schemas": ["example.smd"],
    "scripts": ["exampleAPI.bare"],
    "apis": [
        {"name": "sumNumbers"}
    ]
}

example.smd

The API input and output schemas are defined using Schema Markdown.

group "Example"


# Sum two numbers
action sumNumbers
    input
        # The first number
        float n1

        # The second number
        float n2

    output
        # The sum of the two numbers
        float result

exampleAPI.bare

The backend API is implemented in BareScript. By default, API implementation functions have the same name as the API schema definition. API implementation functions take a single argument, request, that is the schema-validated input object.

# Implementation of the sumNumbers API
function sumNumbers(request):
    n1 = objectGet(request, 'n1')
    n2 = objectGet(request, 'n2')
    return {'result': n1 + n2}
endfunction

To run the application, run markdown-up in the directory containing the application files.

markdown-up index.md

With the application running, you can view the backend API documentation at http://127.0.0.1:8080/doc/.

Development

This package is developed using python-build. It was started using python-template as follows:

template-specialize python-template/template/ markdown-up-py/ -k package markdown-up -k name 'Craig A. Hobbs' -k email 'craigahobbs@gmail.com' -k github 'craigahobbs' -k noapi 1

Metadata

Release files for markdown-up 3.2.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for markdown-up 3.2.0
File	Size	Uploaded
markdown_up-3.2.0.tar.gz	15.0 kB	Aug 18, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for markdown-up 3.2.0
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
markdown_up-3.2.0-py3-none-any.whl 14.7 kB Aug 18, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 29.7 kB

Release files / markdown_up-3.2.0.tar.gz

Download URL	markdown_up-3.2.0.tar.gz
Size	15.0 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`8731e89071a2f853eda8f61a5cec3fa199df3578f5a5812ee635219bec065d72`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`0017e316e367a71cf427f153e1aeadb156a89e92271093e18947ec46d5e0c418`
Upload date	Aug 18, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.14.7`

Release files / markdown_up-3.2.0-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	markdown_up-3.2.0-py3-none-any.whl
Size	14.7 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`a57fb8c12ca189c39264428c8a9d8dca11235100aeabeb1c0cce87905b21e17c`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`29eb95eb86ce0ca66bc1a529e9c3849a9c1c0b932a98937ce11c5d0eee678ff2`
Upload date	Aug 18, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.14.7`