PiTH

A visual markdown workspace for people who work with large collections of .md files.

If you've ever maintained a documentation site and found yourself hand-editing a YAML nav file, a sidebars.js, or a custom sidebar config every time you added, renamed, or reorganized a page — this tool is for you.

PiTH gives you a visual, drag-and-drop interface for organizing markdown files into a hierarchy. The hierarchy is stored as a simple tree.yaml alongside your files, and can be exported directly to MkDocs or Docusaurus config format when you're ready to build your site.

Features

Organize

• Visual hierarchy — drag and drop files to reorder and nest them; keyboard shortcuts for fine-grained control
• Unlinked file management — files not in the hierarchy surface automatically; rubber-band, shift-click, and ctrl-click multi-select; multi-drag to hierarchy
• Flatten / restore — flatten the tree to start fresh; restore the saved hierarchy if you change your mind
• Multiple projects — switch between doc sets without losing your place

Edit and analyze

• Built-in editor with live preview — split pane with syntax highlighting, rendered preview, and vi mode (:w / :x)
• Readability stats — word count, sentence length, and 5 readability scores per file
• Scan Project — project-wide analysis report with export to HTML/PDF
• Frontmatter templates — define expected keys per project, scan for compliance, batch-update files
• Internal link validation — project-wide broken link scan; per-file panel that re-checks on save
• Full-text search — search across all files with highlighted match context
• Mermaid diagrams — flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and more render live in the preview pane

Import and export

• Import markdowns from any directory — create a new project from an existing folder of .md files, or add individual files to a project
• MkDocs and Docusaurus — import an existing nav config or export when ready to publish
• HTML/PDF export — whole-collection export to a single document with table of contents and print CSS

Local and private

• Runs entirely on your machine — no cloud, no accounts, no ongoing cost
• Projects stored in ~/.pith/projects/ — separate from the app, never overwritten on upgrade
• Available as a PyPI package or standalone executable

Install

Requires Python 3.10+.

pip install pith-md
pith

On Windows and Mac, pith opens a desktop window. On Linux, it starts a server and prints the URL. On WSL, it opens your Windows browser automatically.

Flags

Linux / remote access

ssh -L 5000:localhost:5000 user@host "/path/to/pith"

Then open http://localhost:5000 in your local browser. Close the terminal to stop PiTH. If you use an SSH config alias (e.g. Host myserver), substitute that for user@host.

To find the pith path on the remote: which pith

Standalone download

No Python required. Download the latest build from the Releases page.

Unzip and run the executable:

• Windows: Double-click pith.exe
• Mac: Right-click → Open the first time to bypass the unsigned app warning
• Linux: Run ./pith from a terminal

Documentation

Full documentation is available at rick-does.github.io/pith.

Run from source

Requires Python 3.12+ and Node.js LTS.

Windows:

git clone git@github.com:rick-does/pith.git
cd pith
start.bat

Mac / Linux / WSL:

git clone git@github.com:rick-does/pith.git
cd pith
./start.sh

Then open http://localhost:8002 in your browser.

Tech stack

• Backend: Python, FastAPI
• Frontend: React, Vite, TypeScript
• Editor: CodeMirror 6 (vi mode via @replit/codemirror-vim)
• Drag and drop: dnd-kit
• Readability: textstat
• Standalone: PyInstaller, pywebview