vantage-md 0.4.1

A beautiful local Markdown viewer with live reload and Git awareness

Vantage 🔭

A beautiful local Markdown viewer with live reload and Git awareness.

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Vantage renders your Markdown files the way GitHub does — locally, instantly, with live reload as you edit. Point it at one directory or several, and browse your docs in a polished web UI with file tree navigation, Mermaid diagrams, commit history, and diffs.

Built for developers who write docs alongside code — especially useful for reviewing LLM-generated Markdown output in real time.

Platform: Linux and macOS are fully supported. Windows is not supported.

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Install

The fastest way to try Vantage — no install, just run:

uvx vantage-md ~/Documents/notes          # open a directory
uvx vantage-md ~/Documents/notes/intro.md # open a specific file

The server starts, your default browser opens to the file (or directory root), and the sidebar focuses on the parent directory of what you opened.

Homebrew (recommended)

brew install mschulkind-oss/tap/vantage-md

pipx / uvx

pipx install vantage-md    # or: uvx vantage-md <path>

From source

git clone https://github.com/mschulkind-oss/vantage
cd vantage
mise install               # installs Python 3.13, Node 22, just
just install               # or: just deploy (with systemd service, Linux only)

Both vantage-md and the shorter alias vantage are installed and do the same thing.

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✨ Features

• GitHub-Style Rendering — Full GitHub Flavored Markdown with syntax highlighting, tables, task lists, and footnotes
• Mermaid Diagrams — Renders Mermaid diagrams inline from fenced code blocks
• Live Reload — Files update instantly in the browser via WebSocket when modified on disk
• Git Integration — View commit history, diffs, file status, and recent changes for any file
• Jujutsu (jj) Support — Revision log, evolution log, diffs, and interdiff for jj-managed repos
• Multi-Repo Mode — Serve multiple directories from a single daemon, each accessible by name
• Source Directory Auto-Discovery — Point at parent directories to automatically find and add all git repos
• File Tree Navigation — Lazy-loaded sidebar with directory expansion
• Frontmatter Support — Displays YAML frontmatter as a clean metadata table
• Dark Mode — Toggle with Shift+D, persisted across sessions
• Keyboard Shortcuts — Quick file picker with t, fuzzy search, keyboard navigation
• Performance Diagnostics — Built-in perf-report command for anonymized timing data
• systemd Service (Linux) — Run as a background service that starts on login

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🚀 Quick Start

Single Directory

Point Vantage at any directory containing Markdown files — or a specific file:

vantage-md ~/Documents/notes
vantage-md ~/Documents/notes/intro.md

Your default browser opens automatically. Pass --no-open to suppress.

Multiple Directories (Daemon Mode)

To serve several directories at once, create a config and run the daemon:

# Generate a config file
vantage-md init-config

# Edit it
$EDITOR ~/.config/vantage/config.toml

# Start the daemon
vantage-md daemon

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⚙️ Configuration

The config file lives at ~/.config/vantage/config.toml. Generate one with:

vantage init-config

Example Config

# Server settings
host = "127.0.0.1"
port = 8000

# Auto-discover git repos under these directories
source_dirs = ["~/code", "~/projects"]

# Or list repos explicitly (both methods can be combined)
[[repos]]
name = "notes"
path = "~/Documents/notes"

[[repos]]
name = "work-docs"
path = "~/work/documentation"

Each repo is accessible at http://localhost:8000/{name}/.

Configuration Reference

Key	Type	Default	Description
host	string	"127.0.0.1"	Server bind address
port	integer	8000	Server port
repos[].name	string	required	Display name and URL slug for the directory
repos[].path	string	required	Path to directory (supports ~)
repos[].allowed_read_roots	array of strings	[]	Additional directories this repo may read
source_dirs	array of strings	[]	Parent directories to scan for git repos
exclude_dirs	array of strings	(see below)	Directories to hide from file listings
show_hidden	boolean	true	Show dotfiles in sidebar
walk_max_depth	integer or null	null (unlimited)	Max directory depth for untracked file discovery
walk_timeout	float	30.0	Timeout (seconds) for git ls-files subprocess

Excluded Directories

By default, Vantage hides common build/dependency directories from the sidebar, file picker, and recent files:

node_modules, .venv, venv, __pycache__, .pytest_cache, .mypy_cache, .ruff_cache, .egg-info, .tox, .nox, dist, build, .cache, .git, .hg, .svn

Override this in your config:

exclude_dirs = ["node_modules", ".venv", "vendor", "dist"]

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🔧 Service Management (Linux)

On Linux, Vantage can run as a systemd user service that starts automatically on login. On macOS, run vantage-md directly or wrap it in a launchd agent yourself.

Install the Service

vantage-md install-service

Enable and Start

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable vantage
systemctl --user start vantage

Common Commands

# Check status
systemctl --user status vantage

# View logs
journalctl --user -u vantage -f

# Restart after config changes
systemctl --user restart vantage

# Stop the service
systemctl --user stop vantage

Keep Running After Logout

By default, user services stop when you log out. To keep Vantage running:

loginctl enable-linger $USER

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🖥️ CLI Reference

The primary command is vantage-md; vantage is kept as a shorter alias.

vantage-md [PATH]                   # Serve a dir or file, auto-open browser
vantage-md serve [PATH] [--no-open] # Same as above; --no-open disables browser
vantage-md daemon                   # Serve multiple directories from config
vantage-md daemon -c /path/to.toml  # Use a custom config file
vantage-md init-config              # Generate example config file
vantage-md install-service          # Install systemd user service (Linux only)
vantage-md build PATH -o OUTPUT     # Build a static site
vantage-md perf-report              # Performance diagnostics from a running instance

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🔌 API

Vantage exposes a REST API for programmatic access.

Single-Repo Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
GET /api/tree?path=.	File tree listing
GET /api/content?path=file.md	File content
GET /api/files	List all Markdown files
GET /api/info	Repository metadata
GET /api/git/history?path=file.md	Commit history
GET /api/git/diff?path=file.md&commit=SHA	Diff for a commit
GET /api/git/diff/working?path=file.md	Uncommitted changes diff
GET /api/git/status?path=file.md	File status (modified, committed)
GET /api/git/recent?limit=20	Recently changed files
GET /api/jj/info	Jujutsu repo info (if jj is present)
GET /api/jj/log?path=file.md	Jujutsu revision log
GET /api/jj/evolog?rev=@	Jujutsu evolution log
GET /api/jj/diff?rev=REV	Jujutsu revision diff
GET /api/jj/interdiff?from_rev=A&to_rev=B	Compare two jj revisions

Multi-Repo Endpoints

In daemon mode, endpoints are prefixed with /api/r/{repo}/:

Endpoint	Description
GET /api/repos	List configured repositories
GET /api/r/{repo}/tree?path=.	File tree for a repo
GET /api/r/{repo}/content?path=file.md	File content for a repo
(all single-repo endpoints above)	Prefixed with /api/r/{repo}

Utility Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
GET /api/health	Health check
GET /api/version	Server version info
GET /api/perf/diagnostics	Performance diagnostics (anonymized)
POST /api/perf/reset	Reset performance counters
WS /ws	WebSocket for live reload notifications

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🛠️ Development

See docs/development.md for instructions on building, testing, and contributing to Vantage.

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📄 License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.