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#markdown-viewer #markdown #tui #viewer

app barkdocs

A keyboard-driven TUI markdown viewer, companion to barklog

Owned by lance0.

4 releases (stable)

Uses new Rust 2024

1.1.5 Dec 4, 2025
0.1.0 Dec 4, 2025

#2131 in Command line utilities

MIT/Apache

185KB
4K SLoC

Barkdocs

A keyboard-driven TUI markdown viewer, companion to barklog.

barkdocs screenshot

Features

  • Fast markdown rendering - Syntax highlighting for code blocks
  • GitHub URL support - Open READMEs directly from GitHub URLs
  • History & Bookmarks - Track recently opened files, save favorites
  • Vim-like navigation - j/k scrolling, search with /, regex support
  • Outline panel - Quick navigation via document headings
  • Split view - View multiple sections side-by-side
  • Multiple buffers - Open several documents, switch between them
  • 11 color themes - Match your terminal aesthetic
  • Live reload - Auto-refresh when files change
  • Configurable - Persistent settings via config file

Installation

cargo install barkdocs

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/lance0/barkdocs
cd barkdocs
cargo build --release

Usage

# View a local file
barkdocs README.md

# Open GitHub repo README
barkdocs https://github.com/vercel/next.js

# Open specific GitHub file
barkdocs https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/README.md

# Auto-open README.md in current directory
barkdocs

Keybindings

Navigation

Key Action
j/k, ↑/↓ Scroll up/down
h/l, ←/→ Scroll left/right
g/G Go to top/bottom
Ctrl+u/d Half page up/down
Enter/f Follow link
y Yank (copy) current line
Key Action
/ Start search
n/N Next/prev match
Ctrl+r Toggle regex mode

View

Key Action
b Toggle outline panel
< > or [ ] Resize outline panel
w Toggle line wrap
# Toggle line numbers
Ctrl+s Toggle syntax highlighting
R Toggle auto-reload
Tab Switch panel focus

Split View

Key Action
Ctrl+W, v Split vertical
Ctrl+W, s Split horizontal
Ctrl+W, q Close pane
Ctrl+W, w Cycle panes

Files & URLs

Key Action
o Open file picker
O Open URL prompt
H View history
m View bookmarks
M Add bookmark

Buffers

Key Action
B Open buffer list
Ctrl+n/p Next/prev buffer
Ctrl+x Close buffer

Other

Key Action
S Settings
? Help
q Quit

GitHub URL Support

Barkdocs can fetch and display markdown from GitHub:

# Repository root (fetches README)
barkdocs https://github.com/user/repo

# Specific file (blob URL)
barkdocs https://github.com/user/repo/blob/main/docs/guide.md

# Raw URL
barkdocs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/user/repo/main/README.md

Supported branch names: HEAD, main, master, canary, develop, dev, trunk

Links to GitHub URLs within documents can be followed directly with Enter or f.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/barkdocs/config.toml

theme = "dracula"
line_wrap = true
show_outline = true
outline_width = 24
show_line_numbers = false
syntax_highlighting = true
auto_reload = true

Data Storage

  • History: ~/.local/share/barkdocs/history.json
  • Bookmarks: ~/.local/share/barkdocs/bookmarks.json

Themes

11 built-in themes:

Theme Description
default Clean dark theme
dracula Popular dark purple theme
gruvbox Retro groove colors
nord Arctic, north-bluish palette
solarized-dark Precision dark colors
solarized-light Precision light colors
monokai Sublime-inspired colors
catppuccin Soothing pastel theme
tokyo-night Dark theme from Tokyo
onedark Atom One Dark colors
matrix Green on black hacker style

Change theme with S (Settings) or set in config file.

Environment Variables

Variable Description
BARKDOCS_THEME Override theme
BARKDOCS_LINE_WRAP Override line wrap (1/0)
BARKDOCS_OUTLINE Override outline panel (1/0)
BARKDOCS_LINE_NUMBERS Override line numbers (1/0)
BARKDOCS_SYNTAX_HIGHLIGHTING Override syntax highlighting (1/0)
BARKDOCS_AUTO_RELOAD Override auto-reload (1/0)

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0

Dependencies

~20–41MB
~648K SLoC