mdlib - Your personal wiki/ md library

A beautiful, web-based tool for creating, editing, and organizing markdown notes with real-time preview.

Features

• 📝 Browse and edit markdown files in a directory
• ✨ Create new markdown files
• 👁️ Preview markdown rendering in real-time
• 🔍 Search across all your notes
• 🏷️ Tag support for better organization
• 📂 Category support for hierarchical organization
• 🌙 Dark mode support
• ⚡ Keyboard shortcuts for quick actions
• 🔄 Auto-save functionality
• 💾 Simple file management
• 📱 Responsive design for all device sizes
• 🔍 Full-text search capabilities
• 🔗 Easy navigation between linked notes
• 📄 YAML frontmatter support
• 🧩 Customizable configuration
• 📦 Embedded web assets - run from any directory

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust and Cargo (1.54.0 or newer)

Installation

Via cargo install

The simplest way to install mdlib is through cargo:

cargo install mdlib

Once installed, you can run mdlib from any directory to serve that directory's markdown files.

Building from source

1. Clone the repository (or download the source code):

git clone https://github.com/bahdotsh/mdlib.git
cd mdlib

2. Build the project:

cargo build --release

The compiled binary will be located in target/release/mdlib.

Usage

To start mdlib, run:

mdlib [DIRECTORY]

Where [DIRECTORY] is the path to the directory containing your markdown files. If not specified, the current directory is used.

You can also specify a custom configuration file:

mdlib --config-file /path/to/config.json [DIRECTORY]

Once started, open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000.

Configuration Commands

mdlib includes special commands to manage your configuration:

# Show config file location and current settings
mdlib --config

# Create a default config file
mdlib --config create

# List all embedded static files (for debugging)
mdlib --list-embedded

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl/Cmd + S: Save current file
• Ctrl/Cmd + B: Bold selected text
• Ctrl/Cmd + I: Italicize selected text
• Ctrl/Cmd + P: Toggle preview mode
• Ctrl/Cmd + N: Create new note

Development

Project Structure

• src/: Source code
  • main.rs: Entry point
  • fs.rs: File system operations
  • server.rs: Web server and API endpoints
  • config.rs: Configuration management
  • embedded.rs: Embedded static assets handler
• static/: Static web files (embedded into the binary at compile time)
  • index.html: Main HTML page
  • css/: Stylesheets
  • js/: JavaScript files

Building from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/bahdotsh/mdlib.git
cd mdlib

# Build the project
cargo build --release

# Run the application
./target/release/mdlib

Configuration

You can specify a custom configuration file with the --config-file option:

mdlib --config-file /path/to/config.json

Configuration options include:

• Server port
• Bind address
• File watching
• Maximum file size
• Default theme preference

Sample Configuration

Here's a sample config.json file with default settings:

{
  "port": 3000,
  "watch_files": true,
  "bind_address": "127.0.0.1",
  "max_file_size_mb": 10,
  "default_dark_mode": false
}

These settings can be customized according to your preferences:

• port: The HTTP port for the mdlib server (default: 3000)

• watch_files: Whether to watch for file changes and auto-refresh (default: true)

• bind_address: The address to bind to (default: "127.0.0.1", use "0.0.0.0" to allow external access)

• max_file_size_mb: Maximum file size in megabytes (default: 10)

• default_dark_mode: Start in dark mode by default (default: false)

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.