macOS
brew install mdservelocal Homebrew formula metadata
brew / rank 5617
Fast markdown preview server with live reload and theme support. Version 1.1.0 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#mdserve.
install
brew install mdservelocal Homebrew formula metadata
nix profile install nixpkgs#mdservenixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/md/mdserve/package.nix · source: api.github.com
sudo pacman -S mdserveArch Linux sync databases · mdserve · source: geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com
overview
Fast markdown preview server with live reload and theme support
history
mdserve is a Rust Markdown preview server built for live-rendering Markdown during AI-assisted coding sessions. Its README emphasizes zero configuration, a single binary, live reload, ephemeral sessions, GFM, Mermaid, directory mode, and built-in themes.
The GitHub repository was created on 2025-09-22. The README positions mdserve narrowly: it is a local preview companion for AI coding agents, not a documentation site generator, static site server, or general-purpose authoring system.
The project includes a Claude Code plugin so an agent can decide when rendered Markdown is useful and start a preview for longer documents, tables, diagrams, or other content that is hard to inspect raw in a terminal.
Official installation paths include Homebrew for macOS, an install script for Linux, Cargo, Arch Linux, Nix, source builds, and GitHub release binaries. The input package-manager facts list Homebrew, Nix, and pacman packages.
GitHub metadata showed hundreds of stars within its first year, consistent with a tool aimed at the newly visible AI-agent workflow around generated Markdown.
The basic workflow is `mdserve README.md` for a single file or `mdserve docs/` for a directory. Optional flags set hostname, port, and whether to open a browser automatically.
The README documents single-file mode for focused previewing and directory mode for serving `.md` and `.markdown` files with sidebar navigation and file watching.
mdserve is package-nerd relevant because it packages a modern local preview stack into one installable CLI, explicitly avoiding the heavier documentation-site-generator category. It reflects the 2025-era shift where generated Markdown, Mermaid diagrams, and agent-written docs became routine terminal artifacts.
security posture
broad file, network, media, or database tool signal.
blue risk · medium confidence · tool
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
mdserve | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
install metadata
| Package key | brew:mdserve |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.1.0 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://github.com/jfernandez/mdserve |
| Repository | https://github.com/jfernandez/mdserve |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source database matches
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
mdserve
nix profile install nixpkgs#mdservemdserve 1.1.0-1
Fast markdown preview server with live reload and theme support
https://github.com/jfernandez/mdserve
sudo pacman -S mdservesource trail
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
View the package source record on GitHub.