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Markview

by paulhkang94

Renders Markdown strings or .md files in a native macOS MarkView window through MCP tools.

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Install Markview

Pick your client, then add it in one click or paste the config.

STDIONode.js
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paulhkang94-markview": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-server-markview"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, merge this into mcpServers, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

We couldn’t confirm it starts correctly

We ran the install command but it didn't respond within our test window — this can mean a slow first-time install rather than a real problem.

npx -y mcp-server-markview

No response to initialize.

This is an experimental automated check and can have false negatives — missing environment variables, a slow cold install, etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean something’s wrong. Last checked 3d ago.

Overview

paulhkang94/markview MCP server connects AI assistants to the native MarkView macOS app for Markdown previews. Its stdio MCP wrapper provides `preview_markdown` for rendering Markdown content and `open_file` for opening `.md` files. Use it when an assistant needs to show generated documentation or inspect a local Markdown file in a live native window.

Use cases

  • Preview generated Markdown documentation in a native macOS window
  • Open a local README or other .md file from an AI assistant
  • Review Mermaid diagrams and syntax-highlighted code blocks
  • Inspect Markdown output while an editor updates the source file

Key features

  • Renders Markdown strings through an MCP tool
  • Opens existing .md files
  • Uses stdio JSON-RPC transport
  • Supports GitHub Flavored Markdown
  • Provides live file watching in the desktop app
  • Runs as a native macOS application

Security & health

What it can reach and how reliably it runs — from our own checks, not the maintainer’s claims.

ActiveLast checked 1d ago

Recent health check succeeded.

18/19 checks healthy over the last 78d

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 8d ago via OSV.dev · mcp-server-markview (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

Factual signals from GitHub, npm, and our automated checks — not a rating.

GitHub stars38Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads388Package downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commit1mo agoMost recent push to the default branch.
Install checkInconclusiveDidn't respond in our test window — often a slow first install.

How Markview works

What paulhkang94/markview MCP server does

paulhkang94/markview MCP server links an MCP-compatible assistant with MarkView, a native macOS application for viewing and editing Markdown. It exposes two focused operations: one accepts Markdown content and displays it in MarkView, while the other opens an existing Markdown file. The project is suited to workflows where an assistant generates documentation and a developer wants to inspect the rendered result outside the chat interface.

MarkView supports GitHub Flavored Markdown features including tables, strikethrough, autolinks, task lists, and footnotes. The application also supports Mermaid diagrams, Prism.js syntax highlighting for 18 languages, local images referenced by relative paths, and live file updates. These rendering and editing capabilities belong to the desktop application; the MCP layer provides the assistant-facing entry points.

How it works

The MCP server communicates over standard input and output using JSON-RPC. When an assistant calls preview_markdown, the server passes the supplied Markdown to MarkView for display in a live-reloading native window. open_file accepts an existing .md path and asks MarkView to open it.

The repository separates the Swift macOS application from the MCP implementation. The app uses SwiftUI and WKWebView, while the MCP server is implemented in the MarkViewMCPServer target. MarkView can also be used independently through its command-line tools, Finder’s Open With action, or open -a MarkView.

Setup and configuration

The quickest Claude Code setup registers the server at user scope with npx:

Terminal
claude mcp add --transport stdio --scope user markview -- npx mcp-server-markview

Claude Desktop can use the same npm package through its MCP configuration file:

config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "markview": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-markview"]
    }
  }
}

The MarkView application is intended for macOS 14 or later. The project offers an Apple-notarized Homebrew cask for the full app, a source-built CLI package, and a Swift source-build path requiring Swift 6.0 or newer.

Tools and capabilities

The paulhkang94/markview MCP server exposes:

  • preview_markdown: renders a Markdown string in a MarkView window.
  • open_file: opens an existing .md file in MarkView.

Once content is open, the desktop app provides preview-only and editor-plus-preview layouts, file watching, bidirectional editor and preview scrolling, Markdown linting, format-on-save, autosave, find and replace, word counts, line numbers, dark-mode options, and HTML or PDF export. Quick Look support lets Finder preview supported Markdown extensions without launching a full editing session.

Limitations and notes

The paulhkang94/markview MCP server is tied to the MarkView native macOS application, so it is not presented as a cross-platform renderer. The documented quick-start commands target Claude Code and Claude Desktop, and the transport shown in the setup examples is stdio.

The npm package and macOS application are versioned separately. Installing or updating one does not imply that the other has the same release version. The repository is licensed under MIT.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

Reviews

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Frequently Asked Questions about Markview

paulhkang94/markview is an MCP server that connects AI assistants to the native MarkView macOS Markdown app. Its main tools are `preview_markdown`, which renders supplied Markdown in a live window, and `open_file`, which opens an existing `.md` file. It communicates with clients over stdio.

Install it by registering the npm command `npx mcp-server-markview` as a stdio server. In Claude Code, run `claude mcp add --transport stdio --scope user markview -- npx mcp-server-markview`; in Claude Desktop, add the command and argument to its MCP configuration file.

It requires macOS 14 or later for the native MarkView application. The repository also lists Swift 6.0 or newer as a prerequisite when building from source.

It provides two tools: `preview_markdown` renders a Markdown string in a live-reloading MarkView window, and `open_file` opens an existing `.md` file.

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