Editor
Live Preview
Markdown syntax fades away as you read. Headings render as headings, bold is bold, links are clickable. Move your cursor into any block and the raw syntax appears for editing. Move away and it re-renders. Reading and writing are the same surface — you never switch modes.
You can also toggle the entire document to raw markdown source at any time (Cmd+Shift+R) to see and edit the full source directly. Toggle back and the rendered view returns.
Syntax Highlighting
Fenced code blocks render with language-specific coloring for Swift, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, C/C++, HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, Shell, SQL, and Ruby. Colors adapt to light and dark mode. Code blocks are visually indented to separate them from prose.
Table Rendering
Markdown tables render as clean, aligned grids with bold headers and subtle row separators. The rendered table adapts to the available width as you resize. Click into a table and you’re editing the raw pipe-delimited markdown.
Front Matter
YAML front matter at the top of a document renders as a structured property list — key-value pairs with subtle dividers — not as raw text cluttering the reading experience.
Floating Toolbar
Select text and a formatting toolbar appears: bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, headings (H1–H3), bullet list, numbered list, blockquote, and link.
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Cmd+B — Bold
- Cmd+I — Italic
- Cmd+K — Insert link (with text selected)
- Cmd+F — Find in document (native find bar with match count)
- Cmd+G — Find next
- Cmd+Shift+G — Find previous
- Cmd+E — Use selection for find
Auto-Save
Changes are saved automatically after a short pause. No manual save needed — your edits are written back to disk as you work.
File Watching
When an external tool modifies a file — an AI agent or another editor — ML-42 detects the change and reloads the content automatically.
Navigation
Command Palette
Cmd+K opens a search overlay across all your projects. Results appear by filename (instant) and by content (as you type). Each result shows its type (project, folder, or document) and full path. Arrow keys to navigate, Enter to jump.
Back and Forward
Browser-style navigation history across files and folders. Cmd+[ to go back, Cmd+] to go forward. Also available as toolbar buttons.
Table of Contents
The inspector panel shows H1–H6 headings for the current document. Click any entry to scroll there with a smooth animation. Toggle the inspector with Cmd+Option+I.
Breadcrumbs
Every document and folder view shows a breadcrumb path in the header. Click any segment to jump up the hierarchy.
Inline Rename
Click the title in any document or folder header to rename it on the spot. No dialogs, no context switching. Press Enter to confirm, Escape to cancel.
Organisation
Projects
Open any folder as a project. ML-42 remembers your projects between sessions using security-scoped bookmarks. Each project appears in the sidebar with its full folder hierarchy, filtered to show only markdown files.
Sidebar
The sidebar uses an accordion layout — one project expanded at a time. As you navigate into subfolders, the tree expands to follow. Folders show document counts.
Favorites
Star any file or folder from the toolbar. Starred items appear in the Favorites section at the top of the sidebar for one-click access.
Folder Overview
Clicking a folder shows a visual overview: document cards with excerpts and modification dates, subfolder listings with document counts, and breadcrumb navigation. Section headers use the folder’s accent color.
New Files and Folders
Cmd+N creates a new document, Cmd+Shift+N creates a new folder. The menu shows the target location by name — “New Document in docs” — and creates the item in context. Also available from toolbar and sidebar context menus.
Integration
Show in Finder
Reveal the current file or folder in Finder from the actions menu. Every document is a real file on disk — ML-42 doesn’t copy or import anything.
System Share
The standard macOS share sheet is available in the toolbar for sharing files through any system extension.
Appearance
Light and Dark Mode
Toggle between light and dark mode from the sidebar, or set it to follow the system in Settings. The editor, syntax highlighting, table overlays, and all UI elements adapt.
Inspector Accents
The inspector panel uses a subtle colour tint that changes based on context — document accent when viewing a file, folder accent when viewing a folder. This provides a visual cue for where you are as you scroll.
Customisation
Settings (accessible from the sidebar) let you configure:
- Body font — System, New York, Menlo, SF Mono, Charter, Georgia, Helvetica Neue, Palatino
- Body size — 12–24pt
- Code size — 10–22pt
- Line spacing — 0–12pt
- Max content width — 500–1200px
- Appearance — System, Light, or Dark
- Sidebar filtering — Hide folders without markdown files