I built mdedit.io — a no-account Markdown editor with live preview, collaboration and AI assistance
I’m looking for feedback on the public beta of mdedit.io:
Repository:
https://github.com/MatthiasHertel21/mdedit
mdedit.io is a browser-based Markdown editor focused on writing, structuring, previewing, sharing and exporting longer Markdown documents.
It does not require an account. You can open it, start writing, preview your document, navigate it through an outline/tree view, export it as Markdown, PDF or DOCX — and optionally share or collaborate on documents by permalink.
The beta also includes an AI assistant panel that can help with writing, rewriting, summarizing and improving Markdown content.
Why another Markdown editor?
There are already many good Markdown tools.
Some are great as desktop apps.
Some are great inside an IDE.
Some are great for personal knowledge management.
Some are great for team collaboration.
But I often wanted something slightly different:
- open a browser
- start writing immediately
- see a live preview
- keep an overview of the document structure
- use Markdown extensions like Mermaid and KaTeX
- share a document without setting up a workspace
- get lightweight AI assistance while writing
- export the result cleanly as PDF or DOCX
- do all of that without creating an account first
That is the use case I built mdedit.io for.
What mdedit.io currently supports
The current beta includes:
- browser-based Markdown editing
- no account required
- live preview
- split editor/preview layout
- outline/tree view for document structure
- GitHub-flavored Markdown features
- tables
- task lists
- footnotes
- Mermaid diagrams
- KaTeX math rendering
- image paste / drag-and-drop support
- Markdown download
- PDF export
- DOCX export
- ZIP export for multiple documents
- optional permalink sharing
- lightweight collaborative editing
- participant display names for collaboration
- automatic joining of shared documents, if enabled
- AI assistant panel
- configurable AI providers/models
- keyboard shortcuts
- multilingual UI
- Apache-2.0 source code
Collaboration in the beta
mdedit.io is primarily designed as a fast writing and document-export tool, but the beta also includes lightweight collaboration features.
The idea is not to recreate a full enterprise workspace. Instead, I wanted collaboration to feel simple:
Share a document. Let someone open it. Work on the same Markdown content.
Current collaboration-related features include:
- optional document sharing by permalink
- shared document access without requiring user accounts
- collaborative editing support
- display names for collaborators
- settings for allowing collaborative editing
- settings for automatically joining shared documents
This is one of the areas where I would especially appreciate feedback.
I’m interested in questions like:
- Does permalink-based sharing feel natural?
- Is it clear when a document is shared?
- Is the collaboration model understandable without accounts?
- Would this be useful for reviewing docs, notes, specs or drafts?
- What would make it feel safer or more trustworthy?
AI assistance
The beta also includes an AI assistant panel directly inside the editor.
The goal is not to make AI the main product. Markdown editing should still work perfectly without it.
Instead, AI is meant to be a writing companion for common document tasks:
- rewrite a paragraph
- improve wording
- summarize a section
- generate a draft from notes
- explain or simplify text
- help structure a document
- suggest headings
- improve technical documentation
- work with Markdown content directly
The UI includes configurable AI provider/model settings, so the assistant can be adapted depending on the available provider setup.
I’m especially interested in feedback on whether AI belongs directly in this kind of Markdown editor, and where it is actually useful instead of distracting.
The main idea
The core idea is simple:
Write Markdown. See the structure. Collaborate lightly. Export clean documents.
I am not trying to replace every Markdown tool.
mdedit.io is mainly for people who write longer Markdown documents and care about structure, sharing and export quality:
- technical documentation
- README files
- project notes
- specifications
- concept documents
- academic-ish notes
- blog drafts
- meeting notes
- collaborative drafts
- review documents
What makes it different?
The feature combination I am aiming for is:
- no-account browser workflow
- live preview
- outline/tree navigation
- Mermaid and KaTeX support
- optional permalink sharing
- lightweight collaboration
- built-in AI assistance
- print/export-oriented layout
- PDF and DOCX export
- open source / self-hostable foundation
Tools like VS Code, Obsidian, Typora, StackEdit and HackMD are all useful in their own ways. mdedit.io is meant to be more focused:
Open it, write a document, inspect the structure, optionally share or collaborate, then export it cleanly.
Important beta notes
This is a public beta, so some things are still evolving.
Known limitations:
- no offline-first mode yet
- browser and mobile behavior still need more testing
- import workflows are not fully built out yet
- some advanced features are still experimental
- collaboration is still a beta feature
- AI integration depends on configured providers/models
- the hosted version stores documents server-side to support sessions and sharing
Because of that, I would not yet recommend the hosted beta for highly sensitive documents. For more control, the project can be self-hosted.
What I would love feedback on
If you try it, I would especially appreciate feedback on:
- Is the editor flow intuitive?
- Does the outline/tree view help with longer documents?
- Is permalink sharing understandable?
- Does collaboration work the way you would expect?
- Is the AI assistant useful inside a Markdown editor?
- Which AI tasks would you actually use while writing?
- Is the PDF export useful for real documents?
- Is the DOCX export good enough for your workflow?
- Do Mermaid and KaTeX rendering work as expected?
- What browser/device did you use?
- What is confusing?
- What is missing compared to your current Markdown tool?
- Would you use this again for a real document?
Feedback is welcome via GitHub issues or directly here in the comments.
Beta:
Repository:
https://github.com/MatthiasHertel21/mdedit
Thanks for taking a look.
Top comments (0)