TreeMk - Integrated Markdown Editor

TreeMk is a desktop Markdown editor that works directly with your file system—no proprietary vaults, no lock-in, just your files organized your way. Built with Qt, it combines a powerful text editor with a file explorer, wiki-style linking, and rich content rendering.

Work with your files, where they already are.

TreeMk doesn't move your notes into a special database or vault. It simply provides an integrated environment for editing and navigating Markdown files across any folder on your system.

Features

Editor

• Multi-tab editing with session management
• Focus mode (F11) for distraction-free writing
• Word prediction based on workspace vocabulary
• Auto-indent and auto-close brackets/quotes
• Paste images directly from clipboard
• Line breaking and joining utilities
• AI assistance (Ollama or OpenAI-like providers)

Navigation and Organization

• File system tree view for note organization
• Wiki-style linking between notes with [[note]] syntax
• File inclusion with [[!note]] syntax - embeds content in preview
• Markdown links [text](url) with Ctrl+Click to follow
• Task lists with checkbox support
• Drag & drop from the file explorer to create wiki-links
• Backlinks panel - shows all notes linking to current document
• Per-tab navigation history (Back/Forward with Alt+Left/Right)
• Document outline panel with heading navigation
• Quick open dialog (Ctrl+P) with fuzzy search
• Recent folders menu

Preview and Rendering

• Live Markdown preview with syntax highlighting
• LaTeX formula rendering (inline $...$ and block $$...$$)
• Mermaid diagram rendering
• Code syntax highlighting in preview
• Custom CSS support for preview styling
• Configurable preview refresh rate

Export

• Export to HTML, PDF, and DOCX (via Pandoc)
• Export to plain text
• Mermaid diagrams in exports (requires mermaid-filter)

Requirements

• Qt 6.2 or higher
• CMake 3.16 or higher
• C++17 compatible compiler
• md4c (for preview rendering)
• pandoc (for export features)

pandoc is required to export notes to formats like HTML, PDF, and DOCX. pandoc needs to be installed separately.

JavaScript Libraries

The app bundles the following JavaScript libraries locally:

• KaTeX - LaTeX formula rendering
• Highlight.js - Code syntax highlighting
• Mermaid - Diagram rendering

These are bundled into a single minified file (preview-bundle.min.js) using Bun.

Rebuilding the bundle (only needed if updating library versions):

# Install Bun if not already installed
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Install dependencies and build bundle
bun install
./build-preview-bundle.sh

The bundled files are included in the repository, so rebuilding is not required for normal builds.

To render Mermaid diagrams when exporting to HTML, PDF, or DOCX with Pandoc, you need to install mermaid-filter:

npm install -g mermaid-filter

If mermaid-filter is available in your PATH, it will be automatically used during export. Otherwise, Mermaid code blocks will be exported as regular code blocks.

Building from Source

Clone the repository:

git clone git@github.com:jailop/treemk.git
cd treemk

For MacOS:

brew install cmake qt6

Linux:

For Debian/Ubuntu-based systems, install the required packages:

sudo apt install build-essential cmake qt6-base-dev qt6-webengine-dev qt6-svg-dev libmd4c-html0-dev pandoc

For Fedora:

sudo dnf install @development-tools cmake qt6-qtbase-devel qt6-qtwebengine-devel qt6-qtsvg-devel pandoc md4c-devel

For VoidLinux:

sudo xbps-install cmake gcc make qt6-base-devel qt6-webengine-devel qt6-svg-devel pkg-config md4c-devel

For FreeBSD:

pkg install cmake pkgconf qt6-base qt6-webengine qt6-svg md4c

To build the app:

# Create build directory
mkdir build
cd build

# Configure with CMake
cmake ..

# Build
cmake --build .

# Run for linux
./treemk

# Run MacOS
open treemk.app

# To install in Linux
sudo cmake --install .

# To create DMG in MacOS
cd ..
./create_dmg.sh

Windows:

Additional requirement requirement:

• Visual Studio 2019 or later (with C++ support)

# Create build directory
mkdir build
cd build

# Configure with CMake (adjust Qt6_DIR if needed)
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:/Qt/6.x.x/msvc2019_64"

# Build
cmake --build .

Documentation

User documentation is include in the application as a Help Dialog. Comprenhensive documentation for users and developers is available online:

Read the Documentation

Building Documentation Locally

# Serve documentation locally
./serve-docs.sh

# Or manually:
source .venv/bin/activate
mkdocs serve

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000 to view the documentation.

Contributing

To date, this project has been a personal initiative, but it’s open to receiving contributions and incorporating collaborators. Visit Contributing to TreeMk for guidelines on how to contribute to the project.

License

TreeMk is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for details.

Third-party libraries used in TreeMk are subject to their own licenses.

Disclaimer

TreeMk is provided "as is" without any warranties. The developers are not liable for any damage or loss of data resulting from the use of this software. Always back up your notes before using new software.