Annotate Markdown Preview

Highlight, comment, color-code, and attach links in the official VS Code Markdown preview. The Markdown source is never modified. Annotations are stored next to the document in a sidecar file:

README.md → README.md.annotations.json

Features

• Select text in the Markdown preview to show a toolbar: Highlight, color swatches, Comment, Link.
• Click an existing highlight in the preview to view, edit, or delete it.
• The same actions are available from the Command Palette (Annotate: …) and the Markdown editor context menu.
• Highlights also appear as decorations in the source editor.
• An Annotations view lists every annotation, including orphans after heavy edits.
• Re-attach an orphaned annotation by selecting the new text and running Annotate: Re-attach Orphaned Annotation.

Commands

• Annotate: Highlight Selection
• Annotate: Add Comment
• Annotate: Attach Link
• Annotate: Set Color
• Annotate: Edit Comment
• Annotate: Remove Annotation
• Annotate: Go to Annotation
• Annotate: Show Annotations
• Annotate: Re-attach Orphaned Annotation

Default keybinding: Ctrl+Alt+H / Cmd+Alt+H highlights the current editor selection.

Settings

• annotateMd.defaultColor — yellow, green, blue, pink, or orange
• annotateMd.author — optional name stored on new annotations
• annotateMd.enabled — turn the extension off for a workspace

Sidecar format

Pretty-printed JSON, versioned, git-friendly. Each annotation stores a text-quote selector (exact, prefix, suffix, lineHint) rather than offsets.

Privacy

The extension does not collect telemetry. All data stays in your workspace sidecar files.

Restricted Mode

In untrusted workspaces, existing highlights still render. Creating or editing annotations requires a trusted workspace.