Markdown Reader with Copilot

The most agent-friendly document review extension for VS Code and Cursor.

Review and comment on Markdown, Word (.docx), and PowerPoint (.pptx) documents — directly inside VS Code and Cursor. Add inline comments, reply in threads, resolve discussions, and let AI agents participate via 12 built-in Copilot tools, MCP server integration, direct Ask Copilot actions, and explicit Copy Prompt actions.

Supported Formats

Quick Start

1. Open a Preview

• Markdown: Open any .md file → press Ctrl+Shift+R (Mac: Cmd+Shift+R), or right-click → "Markdown Review: Open Markdown Preview"
• Word: Right-click a .docx file in Explorer → "Markdown Review: Open Word Document Preview"
• PowerPoint: Right-click a .pptx file in Explorer → "Markdown Review: Open PowerPoint Preview"

2. Add Review Comments

• Markdown: Click the + gutter button next to any block
• Word: Click the + gutter button next to any paragraph
• PowerPoint: Hover over any shape and click +, or click + on slide corner

3. Edit Markdown Inline

• Select Edit in the Markdown review toolbar to edit the rendered document in the same third pane.
• The active block reveals its Markdown syntax and changes are highlighted against the document state captured when Edit mode opened.
• Review comment anchors are excluded from the editor and its diff, then preserved in the underlying Markdown file as edits are applied.
• Select Back to Review to restore comments, gutter buttons, and review actions without changing tabs.

4. Enable AI Agent Tools

In Copilot Agent Mode, click Tools and enable the Document Review tools (prefixed with #). Then ask:

"Review this document and respond to all open comments"

5. Send or Copy a Review Prompt

• VS Code: Select Ask Copilot to open the generated review prompt directly in Copilot Chat, or Copy Prompt to copy it.
• Cursor and hosts without direct chat integration: Use Copy Prompt, then paste the generated prompt into the agent composer.
• Copy Prompt is available when adding a comment, viewing a comment thread, reviewing a sidebar item, and sending all open comments.

Features

Rich Rendering

• Markdown: KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, GFM tables, syntax highlighting
• Word: Full document rendering with styles, images, tables, lists, math formulas (OMML → KaTeX)
• PowerPoint: Slide-by-slide rendering with shapes, text, colors, speaker notes

Inline Commenting

• "+" buttons — Add comments on any block (markdown), paragraph (Word), or shape (PowerPoint)
• Comment highlighting — Commented elements are highlighted (yellow for review, green for Word native, blue for PPTX)
• Popover details — Click to see comment, replies, and actions (Reply, Resolve, Edit, Delete, Ask Copilot, Copy Prompt)
• Sidebar panel — Search, filter (All/Open/Resolved/User/Agent), and bulk actions

Inline Markdown Editing

• Rendered editing — Edit Markdown blocks directly in the existing third-pane document view.
• Inline differences — Added and changed content is highlighted against the snapshot taken when Edit mode begins.
• Source-preserving updates — Edits flow through the VS Code TextDocument and participate in normal save, undo, and external-change handling.
• Anchor-free projection — Internal <!--@c...--> review anchors never appear in Edit mode or its diff. They are reinserted into the source as clean-text offsets move.
• Focused controls — Review mode contains comments and agent actions; Edit mode hides those controls and provides a single Back to Review action.

Prompt Actions

• Ask Copilot — Available in VS Code when direct chat integration is supported. It sends the complete format-specific prompt to Copilot Chat.
• Copy Prompt — Copies the same complete prompt without opening or focusing chat. It does not copy only the visible comment text.
• Portable tool references — Because a copied prompt may be pasted into VS Code or an MCP-based agent, it includes both tool identifiers where they differ. For example: #readReviewComment (VS Code) or docReview_read_comment (MCP).
• Host-aware controls — Cursor and unknown hosts hide Ask Copilot and show the explicit Copy Prompt action instead.

Native Comment Integration

• Word: Reads existing Word comments with author names and threading
• PowerPoint: Reads existing PPTX comments with author names
• Reply to native comments via sidecar — original document comments are preserved

Document Editing (Word & PowerPoint)

• XML files are extracted for agent editing
• File watcher detects changes → auto-refreshes preview
• Save button repacks modified XML back into .docx/.pptx
• Copilot prompts include XML editing rules and format-specific guidance

12 AI Agent Tools

Export

• PDF — One-click export via Chrome headless (markdown)
• DOCX — One-click export via Pandoc with native Word equations (markdown)
• Save .docx — Save modified Word document back to file
• Save .pptx — Save modified PowerPoint back to file

Cross-Reference Navigation (Markdown)

• Preview → Source: Double-click any block to jump to source
• Source → Preview: Cursor movement syncs preview scroll

Cursor Support

Full support in Cursor IDE via an embedded MCP server that registers automatically.

• All preview, commenting, and export features work natively
• AI tools delivered via MCP server (12 tools registered in ~/.cursor/mcp.json)
• Copy Prompt copies the complete format-specific review prompt for pasting into Composer
• Copied prompts include canonical MCP names such as docReview_read_comment alongside VS Code aliases, so the receiving agent can use the tools available in its host

Agent App Plugin (Preview)

The separate agent-plugin folder contains a Markdown-only Agent Plugin for the VS Code Agent App:

• document-review Agent Skill
• Self-contained stdio MCP server

The plugin intentionally has no inline MCP App. Install the companion VS Code extension for the full third-pane review UI; an Agent Plugin Marketplace listing can link to that extension but cannot install it automatically. Word and PowerPoint support remain extension-only.

Architecture

src/
  extension.ts    — Commands, editor detection, tool/MCP registration
  preview.ts      — Webview panel for all 3 formats
  markdown-editor-webview.ts — Microsoft Markdown editor bridge for inline editing and diffs
  anchor-edit.ts  — Anchor-free edit projection and review-anchor preservation
  comment-ui.ts   — Shared comment UI (CSS, JS, prompts) for all formats
  comments.ts     — CommentsManager for JSON sidecar CRUD
  tools.ts        — 12 Copilot tool implementations
  mcp-server.ts   — MCP server (12 tools for Cursor & MCP clients)
  docx-parser.ts  — Word document parser (OOXML → HTML)
  pptx-parser.ts  — PowerPoint parser (OOXML → slide model)
media/
  markdown-editor.js/css — Bundled inline Markdown editor runtime
  pptx-viewer.js  — PPTX renderer (browser-native slide rendering)
  html-to-image.min.js — DOM-to-PNG capture (for slide screenshots)
  mermaid.min.js  — Mermaid diagram renderer

Development

npm install

# Bundle the Markdown editor, extension, and MCP server
npm run bundle

# Build and test the standalone Markdown Agent Plugin
npm run build:agent-plugin
npm run test:agent-plugin

# Package VSIX
npx vsce package --no-dependencies --allow-missing-repository

⚠️ The Markdown editor, extension, and MCP server must all be bundled. npm run bundle runs bundle:markdown-editor, bundle:extension, and bundle:mcp; the MCP server and webviews cannot load repository node_modules at runtime.

Run tests

node test/test-comment-ui.js        # Unit tests for shared comment UI
node test/test-anchor-edit.js       # Anchor-free inline editing and anchor preservation
node test/test-slide-capture.js     # E2E slide capture (requires Playwright)
node test/test-scroll-exact.js      # E2E click-to-scroll
node test/test-mermaid-edge-fix.js  # E2E mermaid rendering via Chrome/Edge headless

Requirements

• VS Code 1.93.0+ or Cursor (latest)
• Chrome (optional) — for PDF export
• Pandoc (optional) — for DOCX export from markdown

Version History

License

MIT

Bundled third-party components are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.