Cozy Markdown Editor

A VS Code extension that makes markdown easier to work with — especially if you're more used to Google Docs than to code editors.

A lot of people are coming to VS Code for the first time because it's the main way to use Claude Code. If that's you, and you're staring at a bunch of ** and # symbols wondering what happened to your formatting — this extension should help.

What it does

Hides the syntax, shows the formatting. Markdown uses symbols like ** for bold and # for headings. Cozy MD Editor hides those symbols and shows you what the formatting actually looks like — sized headings, bold text, underlined links. If you need to edit the raw syntax, move your cursor to it and the symbols reappear.

Keyboard shortcuts that match Google Docs. Cmd+B bolds, Cmd+I italicizes, Cmd+K inserts a link. If you've used a word processor before, the shortcuts work the way you'd expect.

Lists and tables behave normally. Hit Enter at the end of a bullet point and you get a new bullet. Tab indents. Tables have a toolbar for adding rows and columns, and Tab moves between cells. Tables auto-align when you save.

Track changes. The extension reads and renders CriticMarkup — a format for marking additions, deletions, and substitutions right in the file. Changes show up color-coded — green for additions, red strikethrough for deletions — and you can accept or reject them individually. Move your cursor to a change to see the full syntax and Accept/Reject controls.

Track changes recording is built in — toggle it on and your edits are automatically wrapped in CriticMarkup. Claude Code integration lets you ask Claude about your file or selection directly from the editor.

Frontmatter. Structured metadata (title, author, tags, status) can go at the top of any markdown file. The extension has templates and shortcuts so you don't have to remember the formatting rules.

Typography

The extension ships with two typography bundles:

• Reader (default) — Newsreader for headings, Plus Jakarta Sans for body text. Warm and literary, good for long-form writing and drafts.
• Clean — Inter for everything. Information-dense and familiar (same font as Notion, Linear, GitHub). Good for notes, research, and structured docs.

Switch between them in Settings (Cmd+,) — search for "typography bundle".

Making your own bundle: You can define custom bundles in your settings.json. For example, to create a monospace bundle:

"cozyMd.typography.customBundles": {
    "monospace": {
        "bodyFont": "'JetBrains Mono', monospace",
        "headingFont": "'JetBrains Mono', monospace",
        "bodySize": 14,
        "bodyLineHeight": 1.5
    }
},
"cozyMd.typography.activeBundle": "monospace"

Any property you leave out falls back to sensible defaults. You only need to specify what you want to change.

Font installation: The Cozy bundle looks best with Newsreader and Plus Jakarta Sans installed (both free from Google Fonts). If they're not installed, the extension falls back to system fonts that look nearly as good — New York and Avenir Next on macOS, Georgia and system-ui elsewhere.

Google Docs pairing

If you keep local markdown copies of Google Docs in your repo, you can record the relationship in each file's frontmatter:

```yaml
google_doc_url: https://docs.google.com/document/d/your-doc-id
```

This also works for Google Slides — if you generate a presentation from a markdown file, store the Slides URL the same way. It's just metadata in the file, so it doesn't affect anything else. Full round-trip sync between markdown and Google Docs is on the roadmap.

Installation

Install from the VS Code Marketplace or search for Cozy MD Editor in the Extensions panel (Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X).

Build from source (for contributors)

1. Clone the repo and install dependencies:

   git clone https://github.com/dudgeon/vsc-cozy-md-editor.git
   cd vsc-cozy-md-editor
   nvm use          # requires Node 20+
   npm install
   

2. Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host with the extension loaded. Open any .md file to see it in action.

Keyboard shortcuts

Feedback and feature requests

This is under active development. If something doesn't work, feels weird, or you wish it did something it doesn't — open an issue:

github.com/dudgeon/vsc-cozy-md-editor/issues

You don't need to be technical. Just describe what happened or what you want, and a screenshot if you have one.

License

MIT