Markscope
Review Markdown structure without leaving VS Code.
Markscope places a navigable outline beside the selected section of your Markdown document. It is designed for reviewing long documents where heading hierarchy, topic flow, and section balance matter.
Features
- Structure-first review: scan the document by heading without rendering every section at once.
- Focused reading: show only the selected section, or add its first paragraph to the outline.
- Direct editing: double-click an outline entry to edit its heading, or double-click a word in rendered text or code to edit it at the source position.
- Editor synchronization: follow the active Markdown editor cursor from the outline.
- Flexible layout: use automatic, side-by-side, or stacked reading panes.
- Heading filters: limit the outline to the heading depth relevant to your review.
- Local rendering: preview tables, local images, Mermaid diagrams, and PlantUML diagrams without an external rendering service.
Getting Started
- Open a Markdown file in VS Code.
- Run
Markscope: Open Preview from the Command Palette.
- Select a heading in the outline to review that section.
You can also open Markscope in either of these ways:
- Choose
Open in Markscope from a Markdown file's Explorer context menu.
- Choose
Markscope Preview from Reopen Editor With... or Open With....
Editing From The Preview
| Interaction |
Result |
| Click an outline entry |
Select and render that section |
| Double-click an outline entry |
Open the Markdown editor at that heading |
| Double-click a word in rendered text or code |
Open the editor at the beginning of that word |
| Double-click empty body space |
Open the editor at the selected heading |
Select Edit |
Open the editor at the selected heading |
Markdown emphasis, link syntax, and code-block indentation are accounted for when locating the selected word in the source.
Keyboard Navigation
| Key |
Action |
ArrowDown or j |
Select the next visible heading |
ArrowUp or k |
Select the previous visible heading |
Diagram Support
Use fenced code blocks to render diagrams inside the selected section.
```mermaid
flowchart LR
Draft --> Review --> Publish
```
```plantuml
@startuml
Alice -> Bob: Review
@enduml
```
PlantUML fences may use either plantuml or puml as the language identifier.
Requirements
- Visual Studio Code 1.96 or later
- A local Markdown file with a
.md, .markdown, .mdown, or .mkd extension
Markscope bundles its Markdown and diagram renderers. It does not require a separate CLI, sibling checkout, or rendering server.
Development
Enter the Nix development shell and install dependencies:
nix develop
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
Run verification:
pnpm test
pnpm run compile
Launch the Run Extension target from VS Code to open an Extension Development Host. To create a local package, run:
pnpm run package
See docs/release.md for the complete release checklist.
License
MIT
