Cozy Critic Markdown

A VS Code extension that makes markdown easier, with critic support and a cozy reading experience. More importantly, it makes the useage of AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude Code more comfortable by providing a better reading experience for markdown files.

Author / maintainer: Li Zhao. This is a fork of the original Cozy Markdown Editor project by the original author/publisher, dudgeon.

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.

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"

Installation

Install from the VS Code Marketplace or download the .vsix from the releases page

Keyboard shortcuts

Switching between Cozy, Clean, and standard editing

Cozy mode: Decorated markdown with formatting polish and full CriticMarkup rendering.

Clean mode: Additions still render inline, while comments and deleted text collapse to compact icons.

Raw markdown mode: Click the mode button in the toolbar to cycle Cozy → Clean → MD. In MD mode, decorations are disabled and you see the raw markdown.

Reverting to VS Code defaults: If you want to go back to VS Code's standard markdown editing (no Cozy MD decorations or font changes), disable the extension in the Extensions panel (Cmd+Shift+X), find "Cozy Markdown Editor", and click Disable. Your editor settings will revert to their previous values.

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/pcasl/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