jotview

Turn a markdown file into a jotbins link that renders it.

npx jotview notes.md
# https://jotbins.com/d#z:U1bwSM3JyecCAA

Zero dependencies. No install, no account, no config.

How it works

The document is compressed and packed into the URL's fragment — the part after #. Fragments are never sent to a server, so for links 2000 characters or fewer nothing you write leaves your machine. Opening the link renders it entirely in the browser.

Usage

jotview <file>            mint a link from a file
jotview                   read markdown from stdin

  --raw                   never shorten; always the full /d URL
  --short                 always shorten, even when small
  --open                  open the link in your browser
  --copy                  copy the link to your clipboard
  --base-url <url>        override https://jotbins.com
  -h, --help
  -v, --version

Examples:

jotview README.md --open
cat notes.md | jotview
jotview notes.md | pbcopy
LINK=$(jotview notes.md --raw)

Shortening, and what it costs you

A document's link grows with the document — roughly half the markdown's size in characters. A 20 KB file produces an ~8,700-character URL, which Discord, X, and most chat clients will not accept.

So links over 2000 characters are shortened via surl.jotbins.com, and jotview tells you on stderr when that happens:

note: uploaded to jotbins to shorten (8768 → 30 chars). use --raw to keep it local.

Shortening uploads your document. The fragment is the markdown, so storing the URL stores the text. Below the threshold nothing is uploaded and no network request is made at all. Use --raw to keep a long document local, accepting a URL too long to paste into most places.

If the shortener is unreachable or rate-limited, jotview prints the full link and exits 0 — it never fails your pipeline over a shortening problem.

Output contract

stdout is the URL and nothing else. Notices, warnings, and errors go to stderr, so $(jotview x.md) and jotview x.md | pbcopy stay clean.

Exit codes: 0 success, 1 runtime error, 2 usage error.

Limits

Input is capped at 1 MB, matching what the /d renderer will open.

Requirements

Node 18 or newer.

License

MIT