🧘 mdtation

A better agentic feedback flow.

read, breathe, comment, loop

A terminal markdown viewer with comments that stick to lines, persist between sessions, and copy as a reference any agent understands.

The problem

Agents ask for feedback in the worst possible ways.

• Option pickers: A, B or C, and your real answer is "B, but only if the second half of C". There is no box for that, and no way to ask where B came from.
• Itemized lists in a chat thread: Finding F7, section 2.1, recommended (b). The list scrolls away while you type, so you answer from memory.
• A 300-line plan printed into the terminal is read by scrolling a buffer, and your thoughts about line 140 go nowhere.

The loop

• The agent writes the plan as a markdown file, not a message.
• You open it in mdtation, read it full screen, and press c on the line (or drag-select the sentence) you disagree with.
• Copy the comment to the clipboard: line number, section path, quote, and your note. Paste it, or let the agent run list.
• The agent revises the file. You open it again, your comments are still anchored, and you go round once more.

Review the plan, not the chat. Specs, plans, drafts, reviews: the prose your agent writes deserves a real review flow, not a chat reply.

Install

npm i -g mdtation
mdtation plans/auth.md

The full-screen TUI runs under Bun. Under Node, mdtation renders to stdout instead.

See it

| Comment on a line | Comment on a selection | Menus and palette | |---|---|---| | | | |

Keys

| key | action | |---|---| | j k | move the caret (wheel and click work too) | | c | new comment on the caret line or selection | | e | edit the comment under the caret | | C | copy the comment as a reference | | [ ] | previous, next comment | | a | show all comments | | / | command palette | | m | hide or show the menu bar | | ? | help | | q | quit (^s saves checkbox and frontmatter edits first) |

Everything a TUI should have: menu bar, command palette, settings, all mouse ready. View options (color, marks, fences, tables, checkboxes, flow, scroll margin) are remembered.

CLI

mdtation plan.md list             # print live comments as markdown
mdtation plan.md list --archived  # include archived ones, each with an id
mdtation plan.md restore a1,b2    # un-archive by id
mdtation plan.md clear            # forget every comment for this file
mdtation plan.md print            # render to stdout and exit
mdtation plan.md status           # print the data dir
mdtation skill                    # print the agent skill

Comments live in one json per file under $MDTATION_HOME, $XDG_DATA_HOME/mdtation, or ~/.mdtation, keyed by absolute path.

Tell your agent: "Read the comments I left on plans/auth.md with mdtation plans/auth.md list, address each, then rewrite the file."

License

MIT