Your Markdown deserves better than a raw text editor or a GitHub preview. Tome turns any .md file into a polished, book-like reading experience in your browser — instantly, locally, with zero configuration.

npm install -g tome-md

tome README.md

That's it. Your default browser opens with your document beautifully rendered.

Why Tome?

• 📖 Two reading modes — flip through your document page by page (split on # and ## headings, arrow keys to navigate), or read it as one continuous scroll.
• 🔄 Live reload — Tome watches your file and refreshes the view the moment you save. Write in your editor, read in Tome.
• 🎨 Light & dark themes — Graphite-style themes that follow your system preference by default.
• ✨ Real syntax highlighting — code blocks rendered with Shiki, the same highlighter that powers VS Code.
• 📋 GitHub-flavored Markdown — tables, task lists, strikethrough, and autolinks all work.
• 🔒 Local-first — a tiny server bound to 127.0.0.1. Your files never leave your machine, and your original Markdown is never touched.

Usage

tome <file.md> [options]

| Option | Values | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | --mode | pages | scroll | pages | Paged reading or continuous scroll | | --theme | light | dark | system | system | Color theme | | --port | number | 4321 | Local server port | | --no-open | — | — | Start the server without opening a browser |

Examples

tome docs/spec.md                    # paged mode, system theme
tome docs/spec.md --mode scroll      # one continuous page
tome notes.md --theme dark           # force dark mode
tome README.md --port 8080 --no-open # serve only, open manually

Keyboard shortcuts

| Key | Action | | --- | --- | | → | Next page | | ← | Previous page |

How it works

Tome starts a lightweight local HTTP server (no Express, just node:http), splits your document into pages at #/## headings — code fences are never split — and renders it with a React viewer. A file watcher pushes changes to the browser over server-sent events, so the view stays in sync with your editor on every save.

Local development

git clone https://github.com/lumban-stephen/tome-md.git
cd tome-md
npm install
npm run build
node dist/cli/index.js sample.md

npm run dev <file.md> runs the CLI straight from TypeScript via tsx.

License

MIT © Stephen Lumban