Stenmark

Your markdown librarian. A lightweight GTK4 Markdown organizer and editor.

Alpha software. Still tightening the screws..

Features

• Folder sidebar with document panel — browse and manage markdown files
• Subfolder navigation — drill into nested folders from the document panel
• Root folder switcher — quickly change scope via the sidebar header
• Open a file or directory from the command line: stenmark ~/notes/ or stenmark todo.md
• External file handling — opening a file outside the root folder shows a sidebar prompt to navigate back to the root
• Full-text search across documents (Ctrl+Shift+F) — scoped to the selected folder
• Quick filter on the document list (Ctrl+F on the documents page)
• Find in document (Ctrl+F in viewer) with customizable highlight colors
• WebKit-based rendered markdown view with syntax highlighting
• CodeMirror 6 editor with live preview pane and scroll sync
• Dark mode — follows system theme
• File management — rename, move, trash, delete empty folders, create documents from context menu
• Pin folders to top — pinned folders appear first in the sidebar and document panel with a pin icon
• Pin documents to top — pinned documents float to the top of their folder; click the pin icon to unpin
• File watching — auto-reloads on disk changes
• Document linking — click relative markdown links (e.g. [notes](../notes.md)) to navigate between documents; external links open in the default browser
• Link navigation history — go back/forward with Alt+Left/Right, mouse side buttons, or the right-click context menu
• Task list checkboxes — toggle directly in the rendered view
• Table of contents popover — navigate headings, click to scroll
• Export to PDF (via menu), open in external app, copy as rich text
• Welcome screen with root directory setup prompt when no folder is configured
• Remember last folder across sessions (optional, in Preferences)
• Configurable keyboard shortcuts, fonts, and themes

Dependencies

• Python 3.10+
• GTK 4.0, libadwaita 1
• WebKitGTK 6.0
• python-markdown, Pygments
• Meson, Ninja (build)

Install

Arch Linux

pacman -S python python-gobject gtk4 libadwaita webkitgtk-6.0 python-markdown python-pygments meson ninja
makepkg -sic

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt install ./stenmark_*.deb

From source

meson setup builddir --prefix=/usr
meson compile -C builddir
sudo meson install -C builddir

Usage

stenmark                        # opens the configured root directory
stenmark ~/Documents/Notes/     # opens a specific directory (session only)
stenmark ~/Notes/todo.md        # opens a file directly (sidebar hidden)

Configuration

Settings are stored in ~/.config/stenmark/settings.json and can be changed from the Preferences dialog. All changes take effect immediately.

License

MIT

Credits

Stenmark uses Phosphor Icons (MIT)

Screenshots

Disclaimer

This project was developed with AI assistance. The code has been analysed with Codacy and Bandit. Use at your own discretion.