redit

redit is a terminal markdown editor built with Rust + Ratatui. It provides a multi-pane TUI with a file explorer, markdown-aware editor, optional split markdown preview, integrated terminal pane, menu bar, and popup-driven workflows.

Current Features

• Top menus: File, Edit, Search, View, Tools, Help
• File explorer pane (left):
  • Tree view for directories/files
  • Expand/collapse directories
  • Double-click support for open/toggle
  • Reliable mouse selection across the full explorer pane while terminal pane is visible
• Editor pane (center/right):
  • Line numbers
  • Markdown syntax highlighting (.md, .markdown, etc.)
  • Code/config syntax highlighting in edit pane for many file types via Syntect (for example Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Rust, TOML, YAML, .env)
  • Markdown list auto-continuation on Enter
  • Mouse text selection (drag)
• Markdown preview:
  • View | Markdown toggle
  • Split preview mode with Glow rendering when available
  • Fallback renderer if Glow is not installed
• Terminal pane:
  • View | Terminal toggle
  • Persistent bottom pane under editor
  • Interactive command input/output
• Search and replace popups:
  • Search | Find
  • Search | Replace supports replace-next (one by one) with remaining count
• File operations:
  • File | Save
  • File | Save As... popup with editable path field
• Theme palette:
  • Tools | Palette
  • 5 themes (including Black & White)
  • Keyboard and mouse selection in palette popup
  • Palette is persisted across restarts
• Help popups:
  • Help | Keybindings
  • Help | About redit

Prerequisites

1) Rust toolchain (required)

Install Rust from https://rustup.rs (recommended and required for build/deploy).

Then verify:

rustc --version
cargo --version

2) System build tools

• Linux: install compiler/linker toolchain (for example build-essential on Debian/Ubuntu)
• macOS: install Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)
• Windows: install Visual Studio Build Tools (C++ workload)

3) Glow (strongly recommended)

Glow powers high-quality markdown preview output. Without Glow, redit falls back to a simpler preview renderer.

Verify installation:

glow --version

Common install options:

• macOS (Homebrew):

brew install glow

• Windows (Scoop):

scoop install glow

• Windows (Chocolatey):

choco install glow

• Linux:
  • Use your distro package manager if available, or
  • Download a release package from Glow's GitHub releases

Deployment / Build Instructions

1) Clone and enter project

git clone <your-repo-url> redit
cd redit

2) Build debug binary

cargo build

Binary location:

• Linux/macOS: target/debug/redit
• Windows: target\debug\redit.exe

3) Run directly

cargo run -- path/to/file.md

If no file is provided, redit starts with an empty buffer.

4) Build release binary (recommended for deployment)

cargo build --release

Release binary:

• Linux/macOS: target/release/redit
• Windows: target\release\redit.exe

5) Optional local install (Linux/macOS)

install -Dm755 target/release/redit ~/.local/bin/redit

Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH.

6) Cross-platform notes

• The produced binary targets the platform you build on by default.
• To build for another target, add Rust target(s) first:

rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Then build with --target:

cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu

Runtime Data

Palette selection is stored in:

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/redit/settings.conf (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set), or
• ~/.config/redit/settings.conf

Keybindings

• F1: Help keybindings popup
• F2: focus/toggle explorer pane
• F3: toggle terminal pane
• Ctrl-S: save
• Ctrl-Shift-S: save as
• Ctrl-Q: quit (double press if unsaved changes)
• Ctrl-P: toggle split markdown preview
• Ctrl-F: find popup
• Ctrl-R: replace popup
• Ctrl-Z / Ctrl-Y: undo / redo
• Ctrl-X / Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V: cut / copy / paste
• Alt-F, Alt-E, Alt-S, Alt-V, Alt-T, Alt-H: open menus

Menu navigation:

• Left/Right: switch menus
• Up/Down: move menu selection
• Enter: activate menu action
• Esc: close menu/popup

Mouse Support

• Click top menu labels to open dropdowns
• Click dropdown items to execute actions
• File explorer double-click opens files and expands/collapses directories
• Drag in editor to select text
• Palette popup supports mouse click selection and apply

Quick Start

cargo run -- notes.md

Then try:

1. View | Markdown
2. View | Terminal
3. Tools | Palette
4. Search | Replace