Android Available
- Android 8.0 or later
- On Google Play and F-Droid
- Open source (GPL-3.0), built from source by F-Droid
Markdown, beautifully read.
The beautiful, private way to read AI answers, READMEs and Markdown on Android and Mac. No ads, no account.
- Free on Android
- No ads
- No account
- No tracking
- Offline
- Open source on Android (GPL-3.0)
On your phone and on your Mac
The same calm reading and the same privacy. Pick your device.
Mac Beta
- Beta, free to use while the beta lasts
- Live folders: when an agent or another app creates or changes a file, you see it within a second
- macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
- Tested on Apple Silicon. The Intel build has not been tested
- Not signed by Apple yet, so the first launch needs one extra step
Made for the Markdown you actually read
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AI assistant output
AI answers are Markdown – save a ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini reply as a file and PilcrowMD renders it as a clean document, not a wall of raw symbols.
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READMEs & project docs
README files and docs read the way they do on the web – syntax-highlighted code, tables, and task lists all intact.
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Specs & technical notes
Technical specs and notes become real documents – premium serif type, generous spacing, and a warm theme tuned for long reading.
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Research & long-form Markdown
Long-form Markdown stays navigable with an auto table of contents, in-document search, and per-file scroll memory.
Beautiful reading first
PilcrowMD renders Markdown the way it was meant to look – premium serif type, a warm low-contrast dark theme, and layout tuned for real reading, not a cramped IDE.
Read and edit – never lose your work
Switch between a clean rendered preview and a real source editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and undo/redo.
Saving writes back exactly what you wrote – no silent reformatting and no half-written files. Your file is safe.
Renders everything Markdown throws at it
Full CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown – tables, task lists, strikethrough, and links – plus the things most readers get wrong. Each of these is a real part of the render path – native, on your device, with one exception noted below:
Real math, rendered natively.
PilcrowMD typesets LaTeX math on your device – no internet and no external
service. Write $$…$$ and it renders as a proper display
equation, right on the page.
Mermaid diagrams, if you switch them on.
Mermaid is the one thing PilcrowMD does not draw on your device. Diagrams are rendered by the online service mermaid.ink, and only if you turn that on in Settings – it is off by default. Left off, nothing is sent and Mermaid code blocks stay as code. Everything else above renders offline.
Code that looks like code.
Fenced code blocks are syntax-highlighted across many programming languages. Long lines scroll sideways so the page never breaks.
Front matter, handled.
YAML front matter at the top of a file is recognized and shown as a clean field list – not dumped as a wall of raw text before your content.
Native rendering. No WebView.
The Android app renders Markdown with native Android views – there is no embedded browser engine in the render path, so it stays fast and private. Like the Android app, the Mac app draws every page natively, with no web view or browser engine.
Made for AI answers, READMEs & docs
Built for the two kinds of Markdown people deal with daily: output from AI assistants, and README files, specs, and technical docs. Save an answer as Markdown and read it perfectly – not as raw symbols.
Reader tools
In-document search with highlighted matches, an auto-generated table of
contents, and per-file scroll memory. Open .md straight
from your file manager or an email attachment.
How PilcrowMD compares
A plain, honest look at how PilcrowMD lines up against a typical Markdown app.
| Capability | PilcrowMD | Typical Markdown app |
|---|---|---|
| Ads | No | Often |
| Tracking / analytics | No | Often |
| Account required | No | Sometimes |
| Works offline | Yes | Sometimes |
| Open source | Yes (GPL-3.0) | Rare |
| Native rendering (no WebView) | Yes | Rare |
How it works
PilcrowMD for Android is a native Android app – not a web page in a wrapper. The rendering, editing, and reliability work all happen on your device.
PilcrowMD is built in 100% Kotlin with Jetpack Compose, rendering Markdown natively rather than through a browser engine. That keeps reading fast and fully on-device, with nothing routed through a remote service – apart from Mermaid diagrams, which you can choose to render online.
The app follows Clean Architecture with MVVM and a unidirectional data flow, which keeps the reading and editing paths predictable and testable.
The reliability story is the part we are proudest of: edits are committed with atomic saves backed by a write-ahead journal. A save either lands completely or not at all – so you never get a truncated or half-written file, even if the app is interrupted mid-write.
- LanguageKotlin + Jetpack Compose
- RenderingNative, on-device (Mermaid: optional online, off by default)
- ArchitectureClean Architecture · MVVM
- ReliabilityAtomic, journaled saves
- FontsSource Serif 4 · JetBrains Mono (OFL)
- ThemesDark + light
- Min. Android8.0 (Oreo)
- LicenseGPL-3.0-or-later
PilcrowMD for Mac is a separate native Mac app, written in Swift. Details on the Mac page.
Private by design, on Android and Mac
Android
PilcrowMD is built to earn your trust by collecting nothing. It renders your Markdown on your device, with no servers in the loop and nothing about your documents leaving your phone – with the single exception below.
- No analytics
- No ads or ad SDK
- No telemetry
- No crash reporting
- No account
- No cloud dependency
It works offline. The only exception is Mermaid diagrams, which you can choose to render online: PilcrowMD does not draw them on your device, so they go to the service mermaid.ink instead. That is strictly opt-in and off by default; leave it off and PilcrowMD makes no network connections at all.
The Android app is open source (GPL-3.0). You can inspect exactly how it handles your data, build it yourself, or fork it. It is also in the official F-Droid repository, built from source by F-Droid rather than uploaded by us.
One person writes and maintains it, and for now it takes no outside code – but bug reports and feature ideas are genuinely wanted, and CONTRIBUTING.md is where to send them.
Read the full privacy policy →
Mac
PilcrowMD for Mac is built the same way: it collects nothing. It opens your files and writes them back. It keeps no separate copy and uploads nothing.
- No analytics
- No ads
- No tracking
- No crash reporting
- No account
- No update check
It works offline. The only exception is Mermaid diagrams, which are off by default. If you turn them on, diagram text is sent to mermaid.ink to be rendered. Leave them off, and the app makes no network connections at all. Web images in your notes are never fetched.
It reads and writes only the files and folders you open or add. It never overwrites another app's changes without asking first.
One person writes and maintains the app, and it accepts no outside code. Bug reports and ideas are welcome: report them on GitHub
Screenshots
Frequently asked questions
What is PilcrowMD?
PilcrowMD is a native Android Markdown reader and editor. It opens .md, .markdown, and .txt files and renders them with clean serif typography and a warm dark theme – built for AI output, README files, and technical docs.
Is PilcrowMD free?
Yes. PilcrowMD is completely free, with no ads and no in-app purchases.
Does PilcrowMD work offline?
Yes. PilcrowMD renders your documents on-device and needs no internet connection. The only exception is Mermaid diagrams, which you can choose to render online – that option is off by default and uses the network only when you explicitly enable it.
Does PilcrowMD collect any data?
No. PilcrowMD has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking. Your files and settings stay on your device. See the privacy policy at https://pilcrowmd.com/privacy for details.
Can I edit Markdown, not just read it?
Yes. PilcrowMD includes a real source editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and undo/redo. Saving writes back exactly what you wrote, with no silent reformatting and no half-written files.
What Markdown does PilcrowMD support?
PilcrowMD supports CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown, including tables, task lists, strikethrough, syntax-highlighted code blocks, LaTeX math, and YAML front matter.
Does PilcrowMD render LaTeX math?
Yes. PilcrowMD renders LaTeX math natively on your device, with no internet connection required. Use $$…$$ delimiters to typeset display equations.
Does PilcrowMD render Mermaid diagrams?
Only with optional online rendering, which is off by default. PilcrowMD does not draw Mermaid diagrams on your device: when you enable the option in Settings, the diagram source is sent to the third-party service mermaid.ink, which returns the image. Left off, nothing is sent and Mermaid code blocks are not drawn as diagrams.
Is PilcrowMD open source?
Yes, the Android app is. It is open-source software licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.
Is PilcrowMD on F-Droid?
Yes. PilcrowMD is in the official F-Droid repository, where F-Droid's own build system compiles the app from source and checks the result against the binary we publish. F-Droid's copy can be a version behind the Google Play copy, because their builds run on their own schedule.
What Android version do I need?
PilcrowMD runs on Android 8.0 (Oreo) and newer.
Markdown, beautifully read.
Android app: free and open source. No ads, no account, no tracking.
Mac app: beta, free to use while the beta lasts.