Show HN: AgentEd – local-first visual Markdown editor with token counts

A visual Markdown editor with YAML frontmatter editing and live token estimates.

Create and refine notes, AI instructions, project context, and knowledge documents with intuitive visual editing. Open and save ordinary .md files in your own folders — no vault to set up, no account required.

Free · Open source · Local files · No account · No telemetry · Windows installer under 5 MB

See AgentEd in action · 1 minute

Download · Features · Installation · Keyboard shortcuts · Known limitations · Build from source · Contributing

Markdown is a plain-text format for headings, lists, links, and more. You may have encountered it while working with AI assistants. AgentEd lets you edit these files visually, without memorising the formatting syntax.

• Focus on your words. Format documents with visual controls and see the result as you write.
• Private by design. No account, no telemetry, no built-in cloud service. Your documents stay on your computer, and AgentEd makes no network calls of its own. On Windows, the underlying web runtime makes some connections independently;SECURITY.md explains when.
• Prepare clearer AI instructions. Keep project context, goals, preferences, and boundaries in reusable Markdown files, with YAML frontmatter and a live token estimate.
• Keep your files. Open and save ordinary.md files in folders you choose, without setting up a vault or creating an account.
• Read as well as write. Open a Markdown file to read it as a formatted document; start typing when you want to edit it.

AgentEd helps you prepare documents for use with AI tools; it does not include an AI chat or run agents.

AgentEd 1.0.0 is available for Windows x64 and macOS on Apple Silicon, with an experimental package for Linux x86-64.

Download the latest release for installers, release notes, and SHA-256 checksums. Earlier versions are on the releases page.

Platform	Installer for 1.0.0	Status
Windows x64	AgentEd_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe	Release
macOS, Apple Silicon	AgentEd_1.0.0_aarch64.dmg	Release
Linux x86-64	AgentEd_1.0.0_amd64.deb	Experimental

Windows is the primary development and testing platform. The macOS build is for Apple Silicon Macs; Intel-based Macs are not supported. The Linux package has been tested on Ubuntu 24.04 with GNOME and Wayland.

The Windows installer is under 5 MB. This refers to the installer download, not the total installed footprint or any required runtime.

1. Download the installer for your platform.
2. Install AgentEd using the instructions below.
3. Open an existing Markdown file or create a new document.
4. Save it to a folder on your computer.

The Windows installer is not digitally signed, and the macOS app is not notarized by Apple. Security warnings may appear during installation or first launch. See Installation below or the illustrated installation guide.

AgentEd is free and open source, built by one person. If it makes your work easier, support its development on Ko-fi — see Support AgentEd below.

• Visual formatting: headings, lists, checklists, links, and tables, with a floating toolbar and Markdown input shortcuts. Add or remove table rows and columns from the menu.
• Portable Markdown and explicit saving: work with ordinary.md files and choose when to save. If a file changes on disk, choose whether to reload, overwrite, or save elsewhere. Documented format exceptions are listed inREQUIREMENTS.md .
• Images: paste, drop, or insert images into a localassets/ folder beside your document; add image descriptions for accessibility.
• Code blocks: select a language, copy a block with its Copy button, or use a plain-text block with soft wrapping.
• Footnotes: insert a reference and its note together, then hover over the reference to read it.
• YAML frontmatter and templates: edit document metadata in theMetadata panel; start with a blank document or one with metadata.
• Live estimates and counts: see a token estimate alongside word and character counts. Token counting runs offline usinggpt-tokenizer withcl100k_base ; other models, chat formatting, and attachments can produce different totals.
• Find and replace: match case, whole words, or regular expressions.
• Files panel: browse the document’s adjacent file structure in a side panel.
• Appearance: light, dark, automatic mode, and curated palettes.
• Multiple windows: work with one document in each independent window.
• Spell check: optional and off by default.

Write goals, preferences, and boundaries in Markdown, with YAML metadata alongside the document.

Combine written instructions, illustrations, and practical details in one document.

When sharing a document that uses local images, include its referenced assets/ folder so the images remain available.

Download from the official release linked above and check the filename and version. Each release provides SHA-256 checksums for verifying that your download matches the published file. A matching checksum does not by itself establish that software is safe.

The steps below apply to warnings about an unrecognised or unverified application. If your security software identifies a specific threat, stop and report the exact message and release version.

Show Windows installation steps #

Run AgentEd_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe.

The installer is not digitally signed. If Microsoft Defender SmartScreen displays Windows protected your PC, and you have verified the source and choose to continue, select More info → Run anyway, if that option is available.

Unknown publisher may also appear in a separate Windows permission prompt, including User Account Control (UAC). This is not the SmartScreen dialog and does not have the same buttons. It means Windows cannot verify the publisher’s identity.

Managed computers or other Windows security settings may prevent installation. Do not disable antivirus protection or SmartScreen to proceed.

Signing is planned for a future release. See the illustrated installation guide.

Show macOS installation steps #

The macOS build is for Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and later). It is not notarized by Apple, so macOS blocks it the first time it opens. These steps were checked with AgentEd 1.0.0 on macOS 26.6 and 27.

1. Open AgentEd_1.0.0_aarch64.dmg and dragAgentEd intoApplications . Launch it from Applications, not from the disk image.
2. macOS displays “AgentEd” Not Opened because it cannot verify the app. ClickDone .
3. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security , then scroll toSecurity . Find the message saying AgentEd was blocked and clickOpen Anyway .
4. In the dialog that follows, click Open Anyway . Do not chooseMove to Trash (Move to Bin in British English), the highlighted button, which removes the application.
5. Enter your password. After approval, this copy of AgentEd opens without repeating these steps.

macOS asks again after replacing or reinstalling AgentEd, every time, with the same steps.

The Open Anyway option is available for about an hour after the blocked attempt.

These instructions apply to the unverified-app warning, not to a warning that identifies malware or says the app will damage your computer.

On macOS, a document opened from Finder opens in a window of its own. File → New Window (Cmd+Shift+N) opens an empty window.

See the illustrated installation guide.

Show Linux installation and removal steps #

Linux builds are experimental. They have been tested on Ubuntu 24.04 with GNOME and Wayland in a VirtualBox virtual machine, and on no other distribution.

The .deb package is for x86-64 systems. It requires glibc 2.34 or later and WebKitGTK 4.1. APT checks the declared dependencies and installs missing packages when they are available from your configured repositories.

Download the package, check its SHA-256 checksum, then run this command from the folder containing it:

sudo apt install ./AgentEd_1.0.0_amd64.deb

AgentEd then appears among your applications. On the tested stock Ubuntu setup, it also becomes the application used to open Markdown files. You can choose another application using Open With in Files.

Each file you open gets a window of its own. If AgentEd cannot open a file type, such as .txt, it explains why.

To remove AgentEd:

sudo apt remove agent-ed

Your documents are not touched. AgentEd’s settings remain in:

• ~/.local/share/com.agentedapp.editor
• ~/.config/com.agentedapp.editor

You can remove those folders separately if you also want to delete the application’s saved settings.

Windows	macOS	Action
Ctrl+B /Ctrl+I /Ctrl+U	Cmd+B /Cmd+I /Cmd+U	Bold / Italic / Underline
Ctrl+K	Cmd+K	Insert link, or edit/remove the link at the caret
Ctrl + click	Cmd + click	Open a link in the system browser
Ctrl+E	Cmd+E	Inline code
Ctrl+Shift+K	Cmd+Shift+K	Code block
Ctrl+Alt+1 …Ctrl+Alt+6	Cmd+Option+1 …Cmd+Option+6	Heading level 1–6
Ctrl+Alt+0	Cmd+Option+0	Body text
Ctrl+Shift+S	Cmd+Shift+S	Strikethrough
Ctrl+Z /Ctrl+Y	Cmd+Z /Cmd+Shift+Z orCmd+Y	Undo / Redo
Ctrl+A	Cmd+A	Select all
Ctrl+S	Cmd+S	Save; Save As is in the File menu
Ctrl+O	Cmd+O	Open
Ctrl+V /Ctrl+Shift+V	Cmd+V /Cmd+Shift+V	Paste, interpreting Markdown / Paste as plain text
Ctrl+F /Ctrl+H	Cmd+F /Cmd+Option+F	Find / Replace
Ctrl+Alt+F	Cmd+Option+R	Insert footnote
Ctrl+Shift+E	Cmd+Shift+E	Open/close the Files panel
F3	Fn+F3	Find next
Shift+F3	Fn+Shift+F3	Find previous
Shift+Enter	Shift+Enter	Line break inside a paragraph
Tab /Shift+Tab	Tab /Shift+Tab	Indent/dedent in lists; move between table cells

On macOS, Cmd+H hides AgentEd rather than opening Replace.

Known limitations in this release:

• Line breaks inside a paragraph: useShift+Enter . There is no toolbar button or menu entry for this action.
• Opening --- delimiters: when a file starts with--- and contains another such line later, AgentEd interprets the content between them as metadata. Some files created by hand or other tools may therefore display incorrectly, including when the closing delimiter is inside a code block. SeeREQUIREMENTS.md for the documented cases.
• **Windows right-click paste:**Paste as plain text in the context menu behaves like an ordinary paste. UseCtrl+Shift+V for a literal plain-text paste.
• Spell check: one language at a time. On Windows, it uses the first preferred language for which a dictionary is available, or falls back to the Windows display language. Changes to the preferred language list take effect after all AgentEd windows have been closed and the application restarted.
• Linux coverage: testing was limited to Ubuntu 24.04 with GNOME on Wayland in a virtual machine with 3D acceleration off. Other distributions, desktop environments, X11, and configurations with 3D acceleration have not been tested. No.rpm package is published.
• **Inserting metadata:**Insert → Metadata is not part of undo. Deleting every field in the panel removes the metadata block.

Further format behaviour and exceptions are documented in REQUIREMENTS.md.

AgentEd is in active development. The 1.0 line focuses on visual editing of local Markdown files.

Windows and macOS releases are available, with Windows as the primary development and testing platform. Linux builds remain experimental.

The product definition and documented exceptions live in REQUIREMENTS.md.

Node.js 24 is recommended and is used in CI. See the engines field in package.json for the accepted version range.

You also need the Rust toolchain, available through rustup, and the Tauri platform prerequisites.

git clone https://github.com/cgxopen/AgentEd.git
cd AgentEd
npm install
npm run tauri dev

The Tauri CLI is included in the project’s development dependencies.

For a production build:

npm run tauri build

Before opening a pull request, run the verification checklist: the linters, type check, tests, and web build.

Contributions are welcome — please read CONTRIBUTING.md first. For larger changes, open an issue to discuss the direction before starting work.

Everything in this repository — code, documentation, commits, pull requests, and issues — is in English.

AgentEd is free and open source. If it makes your work easier, you can support its development on Ko-fi.

Support goes to the author, who publishes AgentEd in his own name, and helps fund ongoing development and maintenance, including:

• fixing bugs and improving the editing experience;
• developing new features while keeping the editor simple;
• testing and maintaining releases across supported platforms, and the signing of installers where a platform offers it;
• writing clearer documentation and practical examples;
• covering hosting, infrastructure, and development tools.

Contributions are optional. How money given to the project is handled is described in CONTRIBUTING.md.

The AgentEd application does not collect or process payment information. Contributions are processed through Ko-fi and its payment providers under their applicable policies. See Ko-fi’s privacy policy.

MIT — see LICENSE.

The MIT license covers the code, not the AgentEd name or logo: a fork is welcome, under a name of its own.

Built by Cătălin Vasile using Claude Code.

For bugs and feature requests, open an issue. For security vulnerabilities, follow SECURITY.md rather than opening a public issue.

For other enquiries, email contact@agentedapp.com.

AgentEd began on 29 March 2026. This repository opened a new phase in August 2026.

source & further reading

github.com — original article Show HN: Fanout – OpenTelemetry back end in one Go binary (Parquet, DuckDB, MCP) Rudra-JS, LLM-designed product recommendations for React stores Claude Chalk, a mod that lets Claude Code colour its own replies