mdcat

Render CommonMark Markdown to text terminals.

Runs as mdcat, mdless, mdpick|macOS, Linux, Windows|github.com

Command form

ai-draft · 2 tasks · 12 fields

Render Markdown files to the terminal with mdcat. Image protocol, tab expansion, completions and terminal-detection options are left out.

Opens the form; the finished command lands at your prompt, unrun

Run in Otty

otty gui mdcat

Render MarkdownExample values, fixed in this page — nothing here reaches a terminal

Basic

Markdown files*

file

Colour theme

11 choicesenum

TasksEach one presets the form for one job

View a file

filestheme

Live preview

fileswatchtheme

ParametersOnly these flags are editable in the form

Markdown files

Reads standard input when empty.
path · positional 0 · repeatable

Use a pager

boolean

--paginate-p

Colour theme

enum

--themeautodarklightcatppuccin-mochacatppuccin-lattegruvbox-darkgruvbox-lightdraculanordsolarized-darksolarized-light

Max columns

0 disables line wrapping.
integer

--columns

Full terminal width

boolean

--full-width

Local resources only

boolean

--local-l

No colours

boolean

--no-colour-c

Left margin

boolean

--margin

Smart punctuation

boolean

--smart-punctuation

Emoji shortcodes

boolean

--emoji

Table of contents

boolean

--toc

Watch and re-render

Needs exactly one file; incompatible with --paginate.
boolean

--watch-w

SourcesEvery flag above is checked against these

manual

-p --paginate -P --no-pager -c --no-colour --columns=_COLUMNS_ --full-width -l --local --theme=_THEME_ _THEME_ is one of `auto`, `dark`, `light`, `catppuccin-mocha`, `catppuccin-latte`, `gruvbox-dark`, `gruvbox-light`, `dracula`, `nord`, `solarized-dark`, or `solarized-light`. --list-themes --margin --smart-punctuation --emoji --frontmatter -w --watch --toc

manual2026-10-27

github.com

Before it fills your prompt, Otty checks the installed mdcat against its version. A form that does not match your version is not offered.