Stigmergic
A fast, beautiful markdown viewer with live reload.
Stigmergic watches a directory of markdown files and serves them through a local web server. Files update in real-time as you edit them. Navigation happens instantly. Everything just works.
Why Stigmergic?
You have markdown files. Lots of them. Project docs, research notes, AI-generated documentation, meeting notes, a personal wiki. You want to read them — not in a code editor, not in a terminal, but rendered beautifully with proper typography, syntax highlighting, and diagrams.
Stigmergic does exactly this. Point it at a directory, and you have a live documentation site in seconds.
What You Get
Live Reload — Edit a file, see it update instantly. No refresh needed. Powered by Server-Sent Events.
Command Palette — Press Ctrl+K to search across all your files. Fuzzy matching finds what you need fast.
Syntax Highlighting — Code blocks in any language, highlighted with the Nord color scheme.
Math & Diagrams — LaTeX equations via KaTeX. Flowcharts and sequence diagrams via Mermaid. Write them in markdown, see them rendered.
Nostr Links — Native rendering of nostr: protocol URLs. npubs, notes, and events become clickable links.
Directory Browsing — Your file tree becomes your navigation. Folders expand. Files render. Simple.
Themes — Ships with Iceberg Dark and Light. Create your own with a TOML file.
Quick Start
Download
Pre-built binaries are available for every release:
| Platform | Architecture | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | x86_64 | stigmergic_linux_amd64.tar.gz |
| Linux | ARM64 | stigmergic_linux_arm64.tar.gz |
| macOS | Apple Silicon | stigmergic_darwin_arm64.tar.gz |
| macOS | Intel | stigmergic_darwin_amd64.tar.gz |
| Windows | x86_64 | stigmergic_windows_amd64.zip |
Extract and move to your PATH:
1# Linux / macOS
2tar xzf stigmergic_*.tar.gz
3sudo mv stigmergic /usr/local/bin/
4
5# Windows (PowerShell)
6Expand-Archive stigmergic_*.zip -DestinationPath .
Verify checksums against the release's checksums.txt:
1curl -sL https://github.com/Buildtall-Systems/stigmergic.dev/releases/latest/download/checksums.txt -o checksums.txt
2sha256sum --check --ignore-missing checksums.txt
Install (alternative methods)
1# Nix (recommended)
2nix profile install github:Buildtall-Systems/stigmergic.dev
3
4# Go
5go install github.com/Buildtall-Systems/stigmergic.dev/cmd/stigmergic@latest
6
7# From source
8git clone https://github.com/Buildtall-Systems/stigmergic.dev
9cd stigmergic.dev
10make build
Run
1stigmergic serve /path/to/your/markdown
Server starts at http://localhost:8080. Port adjusts automatically if occupied.
Configure (optional)
Create .stigmergic.toml in your project or ~/.config/stigmergic/config.toml:
1port = 8080
2host = "localhost"
3theme = "iceberg-dark"
4default_file = "README.md"
Learn More
- features — Full list of capabilities with examples
- installation — Download, install, and configure
- architecture — How it works under the hood
- demo — Comprehensive markdown rendering showcase
Use Cases
- Agentic coding workflows — AI tools generate mountains of markdown. Stigmergic makes it readable.
- Research notes — Browse and search collections of notes with live updates as you write.
- Project documentation — Real-time preview without a build step.
- Personal wiki — File-based, no database, version-controlled with git.
- Knowledge bases — Navigate large collections with the command palette.
Built With
Go, HTMX, Templ, Goldmark, Tailwind CSS, KaTeX, Mermaid.
No JavaScript frameworks. No build pipeline for your content. Just markdown files and a Go binary.
Stigmergic is named after the biological phenomenon where organisms coordinate through environmental traces — ants leaving pheromones, termites building mounds. Your markdown files are the traces. Stigmergic makes them visible.