Markdown QuickLook

A tiny macOS Quick Look extension. Select a .md file in Finder, press space, and read it rendered the way it was meant to look — headings, code, tables and task lists included. No app window, just a menu-bar helper that stays out of the way.

Download MarkdownQuickLook.dmg ↓

macOS 12+ · MIT · source on GitHub

Pressing spacebar on Markdown files in Finder shows rendered Quick Look previews with headings, code blocks, tables and task lists — Spacebar on a .md file in Finder → rendered preview.

What it does

Rich rendering. Headings, lists, task lists, blockquotes, links, bold, italic, strikethrough and inline code.
Syntax-highlighted code. Fenced code blocks highlighted with a clean GitHub-style theme, light and dark.
Real tables. GitHub-flavored Markdown tables render as native AppKit tables — not raw pipes.
Sandboxed & offline. Runs in a sandboxed Quick Look extension with no network access. A menu-bar helper, no Dock icon.

Install

Download & open the disk image. Drag Markdown QuickLook into your Applications folder.
Launch it once. Open it from Applications. It lives in the menu bar and registers the Quick Look extension.
Press space. Select any .md file in Finder and hit space. If an old preview is cached, use the menu-bar item → Reset Quick Look Cache.

Not notarized yet, so on first open macOS may block it (“Apple could not verify…”). To open it anyway: go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about Markdown QuickLook, and click Open Anyway. Or run once in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MarkdownQuickLook.app. Prefer building from source? See the README.