# Meet Leaftext

> Refine your mind. Your thoughts, secure and free — a free desktop app for reading and writing your own documents, on your own machine.

Leaftext turns the files you already have into pages you actually want to read. Open a Markdown, [XML](01-features/01-rendering.md#xml), [JSON, or YAML](01-features/01-rendering.md#data-files-json-and-yaml) document — or a [saved email](01-features/01-rendering.md#email-eml) — on macOS or Windows and it renders clean and calm. Keep your place with [tabs](01-features/02-navigation.md#tabs), [history](01-features/02-navigation.md#history), a [minimap](01-features/04-minimap.md), and a searchable [library](01-features/03-library.md). When something needs changing, [click into the sentence and type](01-features/07-editing.md#inline-editing-the-reading-view) — or drop to the raw source in the [code view](01-features/07-editing.md#code-view) — then [save](01-features/07-editing.md#save) when you're ready.

**Your thoughts stay yours.** No account, no cloud, no telemetry. Your documents never leave your device, and they stay plain Markdown, XML, JSON, YAML, and email files that any other app can open, so you're never locked in.

New to the terms? Words like [minimap](GLOSSARY.md#minimap) and [frontmatter](GLOSSARY.md#frontmatter) link into the [glossary](GLOSSARY.md#glossary) — clicking one opens its entry in a [bottom sheet](GLOSSARY.md#bottom-sheet) over this page instead of taking you away from it.

## Overview

| You want to... | Start here |
| --- | --- |
| Install the app | [Installation](02-installation.md#install) |
| Get past the Mac first-launch block | [Mac blocks the first launch](02-installation.md#mac-blocks-the-first-launch) |
| Open your first file | [Quickstart](03-quickstart.md) |
| Check rendering support | [Rendering](01-features/01-rendering.md) |
| Change the look | [Themes](01-features/06-themes.md) |
| Learn the app model | [Navigation](01-features/02-navigation.md) |

## What you can do

- Read Markdown and [XML](01-features/01-rendering.md#xml) without opening an editor — [sitemaps, feeds, and config files](01-features/01-rendering.md#any-xml) as readable pages, [84000 TEI translations](01-features/01-rendering.md#tei-xml-84000-translations) as translations.
- Read [JSON and YAML](01-features/01-rendering.md#data-files-json-and-yaml) as pages too — a lock file, a CI workflow, or a Kubernetes manifest as headed sections, aligned fields, and record tables instead of punctuation.
- Open a [saved email](01-features/01-rendering.md#email-eml) (`.eml` from Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail) as the message it carries — headers, body, inline images, and attachments — instead of a wall of base64.
- See [CommonMark, GFM](01-features/01-rendering.md), [diagrams](01-features/01-rendering.md#mermaid-diagrams), [math](01-features/01-rendering.md#math), [callouts](01-features/01-rendering.md#blockquotes-and-alerts), [footnotes](01-features/01-rendering.md#footnotes), [emoji](01-features/01-rendering.md#emoji), and your own images, rendered the way GitHub renders them.
- Keep several documents open at once in [tabs](01-features/02-navigation.md#tabs).
- Jump to any section from the [outline](01-features/02-navigation.md#outline) at the top of each document.
- Move [back and forward](01-features/02-navigation.md#history) through documents and in-page jumps, like a browser.
- Find anything you've written in the [library pane](01-features/03-library.md), or see how it connects in the [graph view](01-features/03-library.md#graph).
- Edit a file in another app and Leaftext [picks up the change](01-features/02-navigation.md#reload) without losing your place.
- [Write where you read](01-features/07-editing.md#inline-editing-the-reading-view): click into a sentence and type, split and merge blocks with `Enter` and `Backspace`, tick checkboxes, and [undo](01-features/07-editing.md#undo) step by step.
- Restructure without leaving the page: drag a block by its handle in the [margin](01-features/07-editing.md#the-block-gutter), [add one](01-features/07-editing.md#adding-a-block) on the empty line below, and highlight words for a [format bar](01-features/07-editing.md#the-format-bar).
- Draw a flowchart instead of typing one in the [flowchart editor](01-features/07-editing.md#the-flowchart-editor) — a canvas beside the Mermaid text, both kept in step — and open any diagram already in a page the same way.
- Switch any document to its raw source in the [code view](01-features/07-editing.md#code-view) — highlighted, line-numbered, editable — and [save](01-features/07-editing.md#save) only when you say so.
- Get [typing help](01-features/07-editing.md#typing-help) while you write there: Monaco's IntelliSense, answered from your own notes — `[[` completes a note name, `#` a heading, and a broken link is underlined.
- Start from nothing with the **+** in the app bar: a [new document](01-features/07-editing.md#new-document) opens ready to type, and its first save is where you choose the file.
- Turn on [Speed Reader](01-features/05-settings.md#speed-reader) to dim the page back and mark each word's start, so your eye follows the reading path down.

## Layout

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A[Open Markdown, XML, JSON, YAML, or email file] --> B[Rendered reading view]
    B --> C[Minimap]
    B --> D[Tabs]
    B --> E[Back / Forward history]
    B --> F[Library pane]
```

## Example

~~~md
# Release Notes

> [!TIP]
> Drag this file into Leaftext.

- [x] Ship docs refresh
- [ ] Review screenshots

```ts
console.log("Hello from Leaftext");
```
~~~

That file opens as a formatted document, not as source code in an editor.

## Next

- [Quickstart](03-quickstart.md) shows the actual reading flow.
- [Rendering](01-features/01-rendering.md) shows what Markdown syntax, XML structure, JSON/YAML shapes, and [email files](01-features/01-rendering.md#email-eml) the app renders.
- [Library](01-features/03-library.md) explains [vaults](01-features/03-library.md#vaults), search, the [graph](01-features/03-library.md#graph), and [GitHub sync](01-features/03-library.md#github-sync).