VAYS MD READER · For Mac
A native macOS Markdown viewer and editor for the .md files piling up in your repos: CLAUDE.md, READMEs, specs, transcripts, plans. Real typography instead of source code. No Electron, no servers, and a free iPhone companion that picks up exactly where you left off.
Coding agents like Claude Code produce Markdown constantly: CLAUDE.md instructions, README files, migration plans, research notes, meeting transcripts. Code editors show them as raw source; browser-based tools ship an entire Chromium to display a text file. VAYS MD Reader is the missing piece: a fast, native macOS app whose only job is making Markdown a pleasure to read and easy to edit.
It renders GitHub Flavored Markdown the way GitHub does (tables, task lists, strikethrough, autolinks) and keeps going where most viewers stop: callout cards, footnotes, YAML front matter as a metadata card, shields.io badges drawn natively, LaTeX math typeset without a web view, and Mermaid diagrams rendered by an engine that ships inside the app, fully offline.
Claude just finished the report, and you're heading out. One shortcut (⇧⌘E) sends the open document to your iPhone through your private iCloud Drive. It lands in the free Vays Markdown reader app and opens at the exact heading you were on. Turn on auto-send and every file your agents write is waiting on your phone before you reach the door.
Sending from the Mac requires VAYS MD Reader for Mac and the same iCloud account on both devices. Reading local files on iPhone is free, no Mac needed.
Free viewers show you the file. Editors want to own your notes. VAYS MD Reader sits exactly where AI-era work happens: reading first, editing when needed, everything local.
| Capability | VAYS MD Reader | Free viewers | Marked 2 | Typora | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native app, no Electron | ✓ | varies | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Mermaid rendered fully offline | ✓ | varies | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Draw diagrams visually | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| GitHub + Obsidian callout cards | ✓ | varies | ~ | ✗ | ✓ |
| QuickLook preview in Finder | ✓ | varies | add-on | ✗ | ✗ |
| Copy as rich text (Gmail, Docs) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Live reload for AI-agent workflows | ✓ | varies | ✓ | ✗ | ~ |
| Reads your folders in place, no vault | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| No account, no telemetry | ✓ | varies | ✓ | ✓ | ~ |
| Zero network requests by default | ✓ | varies | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Annotations that never touch the file | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ |
| Built-in local AI chat (Ollama) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ |
| Agent inbox with session provenance | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Continue reading on iPhone (free app) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ |
Comparison based on publicly documented features, September 2026. Product names belong to their owners.
Open a document and let Claude Code keep writing; the reader re-renders on every save. One copy-paste hook auto-opens every .md your agents write, and each file lands in the From Claude inbox: grouped by project and session, unread until you look, provenance on hover. Five parallel sessions stay five tidy threads. When the plan is ready, copy it as rich text straight into an email, or let auto-send drop it on your iPhone so you can review it on the way.
Part of the VAYS family: record a memo in VAYS, read the transcript in VAYS MD Reader; the inbox connects with one click. Same private-AI foundation, same rule: everything stays on your device.
Meet VAYS →
In a viewer made for it. VAYS MD Reader renders .md with real typography, and its QuickLook extension means the space bar previews any Markdown file straight in Finder, before you even open the app.
Yes, the engine is bundled inside the app. Flowcharts, sequence diagrams, gantt, mindmaps: all render with zero network access. You can also draw flowcharts and sequence diagrams visually and the source is generated for you.
That's what it was built for. A copy-paste hook opens every .md your agents write, the From Claude inbox groups arrivals by project and session, and open documents re-render on every save: you watch the agent write in real time. Full-text search covers every repository in your library.
Yes, by default: no account, no analytics, no cloud, zero network requests. Files stay as plain .md on your disk; remove a folder from the library and the app never sees it again. The optional iPhone hand-off copies documents into your own iCloud Drive; we run no servers and never see your files.
Yes. Highlights, comments and snippets live in a sidecar next to the document; the .md itself is never modified. Annotations survive agent rewrites thanks to smart text anchoring, and you can copy them all as a Markdown digest.
Ask Document connects to Ollama running on your Mac: chat with the open file, or quote a fragment and ask about exactly that, fully offline, no API keys, no cloud. If you don't use Ollama, the app makes zero network requests of its own.
Yes: send any document to the free Vays Markdown reader app with ⇧⌘E. It syncs through your private iCloud and opens at the heading you were on. Agent-written files can go automatically, and Handoff puts the reader icon on your iPhone's lock screen while you read on the Mac.
The iPhone and iPad companion is free: open and read any Markdown file natively on iOS. The Mac app is a one-time purchase, no subscription.
On the Mac App Store now. One price, no subscription, private forever.
