Read
The Markdown reader that opens before you blink. Pure Zig, zero dependencies, native macOS.
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast && ./zig-out/bin/read showcase.mdGet it on GitHub
Why
| Electron app | Native reader | Read | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binary | ~180 MB | ~15–35 MB | < 200 KiB |
| Open | 350–1,200 ms | 20–60 ms | ≤ 18 µs |
| 50k-line scan | ~100 ms | 15–25 ms | ≤ 400 µs |
| Viewport layout | 8–16 ms | 1–3 ms | ≤ 8 µs |
| Hot-path allocations | millions | thousands | 0 |
| Dependencies | hundreds | toolkits | 0 |
Every number is enforced in CI — a miss means the code gets faster, never the target lower.
Keys
j / kscroll down / up
Spacepage down
ttoggle dark / light
h / lscroll hovered code block
Cmd+A / Cselect all / copy
qquit
Install
macOS + Zig 0.16. Homebrew formula ships with each release:
brew tap gregoreesmaa/read && brew install read read my-notes.md