← Handbook

Offline & installation

Install it

markbird is a Progressive Web App. Installing gives it its own window, its own icon, and a place in your launcher.

What works offline

Effectively all of it. markbird precaches the application together with the KaTeX fonts and the common Mermaid diagrams — flowchart, sequence, class, state, ER, gantt, pie and journey — so the first cold start with no connection is fully functional, not a degraded shell.

Rarer diagram types (mindmaps, timelines, C4, Git graphs and the like) are downloaded the first time you use one online, and work offline from then on. Drawn offline before that, the diagram says so and appears by itself once you reconnect.

Offline you can:

• write, edit and preview
• search the library
• export HTML, PDF, DOCX and Markdown
• import Markdown files
• receive documents from Claude
• use version history

Needs a connection: signing in, sync, creating or opening share links, real-time collaboration, and Import from URL.

File handling

An installed markbird registers as a handler for .md, .markdown, .mkd and .txt. "Open with markbird" appears in your file manager, and double-clicking a Markdown file can open it directly.

Sharing into markbird

Installed markbird also appears in the system share sheet — on Android, and in Chrome and Edge on the desktop. Share text, a link or a Markdown file to it and it becomes a new document.

What you share is received by markbird on your device and never sent to a server, so this works offline too.

Updates

New versions are picked up in the background, and markbird tells you when one is ready rather than reloading underneath you.

Platforms

Anything with a current browser: macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. The interface adapts to phones with a drawer for the library and an overflow menu, and drag-and-drop works with touch.