BusyMark

BusyMark is a Markdown editor for Linux with support for Writerside-compatible documentation projects.

_{Split view with a Writerside project tree, Markdown editor, and rendered preview.}

Features

• Open individual Markdown files.
• Open Markdown documentation folders.
• Open Writerside-compatible project folders.
• Create Writerside-compatible starter projects.
• Create Writerside Markdown and XML topics from the TOC.
• Create, select, import, edit, and reuse Writerside instances and TOC libraries.
• Edit and save local files.
• Read rendered Markdown without editing it.
• Render Mermaid, PlantUML, D2, and fenced OpenAPI content locally and offline.
• Edit Markdown with free-form AI instructions, an explicit change target, and explicitly selected context through Ollama, OpenAI, or Gemini, with diff-before-apply review.
• Export Markdown documents as accessible, tagged PDF files.
• Navigate project files, table of contents, and document outline.
• Run basic diagnostics.
• Reopen recent workspaces.
• Use native Linux desktop chrome with a GTK headerbar.

Screenshots

Welcome screen for creating or opening Markdown and Writerside workspaces.	Editor view with formatting tools and document outline navigation.
Reading view for rendered Markdown documentation.	Keyboard shortcuts shown in the built-in shortcut reference.

Supported platforms

BusyMark is currently developed and tested for Linux desktop, especially GNOME and Ubuntu-style GTK environments.

Supported files and projects

BusyMark can open Markdown files such as .md and .markdown.

BusyMark opens Writerside help modules whose root contains writerside.cfg or the equivalent older project.ihp file. Writerside support includes documented configuration locations for topics, images, variables, categories, instances, snippets, build configuration, API specifications, instance groups, and selected settings metadata. Topic support includes Markdown topics, XML .topic files, TOC registration, instance-specific topic titles, and custom web file names. Instance support includes local selection and icon colors, version/web-path and build settings, Markdown import, status, ID refactoring, instance groups, conditional and reusable TOC sections, and cross-instance topic references. See Writerside instances for behavior, safety rules, an openable example, and the authoritative JetBrains references.

Folder workspaces show all files and directories, including hidden project files such as .gitignore. Unsupported and binary files remain visible but are disabled in the text editor. Version-control metadata directories such as .git are excluded, and traversal remains bounded for safety.

PDF export

Use Main menu → Export as PDF or Ctrl+Shift+E to export either the active Markdown document or the opened Writerside module. Markdown export uses the current editor contents, including unsaved changes, and offers A4 or Letter paper, portrait or landscape orientation, three margin sizes, and optional page numbers.

Markdown PDF generation is local and offline. BusyMark bundles the pinned Typst compiler; users do not install or configure a separate program. Local PNG, JPEG, GIF, and safe SVG images are included. Remote images are deliberately not downloaded during export and are represented by their alternative text.

Mermaid and PlantUML fences are exported as vector diagrams. D2 uses normalized SVG where possible and a local high-resolution raster fallback for browser-only labels. OpenAPI fences become static, selectable API reference content. Failed visualizations fall back to their original source and produce an export warning.

See offline visualizations for supported fences, security policy, pinned engines, architecture, and verification. Working examples are in demo/visualizations.md, demo/openapi-local-reference.md, and demo/plantuml-conformance.md.

Writerside PDF export builds one selected output instance with JetBrains' official, versioned Writerside builder image. It supports generated settings or an existing project PDF.xml, including orientation, keymap, cover page, header, footer, and table-of-contents title. Docker is required, the large image is downloaded only after confirmation, project sources stay read-only, and builder network access is disabled unless explicitly enabled. See Writerside PDF export for setup, customization, security boundaries, Snap limitations, and the authoritative JetBrains references. An exportable configuration is included in demo/writerside-instances.

AI editing

BusyMark's optional AI editing is disabled by default and supports loopback Ollama, OpenAI, and Google Gemini. In Source and Editor views, select text and choose Refine with AI from its context menu, or press Ctrl+G. The user then writes the instruction and independently chooses what may change and what document context may be shared. Staged-diff commit-message drafting is available separately in Git Changes. BusyMark discloses the exact context, streams into a temporary proposal, reparses and validates the complete candidate Markdown document, shows a unified diff, and never applies a proposal without confirmation. Cloud keys are stored in the operating-system credential service and cloud use requires explicit consent; provider routing never crosses provider boundaries.

See AI editing for configuration, privacy and security boundaries, model routing, release qualification, and authoritative protocol references. An interactive exercise is available in demo/ai-editing.md.

Run From Source

1. Install Flutter

2. Run the application:

flutter doctor
flutter pub get
flutter run -d linux

Open a file or folder from the command line:

flutter run -d linux -- /path/to/README.md
flutter run -d linux -- /path/to/docs

Feedback API

The Main menu → Report an issue form submits JSON to https://busystack.org/api/feedback. BusyMark sends no private credentials or other API secrets; storage is handled by BusyStack.org.

Every request contains a newly generated submission UUID, app: "busymark", the application version and build number read from the current package's generated build metadata (including Flutter build overrides), platform: "linux", the selected category, subject, detailed message, and the optional reply email. The optional technicalDetails object is included after user explicitly selects the checkbox. It contains exactly the Linux operating-system version and the BusyMark application locale; logs, files, document content, paths, account data, tokens, screenshots, and attachments are never added.

{
  "submissionId": "b3f44f5f-dae4-4c6e-bf56-657f35f3450a",
  "app": "busymark",
  "appVersion": "0.2.2",
  "buildNumber": "0",
  "platform": "linux",
  "category": "problem",
  "subject": "Example subject",
  "message": "Detailed feedback message",
  "replyEmail": null,
  "technicalDetails": {
    "osVersion": "Linux version string",
    "locale": "en"
  }
}

The endpoint returns HTTP 201 and {"id":"<server reference ID>"} after it accepts a report. Validation failures, connection failures, timeouts, rate limits, and server failures are shown without clearing the entered form.

For local development, override only the endpoint at build time. For example, when the BusyStack.org backend is listening on port 8090:

flutter run -d linux \
  --dart-define=BUSYSTACK_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT=http://127.0.0.1:8090/api/feedback

Production builds use the HTTPS endpoint by default. No credential belongs in the Dart define or in the desktop application.

Test

flutter analyze
flutter test

Localization

BusyMark has ARB localization files for:

• Arabic (ar)
• English (en)
• Estonian (et)
• French (fr)
• German (de)
• Hindi (hi)
• Italian (it)
• Norwegian Bokmål (nb)
• Persian (fa)
• Polish (pl)
• Portuguese (pt)
• Russian (ru)
• Spanish (es)
• Ukrainian (uk)

English in lib/l10n/app_en.arb is the source of truth for app strings.

Target ARB files are audited for catalog parity, placeholders, plurals, and terminology.

When changing user-facing text, update app_en.arb, keep every target ARB in sync, then run:

flutter gen-l10n
flutter analyze
flutter test

Linux .desktop and AppStream metadata are localized in the repository. Snap Store listing translations are managed outside snap/snapcraft.yaml.

Build Linux Locally

Source builds require the libhandy and WebKitGTK 4.1 development headers, curl, xz-utils, and Node.js 22 or newer with npm. Node.js is used only to assemble the checksum-pinned web bundle. Packaged users receive every runtime component with BusyMark and do not install development packages, Node.js, Java, or Chromium.

sudo apt-get install curl libhandy-1-dev xz-utils libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev
# Install Node.js 22 or newer from https://nodejs.org/en/download
node --version
npm --version
flutter build linux

The Linux build downloads the matching x86_64 or ARM64 Typst 0.15.1 binary, the Linux amd64 D2 0.7.1 release, and exact JavaScript packages, then verifies the pinned artifacts before bundling them. D2 visualization is currently packaged only for amd64. To reuse already downloaded official Typst and D2 archives, point the build at them:

BUSYMARK_TYPST_ARCHIVE=/path/to/typst-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.xz \
BUSYMARK_D2_ARCHIVE=/path/to/d2-v0.7.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz \
  flutter build linux

A clean source build still assembles the checksum-pinned JavaScript packages. The resulting BusyMark application is self-contained and performs no runtime downloads for visualization.

The Linux desktop file uses the application id io.busystack.busymark and installs the app icon from assets/branding/busymark_logo.svg.

Contributing

Issues and small focused pull requests are welcome. Please keep changes aligned with the current beta scope: local editing, Linux desktop quality, safe file handling, and clear user-facing behavior.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE. Bundled Typst and D2 licenses and notices are installed under share/licenses; visualization JavaScript licenses, package metadata, the exact lock file, and consolidated notices are installed with the offline web bundle.