Pixley Reader

March 1, 2026 · View on GitHub

A native macOS app for reading the markdown files your AI tools generate.

AI coding tools dump specs, docs, and changelogs into your project folders. Pixley Reader gives you a dedicated place to browse and read them — without opening a code editor.

Pixley Reader — sidebar, markdown viewer, and AI chat

Features

  • Folder tree sidebar — NSOutlineView-backed file browser, handles large trees without lag
  • Live file watching — a reload pill appears when the file changes on disk (e.g., when your AI tool writes to it)
  • Quick Switcher (Cmd+P) — fuzzy file search, like VS Code but native
  • Syntax-highlighted rendering — 7 theme families with light/dark variants
  • On-device AI chat — ask questions about the current document using Apple Foundation Models (no cloud, no API keys)
  • Drag-and-drop — drop a folder or file onto the window to open it
  • Zero external dependencies

Requirements

  • macOS 15 (Sequoia) or later
  • AI chat requires macOS 26 (Tahoe) + Apple Intelligence

Building

open AIMDReader.xcodeproj

Or with Swift Package Manager:

swift build

Stack

  • Swift 6.2, SwiftUI + AppKit
  • Apple Foundation Models (on-device LLM)
  • SwiftData for metadata persistence
  • No external dependencies

License

MIT