doxx

.docx files in your terminal — no Microsoft Word required

A fast, terminal-native document viewer for Word files. View, search, and export .docx documents without leaving your command line.

Screenshots

Demo

Features

• Beautiful terminal rendering with formatting, tables, and lists
• Equation support — LaTeX rendering for inline and display equations
• Fast search with highlighting
• Smart tables with proper alignment and Unicode borders
• Copy to clipboard — grab content directly from the terminal
• Export formats — Markdown, CSV, JSON, plain text, ANSI-colored output
• Terminal images for Kitty, iTerm2, WezTerm
• Color support — see Word document colors in your terminal

Installation

Package managers

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install bgreenwell/tap/doxx

Cargo (cross-platform)

cargo install doxx

Debian/Ubuntu

doxx is officially packaged for Debian as rust-doxx and is available in testing (forky).

sudo apt install doxx

Arch Linux

pacman -S doxx

The AUR package is also available for the development version:

yay -S doxx-git

Thanks to @mhegreberg for creating and maintaining the AUR package!

Nix (cross-platform)

nix profile install github:bgreenwell/doxx

Thanks to @bobberb for creating the Nix flake!

NetBSD

pkgin install doxx

Conda-Forge (cross-platform)

conda install doxx

or globally using Pixi:

pixi global install doxx

Scoop (Windows)

# Coming soon
scoop bucket add doxx https://github.com/bgreenwell/doxx-scoop
scoop install doxx

Pre-built binaries

Download from GitHub releases:

# Linux (x86_64, statically linked)
curl -L https://github.com/bgreenwell/doxx/releases/latest/download/doxx-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.xz | tar xJ
sudo mv doxx /usr/local/bin/

# macOS (Intel)
curl -L https://github.com/bgreenwell/doxx/releases/latest/download/doxx-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.xz | tar xJ
sudo mv doxx /usr/local/bin/

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/bgreenwell/doxx/releases/latest/download/doxx-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.xz | tar xJ
sudo mv doxx /usr/local/bin/

# Verify installation
doxx --version

Available platforms:

• Linux: x86_64-unknown-linux-musl (statically linked)
• macOS: x86_64-apple-darwin (Intel) and aarch64-apple-darwin (Apple Silicon)
• Windows: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/bgreenwell/doxx.git
cd doxx
cargo install --path .

# Or for development
cargo build --release

Requirements:

• Rust 1.70+
• System dependencies: libxcb (Linux only)

Usage

# View a document
doxx report.docx

# Search for content
doxx contract.docx --search "payment"

# Start with outline view
doxx document.docx --outline

# Export to different formats
doxx data.docx --export csv > data.csv
doxx report.docx --export markdown > report.md

# View with images (supported terminals)
doxx presentation.docx --images --export text

# Enable color rendering
doxx slides.docx --color

Command Line Options

Basic options

doxx [OPTIONS] <FILE>

Option	Description
<FILE>	Input document file (.docx)
-h, --help	Show help information
-V, --version	Show version information

Viewing options

Option	Description
-o, --outline	Start with outline view for quick navigation
-p, --page <PAGE>	Jump to specific page number on startup
-s, --search <TERM>	Search and highlight term immediately
-r, --restore-position	Restore the last saved scroll position for this document
--force-ui	Force interactive UI mode (bypass TTY detection)
--color	Enable color support for text rendering

Export options

Option	Values	Description
--export <FORMAT>	markdown, text, csv, json, ansi	Export document instead of viewing

Export examples:

doxx report.docx --export markdown  # Convert to Markdown
doxx data.docx --export csv         # Extract tables as CSV (tables only!)
doxx document.docx --export text    # Plain text output
doxx structure.docx --export json   # Document metadata as JSON
doxx document.docx --export ansi    # ANSI-colored terminal output

CSV export note: The CSV export extracts only tables from the document, ignoring all text content. Perfect for pulling structured data from business reports, research papers, or surveys for analysis in Excel, Python, or databases.

ANSI export options

Option	Values	Description
-w, --terminal-width <COLS>	Number	Set terminal width for formatting (default: $COLUMNS or 80)
--color-depth <DEPTH>	auto, 1, 4, 8, 24	Control color rendering depth

ANSI export examples:

doxx document.docx --export ansi                     # Full color ANSI output
doxx document.docx --export ansi --color-depth 1     # Monochrome (no colors)
doxx document.docx --export ansi --color-depth 4     # 16 colors
doxx document.docx --export ansi --terminal-width 80 # Set terminal width
doxx report.docx --export ansi | less -R             # Pipe to less with color support

Color depth options:

• auto - Auto-detect terminal capabilities
• 1 - Monochrome (no colors, formatting only)
• 4 - 16 colors (standard ANSI colors)
• 8 - 256 colors (extended ANSI palette)
• 24 - True color (16.7 million colors)

Image options

Option	Description
--images	Display images inline in terminal (auto-detect capabilities)
--no-images	Force text-only mode, even if the terminal supports inline images
--extract-images <DIR>	Extract images to specified directory
--image-width <COLS>	Maximum image width in terminal columns (default: auto-detect)
--image-height <ROWS>	Maximum image height in terminal rows (default: auto-detect)
--image-scale <SCALE>	Image scaling factor (0.1 to 2.0, default: 1.0)
--debug-terminal	Print detected terminal image capabilities and exit

Image examples:

doxx presentation.docx --images                    # Show images inline
doxx document.docx --images --image-width 80       # Limit image width
doxx slides.docx --extract-images ./images/        # Save images to folder
doxx --debug-terminal                               # Check what your terminal supports

Image display notes:

• --images renders inline in both the TUI and --export text output
• Supports iTerm2, Kitty, WezTerm, Sixel-capable terminals, and a half-block fallback elsewhere

Configuration

doxx reads an optional config file to set a default keymap preset and override individual key bindings. Nothing here is required — doxx works out of the box with the default preset — but it's how you switch to vim/less-style navigation or remap keys to your own layout.

Config file location

Platform	Path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/doxx/config.toml
Linux	~/.config/doxx/config.toml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/doxx/config.toml)
Windows	%APPDATA%\doxx\config.toml

Create it with:

doxx config init

This writes a default config (preset = "default", no overrides) and prints the exact path it used.

Managing the preset

doxx config set keymap.preset vim    # switch to vim-style bindings
doxx config get keymap.preset        # see the active preset

Three presets are built in:

Preset	Style
default	Arrow keys + j/k, single-letter shortcuts (this is what the Navigation table below documents)
vim	Adds u/d/ctrl-u/ctrl-d half-page scroll, g/G/H/L for start/end, / to search, N for previous match
less	Adds the same half-page scroll and g/G, plus b for page up and Space for page down, / to search, N for previous match

doxx config set/get currently only manage keymap.preset — custom key bindings (below) are set by hand-editing the TOML file.

Custom key bindings

Add a [keymap.custom] table to override or add individual bindings on top of whichever preset is active:

[keymap]
preset = "vim"

[keymap.custom]
n = "scroll_up"
m = "scroll_down"

Each entry maps a key string to an action name. A custom binding always wins over whatever the active preset assigned to that key.

Key strings:

• A single character: "n", "/", "q"
• A modifier combo: "ctrl-d", "shift-h"
• A named key: "enter", "esc", "backspace", "tab", "up", "down", "left", "right", "pageup"/"pgup", "pagedown"/"pgdn", "home", "end", "f1", "f2", "space"

Action names:

Action	Effect
scroll_up / scroll_down	Line-by-line scroll
page_up / page_down	Full-page scroll
half_page_up / half_page_down	Half-page scroll
goto_start / goto_end	Jump to top/bottom of document
toggle_outline	Switch to/from outline view
search	Enter search mode
search_next / search_previous	Jump between search matches
toggle_search_state	Cycle search highlighting on/off
toggle_help	Show/hide the help screen
copy	Copy current view to clipboard
outline_select	Select the highlighted outline entry
escape	Cancel the current mode / close overlays
search_delete_char / search_submit	Edit/submit the search query (search mode only)

If a key or action string can't be parsed, doxx prints a warning to stderr and skips that entry — the rest of your config still loads. Since the TUI takes over the screen, that warning won't be visible while doxx is running; if a binding doesn't seem to take effect, run doxx config get keymap.preset to sanity-check the file is being read, or temporarily redirect stderr (e.g. doxx file.docx 2>/tmp/doxx-config-errors.log) to check for typos.

Navigation

The tables below show the default preset. Run doxx config set keymap.preset vim (or less) to switch — see Configuration above for what each preset changes, or press h / F1 in doxx to see the active bindings for your current preset.

Key	Action
↑/k	Scroll up
↓/j	Scroll down
PageUp / PageDown	Page up / down
Home / End	Go to start / end of document
o	Toggle outline
s	Search
S	Toggle search highlighting
n / p	Next / previous search match
c	Copy to clipboard
F2	Copy search results with surrounding context
h / F1	Toggle help screen
Esc	Cancel current mode / close overlays
Enter	Select highlighted item (outline view)
q	Quit

What vim and less presets change:

Key	vim	less
u / ctrl-u	Half-page up	Half-page up
d / ctrl-d	Half-page down	Half-page down
g / G	Go to start / end	Go to start / end
H / L	Go to start / end	(unbound)
b	(unbound)	Page up
Space	(unbound)	Page down
/	Search (replaces s)	Search (replaces s)
N	Previous search match (replaces p)	Previous search match (replaces p)

Why doxx?

Current terminal tools for Word documents:

• docx2txt → Loses all formatting, mangled tables
• pandoc → Complex chain, formatting lost
• antiword → Only handles old .doc files

doxx gives you:

• Rich formatting preserved (bold, italic, headers)
• Professional table rendering with alignment
• Equation support (inline and display LaTeX)
• Interactive navigation and search
• Multiple export formats for workflows
• Terminal image display for modern terminals
• Fast startup (50ms vs Word's 8+ seconds)

Perfect for developers, sysadmins, and anyone who prefers the terminal.

Examples

Quick document analysis

# Get overview and search
doxx quarterly-report.docx
doxx --search "revenue"

# Extract tables for analysis
doxx financial-data.docx --export csv | python analyze.py

Copy workflows

# Review and copy sections
doxx meeting-notes.docx
# Press 'c' to copy current view to clipboard

# Copy search results
doxx specs.docx --search "requirements"
# Press F2 to copy results with context

Pipeline integration

# Extract text for processing
doxx notes.docx --export text | grep "action items"

# Get document structure
doxx report.docx --export json | jq '.metadata'

Architecture

Built with Rust for performance:

• docx-rs — Document parsing
• ratatui — Terminal UI
• viuer — Image rendering
• unicode-segmentation — Proper Unicode handling

Development

# Build and test
cargo build --release
cargo test

# Run with sample document
cargo run -- tests/fixtures/minimal.docx

Known limitations

Equation positioning: Display equations may not appear at exact positions due to limitations in the underlying docx-rs parsing library. We've filed an upstream issue and are planning a complete fix for v0.2.0 using direct XML parsing.

Roadmap

• Perfect equation positioning (v0.2.0)
• Image support in TUI via ratatui-image crate
• Enhanced table support (merged cells, complex layouts)
• Performance improvements for large documents
• Hyperlink navigation
• Custom themes

Inspiration

This project was inspired by Charm's Glow package — the beautiful terminal Markdown renderer that shows how terminal document viewing can be both powerful and elegant. Just as Glow brings rich Markdown rendering to your command line, doxx aims to do the same for Microsoft Word documents.

Thanks to the Charm team for the inspiration!

License

MIT License — see LICENSE file for details.

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Made for developers who live in the terminal