MarkTwo

December 29, 2025 · View on GitHub

A VS Code extension that helps you write better, faster, and with more intention. MarkTwo is a human-in-the-loop writing assistant that keeps you in control while offering AI-powered enhancements.

Read the announcement: MarkTwo: A Writing Assistant That Keeps You in the Loop

Why MarkTwo?

Most AI writing tools take over completely—generating large blocks of text that diverge from your voice and often hallucinate or over-polish. MarkTwo takes a different approach:

You stay in control - Editable previews let you accept, modify, or reject suggestions
Paragraph-by-paragraph - Keeps context tight and style consistent with truly iterative refinement
Sounds like you - Provide a writing sample and MarkTwo matches your unique tone and style
Works everywhere - Technical docs, emails, blog posts, and more

Features

Side-by-side editing - Your markdown on the left, AI-enhanced preview on the right
Multiple enhancement modes - Expand, clarify, professional, casual, technical, or list-to-prose
Per-paragraph control - Different styles for different sections using comment directives
Inline suggestions - Get improvement ideas with one-click apply
Selection improvements - Highlight text and tell the AI exactly how to improve it
MDX support - Works with MDX files, ignoring imports and JSX components
Smart caching - Unchanged paragraphs aren't re-processed

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

(Coming soon)

From Source

git clone https://github.com/brendankowitz/marktwo.git
cd marktwo
npm install
npm run compile

Then press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host.

Requirements

VS Code 1.90.0 or later
GitHub Copilot subscription (uses VS Code Language Model API)

Usage

Open a markdown or MDX file
Run MarkTwo: Show Enhancement Panel from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
Start writing - enhanced content appears in the preview panel after you pause typing
Use the style dropdown to try different enhancement modes
Click Keep to write the enhanced version back to your document

Comment Directives

Control enhancement behavior with comments in your markdown:

<!-- ai-ignore -->
This paragraph will be skipped entirely.

<!-- ai-style: professional -->
This paragraph will use the professional tone regardless of global setting.

<!-- no-enhance -->
This paragraph has been approved and won't be re-enhanced.

For MDX files, use JSX-style comments:

{/* ai-ignore */}
{/* ai-style: casual */}

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
`marktwo.enhancementMode`	`expand`	Default enhancement style
`marktwo.debounceDelay`	`20000`	Milliseconds to wait after typing before enhancing
`marktwo.autoEnhance`	`true`	Automatically enhance as you type
`marktwo.authorStyleSample`	`""`	Paste your writing to match your voice
`marktwo.audience`	`""`	Target audience (blog-post, email, technical-doc, etc.)
`marktwo.fileExtensions`	`["md", "mdx"]`	File extensions to process
`marktwo.showConsiderPanel`	`true`	Show inline suggestions for improvements

License

MIT