Run it in Docker

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A local, two-pane reader and editor for a directory of markdown: rendered on the left, editable on the right, with asides set in a column of their own. This image serves the directory mounted at /docs, for a NAS or a home server, or to try reader without installing Node.

Source, issues and releases: https://github.com/jzheaux/reader. Documentation: https://jzheaux.github.io/reader/.

Run

$ docker run --rm -p 127.0.0.1:8734:8734 -p 127.0.0.1:8735:8735 -v ~/notes:/docs jzheaux/reader

Then open http://localhost:8734/. Ctrl-C stops it.

/docs is the directory reader serves, and writes to: saves, and its backups and trash in /docs/.reader. Without a mount it’s a volume of Docker’s own.
Port 8734 is the one it listens on in the container. Publish it on whichever port you like: -p 127.0.0.1:9000:8734 for http://localhost:9000/. Leaving out 127.0.0.1: publishes it on every address the machine has, so other devices can reach it too.
Port 8735 serves the page’s preview, apart from the app, where the browser can’t have it at frames.localhost on the app’s own port: in Safari, and on another device. Publish it beside 8734, one port after wherever that goes: -p 127.0.0.1:9000:8734 -p 127.0.0.1:9001:8735. Without it, Chrome and Edge on this machine still work; Safari shows a blank page.
The user is node, uid 1000, not root. A directory mounted from the host has to be writable by 1000, or the container run as its owner: --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)".
The clock is the container’s, which is UTC unless it’s told otherwise. Today and Start today’s go by it, so in Denver tomorrow would come at 5pm in the winter and 6pm in the summer. Give it yours with -e TZ=: -e TZ=America/Denver; the image needs nothing more for it.

From another device

To reach it from other devices, publish the ports on every address (-p 8734:8734 -p 8735:8735). reader also answers only requests addressed to localhost or 127.0.0.1 unless it’s told the names other devices reach it by; that guards against other web sites, not other devices. Reaching the NAS as nas.local, or by its address, name each after the image:

$ docker run -d --name reader -p 8734:8734 -p 8735:8735 -v /volume1/notes:/docs \
    jzheaux/reader --allow-host nas.local --allow-host 192.168.1.20

Whatever follows the image name is added to reader’s own options, so any of them can go there; see Install and run.

There is no sign-in: whoever can reach the port can read and write /docs. Keep it to a network you trust, such as your home network or a tailnet, or put a proxy that signs people in in front of it.

Compose

A compose.yaml for the same:

services:
  reader:
    image: jzheaux/reader
    command: ["--allow-host", "nas.local"]
    environment:
      TZ: America/Denver
    ports:
      - "8734:8734"
      - "8735:8735"
    volumes:
      - /volume1/notes:/docs
    restart: unless-stopped

$ docker compose up -d

Run

From another device

Compose

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