Why Markdown needed a better home in the browser
My AI tools leave a trail of .md files behind them: plans, research, implementation notes, reports. Reading one file was never the problem. Reviewing a folder of them, while an agent kept rewriting the contents, was.
Chrome showed the raw Markdown. My editor could preview it, but that pulled me back into a workspace built for writing code. I wanted the files beside the issue tracker, source material, and everything else I was already reading.
The browser already has my reading tools
I read English documentation with a translation extension that places Chinese beneath each paragraph. I also use browser tools for highlighting, dictionaries, read-aloud, and saving excerpts. None of them can reach into an editor preview.
That constraint shaped the extension. It renders the document on the original file:// page instead of moving it into a private extension viewer. To the rest of the browser, the result is still a normal page, so those reading tools keep working.
It also makes the simple case simple: double-click a README and read it. No project setup, and no need to explain an editor to someone who only needs the document.
One file was not enough
Plans rarely live alone. They sit beside research, decisions, changelogs, and the next version an agent generated five minutes later. A reader that handles one file at a time still leaves most of the work to the user.
Markdown Browser Tools adds a folder tree, folder-wide search, recent files, pins, document tabs, and an outline that marks the current section. The panels can move or collapse, and every one of them is there for the same job: getting you through the documents.
Folder browsing is included in the free version and does not require an account. That matters to me because paying a subscription, then contacting a server for permission to browse my own local files, is the wrong trade for this kind of tool.
Local files should stay local
The reader has no account, telemetry, or server. Mermaid diagrams, KaTeX formulas, code highlighting, tables, and images are processed by code packaged with the extension. The files do not leave the computer.
Chrome does require you to enable “Allow access to file URLs” once. That is the browser's safety switch, and the extension takes you to it. Website access is optional and only applies when an allowed site serves Markdown or plain text; ordinary web pages are left alone. The extension never asks for browsing history.
Chrome and Edge come first. If your AI tools are already filling folders with Markdown, install the extension, open that folder, and keep reading where you already work.